Antisemitism, United States - Ethnic & Race Relations, African Americans - General & Miscellaneous, Christianity - General & Miscellaneous, Jewish History - United States, General & Miscellaneous Judaism, African Americans - Religion

The Black anti-semitism controversy

Name: The Black anti-semitism controversy
Author: G.Hubert Lock
ISBN: 9780945636519

by G.Hubert Lock

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Overview

After almost a century of collaborative efforts between Black and Jewish organizations on significant issues of civil rights and social justice in America, the nation's Black and Jewish communities have become increasingly polarized during the past several decades over the issue of Black anti-semitism. Fueled by public comments of Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Leonard Jeffries and others, by clashes between Black and Jewish residents in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, and by Black-Jewish tensions among students on several college campuses, the debate over whether and to what extent Black Americans manifest discernible traits of anti-semitism in their attitudes toward Jewish people has become one of the volatile social issues of the present time. The Black Anti-Semitism Controversy provides a background and assessment of the issue as it has been discussed in academic and public circles for the past half-century, with an extended review of the literature on black-Jewish relations since World War II. The centerpiece of this collection contains the findings of a survey of Black Protestants in three American cities regarding their attitudes toward Jewish people. Conducted by a nationally distinguished social scientist, this portion of the study stands on its own methodological merits. It should be weighed in the context of the extensive literature on the topic of Black anti-semitism that has been published over the past four decades. The remainder of the essays analyze and assess the issue of Black anti-Semitism, drawing heavily on a chronological description of viewpoints expressed in books, articles, monographs, and other statements, focusing particularly on the period since World War II. It is the occurrence of the Holocaust, undoubtedly, which gives every Jewish person reason to fear any manifestation of prejudice toward Jews; but it is precisely the Holocaust that requires that we make every effort to understand what is and what is not anti-semitism. T

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Editorials

Aaron Cohen

Magazines and television news programs make anti-Semitism seem endemic in the African American community, but Locke shows that this image is highly inaccurate. The studies he uses, emanating from a vast range of historians and social scientists, evince no evidence that "virulent anti-Semitism exists among a significant portion of the nation's 27 million Black citizens." Locke does acknowledge prejudiced sentiments about Jews among some blacks as a result of urban economic relationships and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and he also takes the inflammatory rhetoric of high-profile militants into account but dismisses these speakers since they are not seen to have sizable followings. What has gone underreported, he says, are surveys revealing black Protestants as more pro-Jewish than their white religious counterparts--feelings attributable to the affinity between blacks and Jews during the civil rights struggle and shared spiritual experiences that include affinity for the biblical book Exodus. Locke's arguments deserve much consideration