Thoughtful Night: Can Alliance of Blacks and Jews Cross Barriers?

By CHRIS BURRELL

Is George W. Bush's brand of conservatism so reprehensible
that it could create a new alliance between America's blacks and
Jews? Or is the economic gap between the two groups simply too great to
allow them to find common ground?

These were some of the questions left hanging in the air after a
provocative Wednesday night in Vineyard Haven at the Martha's
Vineyard Hebrew Center, part of the summer institute series, this one
headlined by two heavy-hitters - Julian Bond, NAACP chairman and
civil rights hero, and Rabbi David Saperstein, a leader in Reform
Judaism who also teaches at Georgetown Law School.

What made this week's event particularly interesting is that
the audience, to some extent, mirrored the topic.

It's doubtful that there was much of an economic differential
in this Vineyard summer crowd, but there they were, more than 300
people, a mix of Jews and blacks sitting together. It was remarkable
also because the Island intellectual circuit so often remains segregated
along racial lines.

Last year's high-powered legal panel on the issue of
reparations for African Americans - held at Union Chapel in Oak
Bluffs - was attended largely by blacks. And the Hebrew Center
series - whose topics range over health care, feminism, globalism
and the media - draws a mostly white audience.

Wednesday night's audience was different. What they heard was
a history lesson, mixed with some present-day politics and preaching. In
any case, this was no debate. Mr. Saperstein and Mr. Bond stood right on
the same page even if their deliveries were distinct.

But it was the rabbi who sounded the alarm and tried to incite a
sense of urgency.

"We feel a great distance has grown up between us," he
told the crowd. "Social interactions are all too rare. There are
not many occasions where blacks are inviting Jews into their homes or
where Jews are inviting blacks. We are not forging relationships that
stand the test of time. Our interests are not always congruent."

The observation that African American and Jews have drifted apart
might not be as big a deal if it weren't for their shared history
- a history of pain, discrimination and slavery.

Mr. Bond and Mr. Saperstein returned to that theme repeatedly
throughout the night, stressing the similarities between Jews and blacks
and emphasizing their collaboration in the civil rights movement.

"In 1964, blacks and Jews died in a common grave in
Mississippi," said Mr. Bond. He solemnly repeated those names
- Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner - and then quickly rattled
off names of other Jews who were critical to the civil rights effort as
early as 1950.

He cited Jewish philanthropy that supported education for blacks,
$22 million handed out to predominantly black colleges between 1917 and
1948, the Julius Rosenwald fellowships granted to W.E.B. DuBois, Ralph
Ellison, Langston Hughes, Gordon Parks and Ralph Bunche.

But despite the emphasis on history, the achievements of the past
and a hall of fame filled with Jews and blacks working side by side,
both speakers agreed the real challenge lies in the present.

Again, the two men searched for the common ground shared by Jews and
blacks in today's world.

"We are both victims and objects of disdain," said Mr.
Bond. One bit of proof he offered up was a recent poll that asked
Americans about their perceptions of minorities.

The results? People polled thought 18 per cent of Americans were
Jewish when the real figure is three per cent. They thought Hispanics
accounted for 21 per cent of the total population when the real number
is 12 per cent. And they were convinced that 32 per cent of America is
black when in fact they only make up 12 per cent.

"The imaginary perception of minorities is that blacks and
Hispanics are lazier and less patriotic and that Jews are only a little
better," said Mr. Bond.

But if bigotry has lumped Jews and blacks into roughly the same camp
and their strong history from the 1960s has given them a shared
heritage, then what explains the flashpoints of tension between the two
groups?

Mr. Saperstein blamed the media for making things worse. ‘The
media bears responsibility for fanning the flames," he said.
"For 20 years, the media has had an obsession with black-Jewish
tensions. And the more one looks at a distortion, the more it becomes
reality."

But the rabbi didn't try to pretend that tensions don't
exist. Neither he nor Mr. Bond could ignore the economic factor, the
fact that Jews have reached a higher rung than blacks.

The legacy is a relationship viewed across an economic divide: black
tenant and Jewish landlord or a white housewife and the black servant.
Mr. Bond quoted from the novelist James Baldwin, who said that
"blacks and Jews dare not trust each other."

Heated debates over school desegregation and affirmative action,
said Mr. Bond, "tore further at the web connecting blacks and
Jews."

Other events exacerbated the relations. Rabbi Saperstein alluded to
extremist Jews who advocated racism against blacks. He acknowledged the
anti-Semitic rhetoric of Louis Farrakhan and the
"hymie-town" comment made by The Rev. Jesse Jackson.

But his prescription for improving relations went beyond the
headlines.

"We must be prepared to engage in honest soul-searching and
sharing," said Mr. Saperstein, advocating an attitude of empathy.

"Too many Jews fail to appreciate affirmative action, to know
that one in three black children is growing up in poverty, to understand
that the sympathy for Farrakhan has little to do with Jews," he
said.

Conversely, he added, blacks need to understand the soul of the Jew,
only one generation removed from Auschwitz. "We feel vulnerable
and marginal," he said. "The pogroms were white. The
architects, Hitler and Mengel, were white. We, too, are white, but we
are different."

The rabbi urged blacks and whites to denounce extremists on either
side who seek to widen the divide. "If we remain silent in the
face of hate, we legitimize the hate," he said.

Mr. Saperstein said blacks and Jews have banded together politically
over a variety of issues - electing black mayors in cities and
fighting for reforms and improvements to the vote-counting system in
Florida.

Both Mr. Bond and Mr. Saperstein quickly turned to the Bush
administration as a common enemy, threatening the social advances made
by both Jews and blacks.

"We stand together at an extraordinary moment … that
could unravel 80 years of social justice achievement for the poor, the
ill, the elderly," said the rabbi.

Mr. Bond expressed his fears about the President's plan to
appoint extreme conservatives as lifetime judges in federal courts.
"It's a concentrated assault on the judiciary. Never have I
seen so many candidates in the ideological extreme put forward,"
he said.

At times, Mr. Bond punctuated his lecturing with a joke in order to
drive home a message. "We're helping the Iraqis build a
government," he said. "I heard a suggestion that we could
give them our Constitution, because we're not using it."

In the end, both men urged the audience to take action, to repair
the relations between blacks and Jews. No minority is safe when one if
threatened, said the rabbi. "We blacks and Jews," he said,
"our fates are tied up together."