About Us
Building on History
Bringing together leaders from the black community and Jewish leaders to improve relationships between both constituencies, to educate our communities about our common struggles and our similar histories and shared values to fight anti-Semitism and racism within both populations.
Example: Less than 20 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the Jewish community supported and contributed to the Civil Rights Act and more to make America better for a neglected segment of the U. S. citizenry, the Black community on a whole.
Combined Experience
The Black faith community, more than eight million strong, support the Jewish community and Israel. We intend to harness that untapped, unrecognized energy, as a positive force for the development of a 715-million-member alliance fighting anti-Semitism, the BDS and hate in general.
We are currently in the early stage of the development as a group, with our first formal meeting having been on December 16, 2019. We formed a Florida corporation, The Alliance of Blacks and Jews, Inc., February 21, 2020. Our areas of operations will be nationally and internationally. We expect to generate revenue adequate to provide a return to the investor, support activities that counter anti-Semitism, create noticeable economic activities that have high social impact and support leaders who support the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of hate.
Our Solution
We will ......
capitalize on the natural affinity between the Black community in America with Africa and the kinship felt by the Black Faith community towards Israel;
focus on education NOW, at the lowest practical level in line with the historical involvement of the Jewish community. Example: Julius Rosenwald, a founder of Sears Roebuck, used his wealth to educate Blacks, mostly in the south. Today, replicating his efforts today, in addressing the needs of today such as STEMA (A=Aviation);
create profitable business opportunities in Africa, America and other countries where there is noticeable disparity between Blacks and others. Example: Provision of sustainable electric power generation through solar companies partially owned by Blacks; and
use some of the proceeds from the Businesses both in America and Africa to invest in social relief strategies offered by the businesses in those countries with university and government economic program support. Example: Stock ownership in a public company by both social groups and donors, such as Social Investment Holdings, Inc and its sister non-profit companies, People Helping Each Other, Inc. and Super-Hero Leadership Academy, Inc. Each of the non-profits are designed to provide social services through profits of dedicated for profit businesses with stockholder support.
Some of Our Board and Advisors
Richard Ornitz
Richard Ornitz is a seasoned and globally recognized infrastructure and investment market leader, having completed these projects over many years on most every continent as an engineer, lawyer, investment banker and investor. Prior to serving as Chairman of Infralinx Capital LLC, he worked with and represented global contractors and concessionaires of most nationalities, governments, investment banks, multilateral finance institutions and also served and continues to serve on the UN and US advisory boards for development of this market globally. In the early days he also served on the US Secretary of State private advisory board and developed international deal skills at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He was also a senior member of management of Degussa, a Fortune 100 German global company based in Frankfurt.
Richard has a reputation as a creative problem solver and deal maker, who understands the perspectives and legitimate needs of the various stakeholders in these deals, and brings them together efficiently and effectively. He is also Senior Counsel to McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP/Dentons, and for five years as Vice Chairman of Creditanstalt Infrastructure Partners GMBH, part of Bank Austria, and continues as a member of UNECE‘s PPP Advisory Board. Veteran, US Army Ordinance Corps.
John Yohanan
John Yohanan is President for Gulf South Forest Products, Inc. For over 20 years, Gulf South Forest Products has been a leading worldwide exporter of quality lumber, plywood and poles.
The Gulf Forest team of dedicated, long-term, well trained experts make up a strong customer-focused organization, structured to put each buyer’s needs first. This is reflected in their highly responsive service, extensive quality controls, and constant evaluation and improvement of products and services.
They take great pride in offering our customers a full range of services in order to fill their requirements in a professional manner, from beginning to end. Over 100 years of cumulative experience shows in sales, purchasing, documentation, shipping, and follow through on each and every order.
Billy Thompson
President
Billy Thompson is the Founder and Senior Pastor of Jesus People Proclaim International Church (JPPIC) for over 15 years; now residing in Deerfield Beach, FL. He is a profound revelator, teacher, and encourager whose heart is Kingdom minded to see believers fulfill Gods purpose in life, and Proclaim Gods life changing power through the love of Jesus Christ. This understanding is what propels him as he travels locally and internationally ministering, a word of hope, healing, and deliverance through Apostolic/Prophetic revelation. JPPIC has a diverse and progressively growing membership where he and his wife Cynthia Thompson, serve the communities that encompass Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.
Keith Wasserstrom
Vice President
Keith graduated from the Wharton School of Business (majoring in Accounting, Finance and Public Policy & Management) and Penn Law, and spent more than 15 years leading M&A and Securities practices for the world’s largest, most prestigious law firms.
Liz Brauser
VP Marketing & Outreach
Founding Board member/funder of Brauser Maimonides Academy, a premiere South Florida Jewish day school, established in 1990 ,with a nationwide reputation for academic excellence. National board member of the Zionist Organization of America.
John Simon
John Simon is a leader in promoting private investment in low-income countries, was the U.S. ambassador to the African Union and former executive vice president of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
At OPIC, Simon spearheaded efforts to promote private investment to the developing world, including by catalyzing the creation of new private equity funds focused on social impact investment in Africa. He previously served at the White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for relief, stabilization and development in the National Security Council (NSC) and at USAID as deputy assistant administrator overseeing the agency’s development information and evaluation units.
Until recently Simon was based in Addis Ababa as the United States’ representative to the AU. Earlier in his career, he worked at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor's degree at Princeton University and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University.
Julius Jackson
Executive VP
Mr. Jackson became an activist in 1964 as a 17 year old, marching with Dr. King in Saint Augustine, Florida. As an activist with vision, Mr. Jackson has parlayed the benefits of a non-profit enterprise with the free market philosophy of a for profit business. His activism led to his co-founding Ryan Millennium Group Inc. in November of 2014. Ryan Millennium Group, Inc. has multi-racial ownership and was created to bring about racial harmony in North America and Africa through multiple economic strategies. The histories of Millennium Group worldwide, Inc., www.mgroupww.com and Ryan Inc., www.ryanfl.com, were perceived by their owners to be a perfect match for the task, and thus, Ryan Millennium Group, Inc., was formed. Most recently, Mr. Jackson encouraged a group of like-minded individuals to establish a new business, Social Investment Holdings, Inc., to capitalize on one of the newest tools for helping small businesses from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Regulation A.
Mr. Jackson’s professional career began at General Motors Corporation in 1968 as assistant to the plant chemist for two years. Between 1971 and 1974, he served with the Metro Dade Police department. He earned a degree in criminal justice administration at Florida International University. After the Police Department, he worked in the County Manager’s office. Mr. Jackson left Miami-Dade County in 1976 to join a private Washington D.C. consulting firm, providing technical support to Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, under a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Thereafter, Mr. Jackson founded a consulting firm that ultimately had offices in London, Kinshasa, Zaire, Washington D.C., New Haven (Connecticut), and Miami, Florida. The firm procured national and international contracts with various U.S. government agencies, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Department of Defense. He managed the development of over 10 training courses and course revisions published by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Jackson served on the Miami Dade County Housing Finance Authority, with emphasis on financing affordable housing. He left the authority and ultimately built housing for agencies as well as his own account. With his construction companies, he has built over 100 units of affordable housing, the 1 1/2 mile wall and associated walk path separating the Dolphin stadium from the adjacent neighborhood. Mr. Jackson has developed sub-divisions in Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida. After hurricane Andrew, he repaired and provided over 100 units of permanent and replacement housing. Mr. Jackson’s International exposure, led him to conduct housing development and business development workshops, to assist Black Businesses in South Africa in planning for collaboration to expand their capacity. Mr. Jackson is currently assembling a team to create a housing finance and securitization company in sub-Saharan Africa to address the current shortage of affordable housing for the indigenous Africans, existing since independence of South Africa and Namibia.
He was engaged by the Archbishop of Cape Town, to bring Blacks in America to sub-Saharan Africa, to join forces and mutually benefit from the combined intellectual property and natural resource assets possessed by the two groups. This led to the establishment of the “Winds of Change” initiative, launched in 2012 in Addis Ababa at the World Economic Forum. Today, Mr. Jackson is focused on providing leadership for the establishment of a faith-based economic initiative, Interfaith Americans for a Better America and Social Investment Holdings, Inc., to support the creation and establishment of businesses majority owned by previously disadvantaged groups and individuals in America, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil.
in January of 09. He managed a contract for the world’s fourth largest diamond mine in Angola and is currently managing, for a non-profit organization, People Helping Each Other, Inc., www.pheoglobal.org, more than 1,000,000 acres of timber for harvesting in Africa and more than 6,000,000 acres for conservation.
Mr. Jackson has been a board member of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, Salvation Army and many civic and business organizations. He also served as President of the Northeast Florida Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors.
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