DeMark and Mark met through mutual friends at the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition’s Unity Seder and later together attended Project Understanding, a biannual weekend retreat for 32 young leaders of the Black and Jewish communities to ask hard questions, learn from each other, and deepen relationships. For more information on the Black-Jewish Coalition and Project Understanding, please click here.

• DeMark, an executive at a historical civil rights organization, has worked with and learned at the knee of some the greatest leaders of the Civil Rights Movement throughout his career, including C.T. Vivian, and considers it his mission to advocate for and educate about the Black community.

• Mark, a partner and portfolio manager at an investment firm, is committed to civil rights and ensuring that this generation continues to embrace the long history of deep friendship between the Jewish and Black communities and their joint efforts to advance social change.

Together, they sought to find a way to honor John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, and as people whose own friendship came from the relationships Lewis himself embraced, realized that a powerful way to understand and advance the legacy of those who marched for civil rights is to try and put yourself in their shoes - as Rabbi Joshua Heschel said of his time marching with Dr. King in Selma - by “praying with your feet.”