Acho: Greater Understanding Leads to Compassion
Rabbi Peter Berg moderated a discussion with the Rev. John Vaughn and author/two-time Emmy winner Emmanuel Acho.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
The Temple on Peachtree attracted more than 900 people “equaling High Holiday attendance,” according to Senior Rabbi Peter Berg, to see former NFL player Emmanuel Acho’s discussion, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew,” on Sunday, Aug. 19. Also appearing was the Rev. John Vaughn, Ebenezer Baptist Church pastor.
Wearing many hats including his well viewed video series, Acho also promoted his bestselling book on the same topic with coauthor Israeli Noa Tisby, actress and activist.
Interestingly, the book was published in 2021 prior to Oct. 7. Acho’s message was to take action at the neighborhood level “to change the world” where people speak to each other about sensitive topics like race and antisemitism.
One of his thorny topics was the “Jews in power” trope. He said, “Both my agents were Jewish, both my team owners were Jewish, soooooo.”
Another issue for Acho is how Blacks may lump Jews into “playing the white card,” as he tells others, “If you think Jews are all white, go visit Israel.”
He then recalled, “There I was eating sushi at 10 p.m. at an L.A. restaurant, I was verbally attacked … and knew the feeling of being singled out as Jewish (by association) and labeled a Zionist.”
He also took on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusive (DEI) movement by saying, “It’s sometimes about optics and not outcomes … a group of men making decisions about women and so on.”
The Rev. Vaughn chilled the audience by sharing that his own children are currently students at Columbia University and Bard College as “they are the Ferguson Generation with friends who support Gaza” as a cocktail for disaster, unlike the reverend himself who grew up with Jewish neighbors in Worcester, Mass.
Acho, just 33, spoke of George Floyd’s death as being a defining moment for himself, in that he wished others had understood and reached out. He related, “Even if you don’t know what to say after something like that and Oct. 7 happens, just check in and say, ‘Are you OK?’”
Rabbi Berg recognized Maggie Gallant Isenberg and her Superjuice public relations agency for developing the event and securing sponsorship from the Arthur Blank Foundation. Berg, ever agile with comedy, mentioned the positive idea of having non-Jews for Shabbat dinner “as long as they don’t’ mind sitting for seven hours.”
Berg also jocularly told the mixed audience that that night’s crowd was similar to the attendance The Temple regularly attracts on Friday nights.
Community leader Linda Selig initiated Acho as a member of The White Rose Society, which developed out of a group of non-violent, non-Jewish German students who attempted to defend Jews against Hitler in 1941 but were eventually executed.
Acho, whose father is a preacher, concluded, “Healing begins on the micro level. Kids see what parents do, no matter what you say.” He revealed that he considers his own platform similar to preaching behind a pulpit, “I just take the cayenne pepper off to make it easy to digest. I quote Moses or Paul, Old or New Testament. The fire is in my bones. Truth, grace and love.”
Afterwards, newlyweds Erica and Mark Fisher told the AJT that they came because they were fans of Acho’s work on ESPN and had seen his conversation sessions with both a Palestinian woman and Noa Tisby. “That fact that he brought so many people out was wonderful.”
Audience member Steve Oppenheimer noted, “It’s important that people begin looking away from the echo chambers of social media and talk to one another, particularly about topics that push us away from one another.”
Temple member Laura Doman was not as effuse. “I think there were missed opportunities to talk about the impact of Acho’s work within the African American, Muslim, and other minority communities, as well as among white Christians.
When you’re preaching to the choir, the focus is on experiences we know only too well. I’m more concerned whether other communities truly care about antisemitism and preach against it, and more importantly, whether or not they will do something about it. Especially when no Jewish audience is present to witness it.”
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