Exclusive: Robert Kraft-funded org holding Black, Jewish student dinners

Driving the news: The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) tells Axios that the unity dinners will begin mid-September in New Orleans, bringing students together from Tulane, Xavier, Dillard and Loyola universities.

• Dinners will then continue in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia and Houston as part of a 14-city tour.
• The effort will invite students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as well as from schools like Rice, Temple and the University of Houston.

Zoom in: Organizers say the unity dinners are aimed at rebuilding the historical bonds between Black and Jewish communities that go back decades before the Civil Rights Movement.

• Dinners will include conversations about anti-Black racism, antisemitism and ongoing misunderstandings on campuses.

What they're saying: "We're watching what people are saying and hearing on social media...and you can see a significant rise and normalization of tropes and hate speech," FCAS President Adam Katz told Axios.

• Katz said the unity dinners are a "powerful intervention" against hate and battles against stereotypes that need to be confronted before they fester and evolve into something dangerous.
• "It's been, frankly, so inspiring and so powerful," Katz said of previous unity dinners before the launch of the new tour.

State of play: Hate crimes in the United States last year hit their second-largest total since the FBI started keeping data, the agency said this week.

• The numbers show that anti-Jewish hate crimes are still near or around record levels, analyst Brian Levin told Axios.
• Liberal and conservative-leaning organizations have been at odds over how to fight antisemitism on college campuses.

The intrigue: The FCAS unity dinners seek to avoid those conflicts and have brought in Hillel International and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) as partners.

• "For 80 years at UNCF, we've relied upon partnerships with the Jewish community to support education in our community," Michael Lomax, UNCF president and CEO, told Axios.
• "It just felt like doing something would enable a next generation of  young, Black and Jewish leaders to meet one another and to think about what they might do to address hate."

Adam Lehman, Hillel International president & CEO, told Axios that isolation and polarization hit Jewish students after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

• "When we saw this opportunity to partner with such an incredible organization like UNCF and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism in a way that would counter that trend, I was very excited, and our whole team at Hillel International was eager to learn," Lehman said.

Context: FCAS operates with 20-30 employees and is backed by a $100 million matching gift given in 2023 by Kraft.