About
Mission
In keeping with our shared history of opposing and experiencing oppression, we are Blacks and Jews building community for the purpose of advancing the cause of racial justice and equal access.
Vision
Through engaging our membership and combined/extended community, we will identify issues, events to support, promote and amplify. And provide leadership on issues of justice and equity in our effort to repair the world.
History
The San Francisco Black-Jewish Unity Coalition was formed in 2016 to bring African American and Jewish clergy together to discuss concerns of the African American community of San Francisco and to seek satisfactory solutions to those concerns. The clergy decided to meet monthly and to invite congregants who are social activists to participate. Our meetings are highlighted by strong advocacy of certain positions and respectful discussions of counter positions, culminating in a decision to take a certain action or to support a particular legislative or administrative action.
Meeting Schedule
Address
Due to COVID-19, The SF Unity Group will be holding our monthly meetings via Zoom.
Please email malcolm@mgissen.com. if you would like to join an upcoming meeting.
Date
The second Thursday of every month
Time
6:00 PM – 7:15 PM
Format
Virtual Meeting and Discussion
Co-Leads
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay is a minister on staff at Grace Tabernacle Community Church in the Bayview Hunter's Point section of San Francisco, CA where he concurrently serves as Associate Pastor for Social Justice Ministries. Howard serves as Co-Lead of The African American Jewish Unity Group.
Professionally, Howard brings over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry where he currently works within a global investment bank. He also volunteers with charitable, religious and professional organizations locally, nationally and internationally.
Howard is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary (CA), having earned a Masters of Theology in Ministry. He also holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University (CT) where he dually-majored in Economics and African American Studies.
Howard's ministerial focus is on the transformational force of love, abundance-consciousness, and community empowerment made manifest in its fruit: justice and compassion. This ethos is echoed by the prophet, Micah, who urged us “to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God,” and is embodied by Christ—a response to a call from a world in search of truth, direction, connection.
Malcolm Gissen
Malcolm Gissen has been a social activist since spending the first summer of law school at the University of Wisconsin in Mississippi working with Martin Luther King’s SCLC to desegregate public facilities and to provide economic opportunities for African Americans. Malcolm visited Mississippi often thereafter, working for change with friends like Fannie Lou Hamer and other impactful black leaders.
Malcolm headed a financial advisory firm based in San Francisco for many years, sold the firm to First Republic Bank in 2015, and became a Managing Director with First Republic. While visiting San Quentin Prison in 2017, he became so moved by the inequities of the criminal justice system and mass incarceration that he decided to transition to being a fulltime activist, advocating for change. In that role, he assists several effective nonprofits working to reduce the prison population and to make prisons a place of rehabilitation and not punishment. Malcolm regularly meets with California legislators and their aides and with the Governor’s attorneys to advocate for change.
Late in 2015, Malcolm was approached by an African American friend in San Francisco who wanted to bring black ministers and rabbis together to address concerns of the black community. Malcolm asked his Rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El, Beth Singer, if she could make this happen and in January 2016, the first meeting of the San Francisco African American – Jewish Unity Group was held.
Malcolm graduated with a BS degree in psychology from Case Western Reserve University and a JD degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. He serves on the board of directors of one nonprofit organization, Handful Players, an San Francisco inner city children’s musical theater that was founded and is run by his spouse, Judith Cohen.
Steering Committee
Lena Robinson
Lena Robinson works is a regulatory analyst for a major bank supporting compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).
Lena was born and raised in San Francisco in a Christian household. She has witnessed first hand the economic and cultural decimation of the Black population in San Francisco starting in the 70s with urban renewal. In spite of that, I have benefited from the cultural richness and unlimited opportunities of growing up in the city.
Lena received a Bachelors in Japanese Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a Masters from Ohio University in International Studies. She actively participates with her church and enjoys teaching religious studies to children. She also enjoys biking, hiking, trying new recipes, reading and a sunny day at any beach.
Elliot Helman
Elliot grew up in a multi-faith home. The two religions that his parents embraced were Judaism and Social Justice. Having grown up in Washington, DC during the 60s, many of his childhood memories are of the civil rights movement and the search for authentic New York bagels. He was too young to remember or participate in a conscious way, but his parents and grandparents were heavily involved with Martin Luther King's work and were at the famous March on Washington. Elliot remembers watching it on TV to see if he could catch a glimpse of them.
Elliot moved to San Francisco in the early 70s and has been active in the work of what modern Jews love to refer to as Tikkun Olam, repairing our broken world. While raising a kid took quite a bit of his attention for 21 years, Elliot has remained active in the issues that are most pressing today by giving his time to several organizations doing great work. In addition to his work with the Unity Group, he also works on various causes with groups such as Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), climate change issues with 350.org, and Palestinian solidarity with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Elliot is a member of Or Shalom Jewish Community, a Reconsructionist Synagogue in the City.
Linda Parker Pennington
Linda Parker Pennington is an entrepreneur and management consultant focused on the people side of business, as an executive coach and leadership consultant. Her clients range from corporate professionals and teams to non-profits and startups. She helps people to achieve their vision and realize their full potential. Linda has lived or worked in over 50 countries. She has an MBA from Stanford, and a Bachelors degree from Boston University.
Linda grew up in Queens, New York, where she was exposed to the diversity of cultures and perspectives in the world, experiencing the joy of discovering connections with people from different backgrounds. She has lived in San Francisco for over 20 years, and currently serves as an Arts Commissioner for the City, appointed by Mayor London Breed. She is a graduate of the Modern Elder Academy, and facilitates the Interpersonal Dynamics course at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Linda brings to the Unity Group a deep commitment and passion for helping to overcome racial injustice and disparity.
Linda’s husband, Greg, is a mortgage banker, and their teenage son, James, is a film student at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Linda is an active supporter of the Bay Area arts scene, particularly fine art, jazz, film and theater.
Steering Committee
Greg Pennington
Greg Pennington was born and raised in San Diego by a single Mom with roots in Dallas, Texas. His father was Roscoe Cleveland Pennington leading Chief Reactor Technician on board the U.S.S. Thresher (SSN 593) when it went down on April 10, 1963. Greg is a mortgage banker and entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience. Previously co-owner of Wausau Mortgage Corporation and Equistar Mortgage Corporation, Greg was co-founder of four different companies under Sub-Chapter S or LLC status and currently works with Linda Parker Pennington under Parker Pennington Enterprises. Greg has worked with SF Urban CHC creating the curriculum design for first time homebuyer programs and as the seminar facilitator and housing counselor. Greg also worked as a “hot spot” reporter on financial issues and interviewer for Bay Area Life TV. Greg is interested in keeping wealth in the Black community and loves seeing helping Black people own property. Overall, Greg just wants to continue learning, helping and making a difference.
Kyra Busch
Early on in her Jewish education, Kyra was taught the guiding principles of tzedak, tzedak tirdof (justice, justice shall you pursue) and tikkun olam (repairing the world). Through her career as a non-profit, education, and foundation professional Kyra has lived in, worked in, and supported communities in more than sixty countries. She has had the privilege to guide programs, networks, and strategies on social and environmental justice issues ranging from access to life-saving medication, advancing Indigenous rights, strengthening community food systems and conservation, preventing pesticide exposure, protecting environmental defenders, and building local regenerative economies.
Kyra was born in New York and raised in Indiana, as the sixth generation of the Jewish community in the same town. She holds a B.A. in Social and Environmental Justice and Political Science from Indiana University and an MESc from Yale University’s School of the Environment.
Surrounded by multiple generations of her family, Kyra calls the Bay Area home. She relishes the opportunity to act with the dedicated members of the Unity Group to continually bring San Francisco closer to its ideals of racial and economic justice and to celebrate the diversity of cultures and experiences that make this city such a vibrant and dynamic home.
Ann Rubin
Ann Rubin is a native of Los Angeles, where she attended pubic schools and had the life-shaping opportunity to learn and grow up with friends of different cultural and economic backgrounds. After college, Ann’s interests in public service, social justice issues, and the arts took her to Washington, DC. She worked on Capitol Hill — where every young person should have the chance to experience our leaders and government in action firsthand — and at the Smithsonian. Ann marched on the National Mall in the campaign to establish a federal holiday to honor the birthday and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — and to think that wasn’t universally embraced at the time! Ann’s favorite holiday is the MLK, Jr., weekend here in San Francisco when Congregation Emanu-el and Third Baptist join together for their pulpit exchange, and we walk together in the streets on Monday.
Ann earned her Bachelors in American Studies and Political Science from Claremont Men’s College. She has an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School and has resided in San Francisco for 30 years. Her maternal grandmother was an infant survivor of the 1906 earthquake and was always pleased that her descendent returned. Ann was on the staff of the Jewish Museum San Francisco during the exhibition “Bridges and Boundaries: African-Americans and American Jews,” that traced the complex relationship during the 20th Century. Today, our Unity Group continues that relationship. For about 15 years, Ann organized winter relief for Afghanistan in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee and other organizations working for peace and on behalf of women and received the Bay Area Jefferson Award for Public Service.