The Council of Christians and Jews has initiated a new programme to encourage dialogue between synagogues and black majority Christian congregations.

Groups from London, Leeds and Leicester took part in the launch event last week, which was addressed by Rabbi Joseph Dweck, head of the S & P Sephardi Community and one of the CCJ’s five Jewish presidents.

He was joined by the Rev Dr Israel Olofinjana, director of the One People Commission at the Evangelical Alliance, and Canon Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, black and minority ethnic mission and ministry enabler to Leicester Diocese.

The CCJ is looking to twin two black majority congregations with synagogues.

CCJ chair Bishop Michael Ipgrave said that “in a time of growing social polarisation, this initiative is welcome. CCJ has the capacity to lead on these issues within the UK and we would also welcome the opportunity to work with like-minded partners across Europe.”

Rabbi Dweck spoke of the experience of being a minority within a minority.

“There is a special bond between Jews, particularly Sephardi Jews, and people of colour,’ he told the JC afterwards. “I welcome this initiative and look forward to its results.”

Canon Nsenga-Ngoy recalled his emigration as a child from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Belgium.

Reflecting on the transgenerational traumas of the Holocaust and the transatlantic slave trade, Dr Olofinjana said: “We cannot forget — but we can go on a journey together to experience healing.”

CCJ interim director Nathan Eddy observed that “there was a time when this sort of dialogue would have been seen as niche. But no longer. There is broad interest in these conversations.”

He noted the reports on race published last year by the Board of Deputies and the Church of England, both of which were released on Stephen Lawrence Day, commemorating the murder of the black South London teenager in 1993.