A winning bid on a charity auction item 20 years ago has grown into a yearly golf trip with at least 20 businessmen; an annual charitable golfing and pickleball tournament that serves to both reinforce ties between the Black and Jewish communities and raise money for The SEED School of Maryland; and now, a pilot curriculum for that school involving off-campus activities and trips around the country.
The golf group is an informal cohort of Black and Jewish businessmen called the HeBros, and the SEED School curriculum is called “The Bridge to Freedom: Cross Cultural Conversations Through Art.”
HeBros, a contraction of the words “Hebrew” and “Brothers,” is named for the Jewish and Black businessmen who began as a group of four men — two Black and two Jewish — who won a golf trip at a charity event 20 years ago. The four had such a great time, they decided to make it an annual event, and expand the number of people invited. There are at least 20 members now.
John Baum, who organizes the charitable tournament (named the HeBrOpen) spoke to Baltimore Fishbowl about the original yearly golf trip.
“It started off being a traditional annual golf trip with the HeBros. Jewish guys and African American guys would go away and have a golf trip and spend time together and enjoy each other’s company,” Baum said.
Tony Hawkins, whom Baum calls “The Father of the HeBros,” was one of the original four on the first golf trip, and he always insisted on these subsequent yearly trips that the Jewish and Black men shared the hotel rooms. “Tony insisted on sharing rooms, and there will always be one African American guy and one Jewish guy sharing a hotel room,” Baum laughed.
The HeBros’ connection to the SEED School came about when Baum’s brother Charles passed away about eight years ago. John Baum got in touch with Hawkins since Charles also enjoyed being a member of HeBros. They decided to hold a golf outing to raise money for a good cause in Charles’ name.
Charles’ lifelong friend, Harry Lebow, was a founding member of the SEED School. John Baum describes Lebow as a “hero,” and he and Hawkins decided the SEED School would be the beneficiary of the funds raised. It became an annual event, expanding to add pickleball to the tournament. Since Harry Lebow passed away four years ago, the outing has been dedicated to both Lebow’s and Charles Baum’s memories.
Every year the beneficiary of the HeBrOpen proceeds has been the SEED School. In 2019, the HeBros also made an additional donation to the Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel in the late congressman’s memory.
“We’ve had very generous and loyal sponsors and participants, so it’s been a success,” Baum said.
Not only has the HeBrOpen been a success financially in terms of being able to donate to the SEED School, but the group has also been instrumental in inspiring a new curriculum there being celebrated and introduced this week. Katie Byram, director of development at SEED School, explained how that evolved.
Tony Campbell, a newer HeBros board member who is Black, is a political science professor at Towson University, and a jazz musician who studied under Hank Levy, a local jazz composer and director of Jazz Studies at Towson for over 20 years. Campbell wanted to add an arts component to the HeBros connection to the SEED School, in addition to the HeBrOpen.
This led to an event happening Thursday evening, Jan. 11, at the Gordon Center at the Jewish Community Center, called “Bridge to Freedom: Cross Cultural Conversations Through Art.” The evening will feature an exhibit of student art, spoken word performances from SEED students, and music from The Melting Pot band performing Levy’s music. Student artwork is for sale and will be on display until March 2024.
“But we wanted to also round the entire year out. So, it’s almost like a curriculum for the students that apply to be a part of it, where they get to study and be exposed to Jewish history, as well as African American history,” Byram said. “And so, what the HeBrOpen funds for us every year is external opportunities. So that is field trips, that is international trips throughout the summer. It’s also student internships at local corporations…. any sort of enriching program that happens off of our campus.”
The SEED School described the program in a press release as focusing on “opportunities for SEED students to engage in building bridges of connections, celebrate diversity, and connect with partners to create positive change in the SEED community and beyond. An integral component of the yearlong program is the deepening of understanding of the African American and Jewish experience and shared history of oppression.”
SEED School students attended the HeBrOpen. They have also visited the Holocaust Museum, the Museum of African American History and Culture, and in March they will be traveling to Montgomery, Alabama to visit iconic places of Civil Rights history. They’ll see the Rosa Parks Museum, the Freedom Rides Museum, the Legacy Museum, have a presentation from the Equal Justice Initiative, and more.
Montgomery, Alabama is not only the home of multiple Civil Rights era cultural touchstones, but also where John Baum, his brother Charles, and their sister grew up. When Charles passed away, his wife made a large donation to the Rosa Parks Museum in his name.
“There is an atrium in the Rosa Parks Museum that’s named after Charles and when the naming ceremony took place in 2017, there were a number of people who went down for that, including several HeBros and their spouses,” Baum said. “So that’s the genesis of this trip in March that we’re going to go with about a dozen SEED students in March.”
Baum cites the closeness of the friendships and true personal connections between the HeBros that has kept the group together through the last decade filled with tremendously challenging racial events and circumstances.
“What started out as a group of guys who would get together and enjoy each other’s company, and play golf together, occasionally go to dinner together, got more serious,” Baum said. “Shortly after the event in Ferguson, Missouri [Michael Brown’s killing], that engendered some serious discussions among the HeBros.”
Baum told Fishbowl the group got a highly respected facilitator to help the group navigate a full day of discussions, and from that point forward, the group took on a more “genuine, serious tone.” Up until that point, the HeBros hadn’t had any real community involvement. They were simply a group who’d enjoyed each other’s company and took trips together.
“But that got the HeBros to focus,” Baum said. “Tony [Hawkins] in particular inspired people to get involved…. Here’s this connection between HeBros and SEED that started without any real intent that obviously has grown over the years.”
That intent evolved into the development of SEED’s Bridge to Freedom curriculum, in which the HeBros help facilitate and fund the set of off-campus opportunities, experiences, and conversations through art, culture, and music to create and strengthen connections between the Black and Jewish communities of Baltimore.
Cross Cultural Conversations Through Art, an evening of art, spoken word and musical performances, takes place on Thursday, Jan. 11, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at The Gordon Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $20 for the general public, and $10 for JCC members, seniors, SEED staff and students.
To purchase tickets, click this link.
AA needs to support their own before supporting other people who use to be allies. Remember, Blum a Jewish man was front and center and single handed destroyed Affirmative Action. And now he is going after a Black women’s group who have obtained funds to help new Black women start ups or businesses. That case goes to court this week. Additionally, it was Ackerman, a Jewish man, who help to get rid the Harvard president. Let the Jewish communities speak to those issues first and clean their house first, while Black people need to clean theirs without interference from outsiders. Black people should make other allies that share their issues. I don’t see this alliance working for us anymore given the geo politics.