By Bryan Schwartzman
A well-known black Jamaica minister has faced a backlash of criticism for comments he made and later apologized for about Jews during Rev. Al Sharpton's annual Martin Luther King commemoration Jan. 13 in Harlem.
Neither Sharpton, nor likely U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who attended the event, were in the room at Sharpton's Harlem headquarters when the Rev. Charles Norris recounted the story of being fired from his job at a Jewish-owned business in 1969.
Warming up the mostly black audience for the notable guest speakers to come, Norris, the pastor at Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church, recalled how he was fired from a home-improvement business by two Jews but then was hired by a Jew named Jesus.
“You know why I say that? Because Miller No. 1 was a Jew. Miller No. 2 was a Jew. But when they fired me, those two Jews, I was then employed by another Jew by the name of Jesus,” Norris told the crowd.
The home-improvement company was owned successively by two men named Miller.
Clinton denounced the remarks before leaving the event, while Sharpton publicly distanced himself from Norris' comments the next day.
“Before I came, for example, I heard that one of the speakers made some divisive comments, which I would, you know, soundly reject,” Clinton said.
A spokeswoman for Al Sharpton's National Action Network said there was no feud between the two black ministers, who are longtime allies, but Sharpton felt Norris' comments were inappropriate.
Some observers said that if Clinton had not attended the event, Norris' remarks would have gone unnoticed by the media and public officials.
Clinton has had a tenuous relationship with New York's Jewish voters since she voiced support for an independent Palestinian state and was criticized harshly for not immediately denouncing Suha Arafat's disparaging remarks about Israelis during Clinton's trip to Israel in the fall. Suha Arafat is the wife of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat.
Meanwhile, Norris, who is also the executive secretary for the Southeast Queens Clergy for Community Empowerment, has apologized repeatedly and said his remarks were not intended to be disparaging toward Jews.
“I was fired by a person of the Jewish faith, but that did not damage my feelings towards people of the Jewish faith,” Norris said in a telephone interview several days later.
Norris said the point of his story was that he did not harbor any ill feelings toward his employers and members of the Jewish faith after he was fired from the home-improvement company at a time when he had two sons in college and was feeling the economic pinch.
“Then I got my calling from a Jew,” Norris said, referring to his decision to join the ministry and his first sermon, which he delivered in 1969.
Norris said he spoke about the events not because he was embittered by them but because they had such a profound influence on his life and his eventual decision to become a minister.
“I certainly apologize,” Norris said. “I did not set out to hurt anybody.”
State Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-St. Albans) said in the sometimes tense relationship between Jews and blacks in New York, extra care must be taken with public comments.
“I wasn't there, but if what I read was true, the comments were certainly insensitive,” Scarborough said.
Scarborough said that at an event with high-profile figures such as Sharpton and Clinton, remarks will be scrutinized more closely.
“There has been a historical alliance between Jews and blacks. We have more things in common than we have different,” Scarborough said.
Corey Bearak, of the Queens Jewish Community Council, said he has known Norris for more than 20 years and was very surprised when he learned about his remarks.
“He is certainly not a racist,” Bearak said. “He has supported Jewish candidates in the past.”
Bearak said the fact that Norris did not realize some people would find his remarks offensive indicates there is not enough interaction between blacks and Jews on a day-to-day basis.
“My own sense is that he is by and large a contributing person,” said City Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis) of Norris.
But Leffler was highly critical of Norris' comments, saying that someone who is experienced in public life and who has a large following should have known better.
“Why did he identify the person as a Jewish person? Why did he use that adjective?” said Leffler. “This gave me a sense that characterization was prominent in his mind.”
Leffler was pleased that Norris had offered an apology for his comments.
“At every level of public life people make mistakes,” Leffler said.
