“Rabbi Capers Funnye is a force of personality and a force of spirit. He has worked tirelessly to dispel the notion that all Jews look the same.”

These are the words of Judy Levey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA). The organization is honoring Funnye for his “inspiring leadership and lifelong dedication to social justice” at its 2019 Acts of Change Dinner on June 13.

Funnye has served for 38 years as the rabbi for Chicago’s Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. He is the first African American rabbi to participate in JUF’s Chicago Board of Rabbis.

In the 1990s, Funnye joined the JCUA staff as a director of administration; by 1995, he joined the JCUA board, serving as its president from 2016-2018.

One success, of which Funnye said he was “most proud,” was “partnering with community organizations [like JCUA] to bring Level 1 Trauma Center back to the University of Chicago, in the spring of 2018.”

“For over four decades, Rabbi Capers Funnye has worked to promote a vibrant and equitable Jewish community,” Levey said. “Through this work, he lives out the prophetic calling to pursue justice. He has dedicated his life to building bridges within, and beyond, the Jewish community.”

In 2015, Funnye was installed as the Chief Rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, which serves Jewish communities in the U.S., the Caribbean, and five African nations. Funnye also has been active in both Be’Chol Lashon and Kulanu, two organizations that promote awareness of less-connected Jewish communities across the world.

In his early work with JCUA, Funnye helped the organization become more inclusive of African American Jews, working with Rabbi Herman Schaalman. “There became an awareness within the Jewish community of Jewish African Americans who sought to be part of the Jewish people,” Funnye said.

Funnye has worked to prove how diverse the Jewish community really is; he was instrumental in creating JCUA’s Jewish People of Color Caucus.

Funnye noted that Jews are uniquely situated to community work. “Jews are an interstitial people,” he said. “We pass between the parts but connect them. This work leads to understanding, to being able to talk, and reason together.”

About the recent attack at the Chabad Synagogue in Poway and the rise in antisemitism, Funnye said, “We felt it. If it happens to any Jewish community, it affects us. Our response should be to fill the synagogues…We can never let racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia escape whenever they appear. We stand up, as Jews, against any individual or force.”

Regarding his latest honor, Funnye said he is “extremely humbled, to the utmost. I am just trying to do my part, my duty, as a Jew.”

To register for the Acts of Change Dinner, to be held at Galleria Marchetti, 825 W. Erie Street, visit jcua.org . For ticket or sponsorship information, contact Jill Katz, Director of Development , at (312) 663-0960 or [email protected].