An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Charlotte
Vol. 39, No. 7
Av-Elul 5777
August 2017
Class 23 of Operation Understanding Visits Shalom Park
By Amy Krakovitz
For 23 summers, Operation
Understanding takes Jewish and
Afriean-Ameriean students from
the Washington, DC area on a
journey. “Our young leaders stand
on the battlegrounds of past strug
gles throughout the Deep South.
They study in-depth the history of
the Afriean Ameriean and Jewish
experienees in our eountry. Civil
Rights-era leaders and foot sol
diers share their stories from the
front lines of the Movement.
Modern-day justiee advoeates il
lustrate the work still to be done
and how to get involved. Our stu
dents learn from eaeh other,
spending hours exploring issues,
having honest dialogue, and de
veloping steadfast relationships
that erase raeial, religious and ide-
ologieal boundaries,” says their
website.
As part of the journey, eaeh
elass stops in Charlotte, to learn
about being Jewish in the south, to
tour Shalom Park and appreeiate
its eooperative ageneies, and to
meet with loeal Civil Rights
Leader, Charles Jones, who tells
them about his experienee as a
young man in both the desegrega
tion of Charlotte and parts of
South Carolina, as well as his ex
perienee as a Freedom Rider
throughout the South.
It’s an extensive journey from
DC to Mississippi, ineluding
Greensboro, Memphis, parts of
Alabama, and Atlanta. They study
the history of the movement, learn
from today’s and yesterday’s he
roes, and experienee the brother
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Charles Jones, far left, ,speaks to Class 23 of OUDC.
hood of Jews and Afriean-Ameri-
eans who worked together to
bring about Equal Rights for all,
and who still eollaborate to eon-
tinue the dream.
The students are high sehool
students with diverse reasons for
taking this journey “I didn’t know
mueh about eivil rights, or my eul-
ture or other eultures,” says
Rhema Jones, 17, a student at
Kipp College Prep in DC, ex
plaining why she ehose to go on
OUDC. “I felt‘not woke.’”
Nieholas Whitman, a 17-year-
old who attends Woodrow Wilson
Senior High in DC, eame on the
program due to a reeommendation
from a former partieipant. “I saw
how it transformed his views.”
The students toured the park,
stopping with partieular interest at
the Butterfly Seulpture. The high
light of the afternoon, though, was
a visit from Charles Jones, Char
lotte’s own Civil Rights Aetivist
and former Freedom Rider.
Through song and story, he told
them the tale of standing up to de
segregation in downtown Char
lotte, about his time in jail, and
about his aeeomplishments aeross
the south.
Up until then, the students had
had some remarkable experienees.
At the Holoeaust Museum,
Rhema Jones was stunned by the
exhibits. And she was ehanged,
too, when the group did a “privi
lege walk,” where they took steps
forward or baekward aeeording to
how privileged they felt about
partieular things. “There were stu
dents way in front, and others far
in the baek. Everyone felt some
thing, some of us ashamed and
guilty.”
Whitman learned while on the
eampus of North Carolina A & T
about the Greensboro Massaere of
1979. “There’s so mueh important
history that you never hear about,”
he says. “This trip has opened my
eyes to that.”
As a musieian, Rhema Jones
always thought that she would just
play musie, but she sees now “that
I ean use musie to help people.
Musie ehanges the way people
think.” And the experienee with
Rhema Jones and Nicholas Whitman.
OUDC has made her want to
make ehanges in the world.
Whitman has seen how this trip
ean impaet him, even before it is
over: “You ean build relationships
with people you might never have
met,” he says, “if you’d only step
out of your eomfort zone.”^
Michael and Lenora Borchardt Help
Expand Spay/Neuter Efforts in Gaston
County
Gift Establishes Lenora Borchardt Spay Neuter Center
in Gastonia
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As the proud owners of
four adopted dogs from the
Animal League of Gaston
County, Miehael and Lenora
Borehardt understand the
importanee of the organiza
tion. It made it an easy deei-
sion to donate toward the
expansion and reloeation of
an existing spay neuter
elinie to downtown Gasto
nia.
The Lenora Borehardt
Spay Neuter Center was
dedieated on June 23. The
larger, more-prominent fa-
eility replaees the small but
popular Gaston Low-Cost
Spay/Neuter Clinie, whieh
reeently eelebrated its 30,000th
surgery. The gift from the Bor-
ehardts was in support of the eou-
ple’s belief in reseue and adoption
for all family pets.
“We established the Miehael
and Lenora Borehardt Family
Foundation through the Founda
tion for the Charlotte Jewish
Community (FCJC) and Founda
tion For The Carolinas in 2007 to
Joan, Michael, and Lenora Borchardt.
faeilitate our family’s philan
thropy and have used it to support
the Animal League of Gaston
County and their efforts to pro
vide low-eost spay and neuter
serviees,” Lenora said. “We are
honored to provide the lead gift to
expand and permanently loeate
the elinie in downtown Gastonia,
our home of many years. We part
nered with our loeal eommunity
foundation to formalize this
gift that will benefit not only
the residents of Gastonia but
the broader region for years
to eome.”
The Borehardts moved to
Gastonia in 1972 and lived
in the eommunity for 30
years, moving to Charlotte in
2002. Lenora added that the
elinie was originally sup
posed to be named after
Miehael, also, but he gra-
eiously withdrew his name
to keep the Center’s name
shorter.
The Miehael and Lenora
Borehardt Family Founda
tion was established as a
donor advised fund at FCJC, a
subsidiary of Foundation For The
Carolinas. They have worked
with FCJC to support other fa
vorite eharities that inelude the
Jewish Federations of Greater
Charlotte and Atlanta, Hillel, and
Temple Beth El. In addition, the
Borehardts have ereated a legaey
(Continued on page 2)