Bob Rosenfeld’s idea of an ideal world isn’t the traditional melting pot. Rather, it’s a mosaic, allowing people to retain what makes them unique while being part of a greater whole.


Bob Rosenfeld, founder of
Mosaic Partnerships That philosophy is the underpinning of Mosaic Partnerships, a company Mr. Rosenfeld founded to help local governments dissolve racial tensions and the topic of a plenary talk he recently presented at the 32nd annual North American Association for Baha'i Studies conference in San Diego. So far the firm has established programs in Greensboro, N.C., Milwaukee, Wis., and Rochester, N.Y., where he and his wife, Debbie, both Baha'is, live and have reared seven children.

Unlike other programs to heal racism, Mosaic Partnerships is not about racial tolerance, getting along or embracing diversity. It’s also “not a training class,” Mr. Rosenfeld says, “but a way of life.”

Participants are a mix of civic, social and governmental leaders in their community, who, it is hoped, can influence others. They’re African American, Hispanic, Muslim and Caucasian. They spend nine months together in pairs and in groups. Many go on to become real friends who take vacations together, attend each other’s family events and call each other in a crisis.

Although based on Baha'i core beliefs such as abandonment of all forms of prejudice and that all humanity is part of one human race, Mosaic Partnerships programs aren’t vehicles to promote the Faith, Mr. Rosenfeld says. But the workshops do bear the stamp of intimacy and warmth that characterizes Baha'i gatherings.


Breaking down prejudice is “not something you learn, but something you feel,” Mr. Rosenfeld says. “We start by pairing a white person with a person of color. They ask each other questions, the kind you usually don’t talk about, such as how do you make a friend? How do you and a friend resolve problems? What made you close?

“Enlightenment comes through experience,” Mr. Rosenfeld says. “Once the awareness is there, you’re not the same person ever again.”

Mr. Rosenfeld says he’s been troubled by injustice since childhood, but it took his experiences at college to see how it played out on a personal level. He saw how poorly African-Americans were treated at his mostly white school.

He saw the cramped quarters in the poverty-stricken neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago where his good friend, an African-American, was reared. It gave him a better understanding of his friend and drew him closer. It inspired him to adopt five biracial children, in addition to the two biological children he and his wife, Debbie, have.

Mark J. Sabljak, publisher of The Business Journal of Milwaukee, was inspired after he participated in a Mosaics Partnership workshop, which he calls “simple, but powerful,” and wrote that the program is premised on the pairs creating a relationship “that allows them to share networks with each other and perhaps begin to make a small dent in the segregation” that plagues so many towns.

“In the first year, with a goal of 100 pairs, the program signed up 114 pairs,” Mr. Sabljak writes. “At the end, in an emotional, even tear-filled program, about 90 percent of the pairs made it through a series of one-on-one meetings and small-group clusters meetings.”


“When it becomes personal, people take action,” Mr. Rosenfeld says. “In our various programs, we’ve seen one pair making changes in the school system of their town. Another pair volunteered for a reading program in the inner city. A third pair is working on establishing a home library for every student in a particular school district.

“The emotional, not intellectual, impact of such pursuits is what causes change,” Mr. Rosenfeld says. “Our clients are in crisis. Racial prejudice runs deep inside some communities. But by building trust and intimacy, we can do more than pay lip service to the oneness of humankind.”