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Negro-Jewish
Relations in America
If there is Anti-Semitism among Negroes, why
should we help their cause? asked several unthinking
friends of us. As though right and wrong is a matter
of self-interest, as though morality and ethics are
principles of reciprocity, the Civil Rights movement,
and it is erroneously used as though it was just dis
covered or created circa 1954, has revealed a new
arena of bias in human relations and it is well that
serious attention be given at this time to so impor
tant a field THE EDITOR
Suddenly, seemingly out of
nowhere, the problem of Negro
Anti-Semitism has burst like a
thunderstorm over the Ameri
can Jewish scene. Mirroring
the development is the fact
that the entire December issue
of Midstream, a magazine pub
lished by the Theodor Herzl
Foundation, New York, and
aimed at the Jewish intellectu
al community, has been de
voted to qi symposium on
“Negro-Jewish Relations in
America.”
It is not suggested that Jew
ish leadership was unaware of
the existence of Anti-Semitism
in Negro ghettoes like Harlem.
More than twenty years ago.
Commentary, newly launched
by the American Jewish Com
mittee, carried an article by
Professor Kenneth Clark, the
distinguished social psycholo
gist, himself a Negro, in which
tension between Negroes and
Jews was candidly discussed.
However, the proportions of
Negro hostility were not con
sidered then, nor in the next
ten or fifteen years, as justify
ing anxiety among Jewish
leaders, though closer exami
nation of the situation might
have led to a less optimistic
appraisal. The Negro’s strug
gle for economic, political and
social betterment acquired a
faster tempo and a new mili
tancy, especially after the his
toric Supreme Court decision
in 1954 put the weight of the
constitution behind the de
mand for integration. With
mounting insistence the Negro
pressed for realization of his
constantly rising expectations
in a society that proudly pro
claimed its democratic char
acter.
Jewish leaders saw in these
developments no menace to
the Jewish community. The
vast majority of Jews had
thrown itself whole-heartedly
into the Negro’s fight for equal
rights. To such an extent, in
deed, did many Jews identify
with the Negro’s cause that
they appeared to be demanding
something for themselves as
well as for the Negro. To such
an extent were Jewish emo
tions engaged that when the
Negro announced that he no
longer wished to share with
any white man the leadership
of his liberation movements,
the rejection struck Jewish
liberals with stunning impact.
The ordinary Jew, however,
was less concerned with actual
or threatened exclusion of
Jews and other whites from
participation in the Negro
civil rights movement than he
was with the growing number
of reports of Negro hostility.
There were stories that Jew-
ish-owned shops had been
singled out for attack during
the rioting, burning and looting
in Harlem, Philadelphia, Ro
chester and Watts. In New
York, Jews began to piece to
gether into a pattern of enmity
and violence reports of physic
al attacks by Negroes on
Jews—and threats of organized
assaults. A Jewish intellectual
urged that all Jews living in
Harlem be evacuated, and his
remarks were'prominently re
ported in the New York Times.
The cry of “black power,” first
used by the militant young
leader of SNCC, Stokely Car
michael, and then echoed and
re-echoed at scores of Negro
gatherings, began to be con
sidered in a more sinister con-
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