Unless those lives are respected, there is no possibility of understanding the words we say to one another. In recent years Jews and blacks have disagreed often over each other's words. Neither has understood sufficiently that in so doing, they are disagreeing with each other's lives. Thus, blacks have hurt Jews and Jews have hurt blacks. Lives are not philosophical premises with which one is allowed to disagree, or over which one can have an argument.
Lives are sacred.
They are God's attempt to create prayers of bone and flesh. All too often Jews and blacks regard each other as merely issues to be analyzed and debated. When human beings reduce each other to abstractions, enmity must follow. First, let us acknowledge that blacks and Jews have real and serious differences, differences that may not be resolved by the most well-meaning of dialogues. That is O.K. Agreement is not a prerequisite for alliance.