The Turbulent Friendship: Black-Jewish Relations in the 1990s

Abstract

This article explores the current state of black-Jewish relations and assesses their prospects. It begins by critically examining the myths of the relationship's past. It then explores current evidence of each community's attitude toward the other, evaluating broad conclusions others have reached and offering a complex reading of mutual attitudes. It then proceeds to examine several factors critical to the relationship: socioeconomic trends, changes in political strength and representation, positions on important domestic and international issues, and developments in each group's culture and internal structure. Strengths and weaknesses in the current relationship are frankly assessed and observations offered on positive and negative developments that could take place in the future. Factors likely to determine future trends are identified. Throughout, a strong effort is made to present the views of both African Americans and Jews, including where they converge or differ and where further clarification and work is needed.

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References

1. Hasia Diner , In the Almost Promised Land (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1977), pp. xv-xvi.

2. Arthur Hertzberg , The Jews in America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), pp. 336-337.

3. Ibid.

4. See, for example, Lynne Landsberg and David Saperstein , eds., Common Road to Justice: A Programming Manual for Blacks and Jews (Washington, DC: Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, 1991).

5. Cornel West , “Black-Jewish Dialogue: Beyond Rootless Universalism and Ethnic Chauvinism,” Tikkun, p. 96 (July-Aug. 1989).

6. Ibid.

7. Henry Louis Gates , “Black Demogogues and Pseudo-Scholars,” New York Times, 20 July 1992.

8. Randall Kennedy , “Derrick Bell's Apologia for Minister Farrakhan: An Intellectual and Moral Disaster,” Reconstruction, 2:92-96 (1992).

9. These are reviewed and analyzed in Jennifer Golub , What Do We Know about Black Anti-Semitism? (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1990).

10.

10. Gary Marx , Protest and Prejudice (New York: Harper & Row, 1969).

11.

11. Tom W. Smith , What Do Americans Think about Jews? (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1991), pp. 1-2.

12.

12. Ibid., p. 27.

13.

13. Highlights from an Anti-Defamation League Survey on Anti-Semitism and Prejudice in America (New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1992), pp. 30-31.

14.

14. Ibid., pp. 32-33.

15.

15. 1992 New York City Intergroup Relations Survey (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1992), p. 27.

16.

16. Tom W. Smith , Jewish Attitudes toward Blacks and Race Relations (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1990), p. 22.

17.

17. Marx , Protest and Prejudice, p. 147.

18.

18. Ibid.

19.

19. Gertrude Selznick and Stephen Steinberg , The Tenacity of Prejudice (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), pp. 118-119.

20.

1992 New York City Intergroup Relations Survey.

21.

21. Gary E. Rubin , “A No-Nonsense Look at Anti-Semitism,” Tikkun, 8(3):46-48, 79-81 (May-June 1993).

22.

22. Smith , Jewish Attitudes toward Blacks and Race Relations, p. 6.

23.

23. Ibid.

24.

24. Ibid., p. 5.

25.

25. Ibid., passim.

26.

1992 New York City Intergroup Relations Survey.

27.

27. Milton D. Morris , “African Americans and the Clinton Victory,” The World & I (Feb. 1993).