| Abstract |
"In this uniquely structured conversational work, which is based on a highly successful undergraduate class, two professors at Georgetown University-- one a scholar of African-American politics and religion, and one a scholar of contemporary American Jewish culture--endeavor to explain what seems to be a mystery: why aren't Blacks and Jews presently united in their efforts to combat white supremacy? The jarring chants in Charlottesville of "Jews/Blacks will not replace us!," as well as the eerily parallel massacres in houses of worship in Pittsburgh and Charleston, exposed the central targets of the radical Right's wrath. As so-called "Alt-Right" rhetoric increasingly normalizes itself in public life, the time would seem to be right for these one-time allies to rekindle the fires of the Civil Rights movement. The burden of this book is to explore why Blacks and Jews in this moment do not see each other as sharing a common enemy, let alone a political alliance. The book explores the relationship between Blacks and Jews in the US from a number of angles--the disintegration of the Civil Rights coalition of Blacks and Jews, Jews' changing perceptions of their whiteness, the perspective of Black and Jewish millennials, the debate over Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and the Israel/Palestine debate. Ultimately, this book hopes to change the narrative of Blacks and Jews in America which has been dominated by the Civil Rights Alliance between the two groups and its subsequent fracturing. The book shows that the relationship between Blacks and Jews has much deeper roots than the mid-twentieth century, and the authors intend that the book model the kind of honest and searching conversation which is necessary for Blacks and Jews to forge a new understanding. To further this aim, the book consists of a number of conversations between the authors, as well as interviews with Professor Susanna Heschel of Dartmouth and Professor Yvonne Chireau of Swarthmore College"-- Provided by publisher. |
