Christopher. Lafayette is an Emergent Technologist in medtech, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, climate and applied sciences. He is a Silicon Valley national and international speaker, Thought Leader and Culture & Inclusion Advocate. He is the Founder of Black Technology Mentorship Program (BTMP)
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Black-Jewish Dialogue – January 2021
Our Black-Jewish Dialogue for January 2021 featured presenters Mike Green and Dov Wilker. Many thanks to them and Mizpah Congregation, our co-host.

Mike Green is an award-winning journalist headquartered in Colorado. He is the Chief Economic Strategist for The National Institute for Inclusive Competitiveness (niicusa.org) and also co-founder of Common Ground Conversations on Race in America.
He is also co-founder of ScaleUp Partners LLC, a nationally networked consulting practice focused on changing the nation’s economic narrative.
Dov Wilker is the National Director for. Black-Jewish Relations for the American Jewish Committee and heads the AJC Atlanta Regional Office with the goal of enhancing the well being of the Jewish people worldwide and advancing human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. The office has worked with the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition for nearly 35 years.CLICK NOW for
BLACK-JEWISH DIALOGUE – January 2021
CLICK HERE for information on our Black-Jewish Dialogues and links to additional dialogue recordings
Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report, Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.
Happy ReNew Year Song
Get Creative with Original Song!
Music moves, heals, and inspires us.
Enjoy this beautiful New Year’s song by a wonderfully creative group of artists.
Many thanks to the writer/producer of this song, Michael A. Levine, who also composed for: science fiction series Siren on Freeform, for George Lucas-produced Star Wars Detours animated parody, and for Jerry Bruckheimer/CBS dramas Cold Case and Close To Home for which he received 8 ASCAP awards. He scored films: Landfill Harmonic & The Makeover, and wrote the theme song for Resident Evil 7 Biohazard and closing credits song, Running, sung by Roberta Flack for the documentary feature 3100: Run and Become.
Levine produced, with Michael Wolff, the songs for the Nickelodeon TV preteen comedy series, The Naked Brothers Band. Levine also wrote “Gimme a Break”, the Kit Kat jingle, named one of the 12 greatest jingles by MSN in 2013.
Levine was also a Governor of the music branch of the Television Academy (Emmys).
Dr. Janét Aizenstros Podcast: Global Social Entrepreneur
Dr. Janét Aizenstros is a signatory with the United Nations Business Action Hub (UNBAH) for the United Nations Global Compact Network. She is an award-winning businesswoman with several leadership awards such as the Top 40 under 40, a recipient of the 2020 WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur Award: Top 100, the Stevie® Award winner for Female Entrepreneur of the Year Canada. She also received Employer Of The Year for Canadian Business which ranked her company 12th on Canadian Business ’s 2020 Growth List. Thus, she became the first Black Canadian woman in history to scale a 9-figure organization and sole female founder to be featured on the list.
Dr. Janét Aizenstros is also a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO), a participant with Concordia Leadership Council and a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Foundation.
CLICK for interview of DR. JANET AIZENSTROS
COVID Stories of Perseverance and Caring
COVID Stories:
3 Women Share & Inspire
Many of you are changing your lives and work to care for others and yourselves in new ways. The ADR honors all of your efforts and shares these COVID stories to inspire and motivate.
Glynn Hodges Mastermind Coach: Discover your “Why”
Glynn Hodges is a certified Keynote Speaker, Coach and Teacher. and Executive Director at The John Maxwell Team. His story, which began in rural Georgia, is an international inspiration. He is the Former President/ Owner at ATS Staffing Services and Former Sales manager at Westinghouse. As a Coach and Motivational Speaker, Glynn helps people discover their “Why” the John Maxwell way. His mantra is Helping You To Be The Best You.
CLICK for interview with Glynn Hodges
The Powerful Connection of Spirituality and Entrepreneurship– by Deborah Levine
When COVID-19 changed the economy, more people became entrepreneurs. The act of creating your own business has an underlying connection between spirituality and entrepreneurship. How does that work? The first element is the business side of the endeavor and its bottom line, otherwise known as ‘show me the money.’ The second motivation is self-fulfillment. Some refer to this element of entrepreneurship as ‘personal satisfaction.’ But the core of the vague term ‘personal satisfaction’ is what is best described as a spiritual sense of purpose. This spirituality is sometimes linked to one’s particular faith tradition, but is not necessarily so. Rather, there is a commonality in this spiritual sense of something greater than ourselves that translates across the boundaries of specific religions. Most importantly, there is tremendous power where this spirituality and business overlap.
Continue reading The Powerful Connection of Spirituality and Entrepreneurship– by Deborah Levine
Explaining antisemitism – by Deborah Levine
Antisemitism goes back long before the term was coined by a German historian in 1781. Violent attacks and expulsions of Jewish communities span centuries. The Babylonians exiled Jews from Zion, the earliest use of the term, into Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions. The Romans forced Jews into Europe. Blamed for causing the Black Plague, Jews were driven out of England, France, Germany, and Italy. They fled to Eastern Europe but experienced violent pogroms and isolation into The Pale. Throughout it all, the elements of antisemitism rarely changed.
For example, the Blood Libel dates as far back as the Temple in Jerusalem with claims that Jews sacrificed Greeks. It reappeared in the Middle Ages when an English cult announced that Passover Seder wine was actually Christian blood. Centuries later, a mob destroyed a synagogue in Damascus for this blood libel. As recently as 1928 in New York, Jews were accused of kidnapping and ritually killing a young girl.
Continue reading Explaining antisemitism – by Deborah Levine
Black-Jewish Dialogue Nov.: Economics and COVID-19
The November Black-Jewish Dialogue focused on the economic impact of COVID-19 on our communities. With participants from coast to coast, Bermuda and Hungary, the dialogue has grown from a local Chattanooga initiative to a global discussion. Hosted by Chattanooga’s Mizpah Congregation in partnership with the American Diversity Report, the dialogue began in August of this year with monthly virtual sessions. Many thanks to Dr. Gail Dawson, Dr. Les Petrovics, and John Miles for sharing their expertise and experience with us.
CLICK for the November Dialogue
recording
- CLICK for OCTOBER DIALOGUE
- CLICK for WHY NOW
- CLICK for EXPLAINING ANTISEMITISM – Hadassah Presentation
Dialogue Partners:
American Diversity Report, Chattanooga News Chronicle, Mizpah Congregation, Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, C.U.R.B. – Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda.
Forest Harper: INROADS Closing Corporate DEI Gap
Forest T. Harper Jr. is the President and CEO of INROADS, the nation’s largest non-profit model of salaried corporate DEI internships and corporate and community leadership development for outstanding ethnically diverse talent at the pipeline and mid-career level.
This year marks 50 years for INROADS. Hear how the organization is important to corporate America’s landscape today and is proving effective in closing America’s Racial Wealth Gap. Understand how to execute diversity & inclusion strategies to accelerate organizations in today’s multicultural market. Harper shares how vital it is to establish talent pipeline development for attracting, recruiting and sustaining diverse talent as well as securing C-Suite alignment.