Editing Leonard P. Zakim (section)

==Civil rights advocacy==
Zakim was also co-founder of [[A World of Difference Institute]], an anti-bias educational project formed in Boston in 1986. The project has been adapted in 29 other cities and six counties.<ref>[http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/spring01/loeb.html ''Human Rights Hero: Lenny Zakim''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217155145/http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/spring01/loeb.html |date=2006-02-17 }}, American Bar Association Civil Rights Division article.</ref>

Zakim and [[Charles Richard Stith|Rev. Charles Stith]] founded an annual Black-Jewish [[Seder]] in Boston which inspired many interfaith Seders with Catholic, Protestant and Jewish participants in Boston and nationally.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040626170604/http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/spring01/loeb.html Civil Rights Human Rights Hero],  Human Rights Magazine via abanet.org. Accessed April 7, 2024.</ref> At the time of his death it was the largest Black-Jewish seder in the USA. He also "used his political connections and friendships with black ministers, Roman Catholic leaders and sports celebrities to establish community organizations and public-service events, including the 12,000-member Team Harmony antiracism rally for teenagers", the ''New York Times'' said in its obituary.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

During the last years of his life, as he struggled with [[myeloma]], he founded the Lenny Zakim Fund to fight poverty and racism in Boston. Shortly before his death, he organized a Catholic-Jewish pilgrimage to [[Rome]] with his friend [[Cardinal Bernard Law]]. There, he had an audience with Pope [[John Paul II]], prompting the New Jersey native to say: "I've had my picture taken with the Pope, [[Bruce Springsteen]] and the [[Dalai Lama]]. Now I've got to get the three of them together."<ref>Ethan Bronner.
[https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/06/us/leonard-zakim-46-promoted-racial-unity-and-tolerance.html ''Leonard Zakim, 46; Promoted Racial Unity and Tolerance''], nytimes.com. December 6, 1999.</ref> He condemned the protest by gay rights and abortion rights activists outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston that [[Dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality#Protests|disrupted an ordination of priests]] in 1990.<ref name=assails>{{cite news | title = Pilot editorial assails protest |  date = June 22, 1990 | newspaper = The Boston Globe | page = 19 }}</ref>