Jews Over Blacks Quotes from Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1993. Ginsberg, a prominent Jewish intellectual, is Professor of Political Science at John Hopkins University.
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Peter Myers +61-2-62475187, mailto:myers@cyberone.com.au; bold emphasis added, footnotes omitted. Update December 8, 2002.
[p. 145] 4 Blacks and Jews: Anti-Semitism and Interdependence
... the very success of a regime linked to Jews may make it possible for the Jews' allies to dispense with them. In the USSR, for example, it was only after Communist rule was firmly established that non-Jewish Bolsheviks were secure enough to seek to expand their own power in the governmental process by purging Jews from positions of leadership in both the Communist party and the Soviet state. Thus ... anti-Semitism can also emerge as a weapon in factional struggles between Jews and their nominal political allies. In the United States ... the development of an anti-Semitic politics within some segments of the African-American populace and political leadership over the past two decades represents another variation on this general theme.
From Cooperation to Conflict
During the 1950s and 1960s, Jews and African Americans were closely allied in the civil rights movement, and, indeed, Jews played a prominent role in the leadership of most, if not all, of the major civil rights organizations. As noted earlier, Stanley Levinson, a Jewish attorney, was Dr. Martin Luther King's chief advisor. Kivie Kaplan, a retired Jewish businessman from Boston, served as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was, as well, one of Dr. King's major fund-raisers and financial contributors. Marvin Rich, another Jewish attorney, was the chief fund-raiser and key speech writer for James Farmer, head
[p. 146] ... More than half the white lawyers who made their services available to civil rights demonstrators in the South were Jews. Between half and three-quarters of the contributors to civil rights organizations - including the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), CORE, and Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Con- ference (SCLC) - were Jews. More than half the white freedom riders were Jews. Almost two-thirds of the whites who went into the South during the Freedom Summer of 1964 were Jews including, of course, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman who, along with their black colleague James Chaney, were murdered by racist thugs in Mississippi.
Jewish intellectuals and the journals of opinion that they controlled, including Commentary, spoke out forcefully on issues of civil rights. Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League provided financial, legal, and organizational support for civil rights groups.
In the civil rights struggle, Jewish morality and Jewish interests pointed in the same direction. Morality dictated that Jews support the efforts of African Americans to free themselves from the apartheid system. To a generation of liberal Jews this was a supreme moral imperative. At the same time, however, many Jews and Jewish organizations, in particular, also recognized that they had an interest in supporting the civil rights movement. First, the goal of a society in which discrimination based on race was outlawed served the interests of Jews as much as - perhaps even more than - blacks. In the absence of discriminatory legislation and practices in such areas as education and employment, Jews had every reason to believe that they could compete successfully and rise to the very top of American society. By supporting African Americans in the cause of civil rights, Jews were eliminating the barriers that stood in their own way as well
Moreover, the political forces that the civil rights movement was attacking were forces in American society that were also enemies of the Jews. Jews were aligned with the liberal, New Deal wing of the Democratic party, and the civil rights movement attacked and sought to discredit the conservative Southern wing of the party - a group
[p. 147] that had been associated with the anti-Communist and anti-Semitic campaigns of the 1950s. Through participation in the civil rights movement, Jews were striking a blow against their own foes in the Democratic coalition as much as against the enemies of blacks. ...
[p. 149] ... just as a necessary condition for Stalinist anti-Semitism was the success of the Bolshevik revolution, the political backdrop for contemporary black anti-Semitism was the success of the earlier black-Jewish alliance in the civil rights movement and in Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. The civil rights movement led to the enfranchisement of millions of black voters. The Great Society resulted in the construction or expansion of major domestic social programs and agencies which presently provide a multitude of services to the African-American community.
As a result of these two developments, the Democratic party came to be both electorally and institutionally dependent upon blacks. First, blacks came to account for nearly one-fourth of the votes cast for Democratic candidates in national elections and one-third or
[p. 150] more of the votes received by Democrats in statewide races in a number of Southern states. Not only do the overwhelming proportion of African-American voters support the Democrats, but the civil rights policies with which the Democrats were associated drove sizable numbers of whites from the party, making it all the more dependent upon the support of blacks.
[p. 151] ... The growing electoral and institutional importance of African Americans to the Democratic party made anti-Semitism both useful and possible as a political tactic for some black politicians. First, as early as the late 1960s, the increased electoral weight of African Americans in the Democratic coalition encouraged black politicians to seek more influence within the Democratic party ... Very often these endeavors led to struggles between blacks and other groups in the Democratic coalition. Given the especially impor-
[p. 152] tant role played by Jews in the institutions of the domestic state - federal agencies, municipal service bureaucracies, universities, and the like - it was virtually a given that animosities would develop between African Americans and Jews ... the new ambitions of African Americans inevitably put them into conflict with the established interests of Jews.
Second, ... ambitious young African-American politicians... were eager to supplant existing black notables and assume positions of leadership within the black community. A number of younger black politicians found anti- Semitic rhetoric to be a weapon that could be usefully wielded against the black establishment. In a variety of different contexts, insurgent forces within the African-American community charged that incumbent leaders were the paid puppets of whites - of Jews, in particular. Precisely because established black leaders had worked closely with Jews in the civil rights movement, and often were dependent upon Jewish funding, they were quite vulnerable to this charge.
... Jews not only staff domestic social agencies but are ... extremely active in the public interest groups, think tanks, consulting firms, and universities that develop the domestic state's policies and are funded by its grants.
Given this stake, Jews cannot afford to engage in or tolerate political tactics or public rhetoric that seriously threaten to discredit blacks. This is one of the major reasons that Jewish racism, often expressed
[p. 153] privately, seldom manifests itself publicly. African Americans are simply too important to the legitimacy of the American domestic state. If Jews engage in attacks on blacks, or permit doubts to be raised about the merits of their political claims, then Jews are, in effect, undermining a major moral prop supporting the institutions from which they, themselves, derive enormous benefits and through which they exercise considerable power ... in a number of institutional contexts African Americans and Jews have been pitted against one
[p. 154] another in competition for jobs, access to education, and control of public institutions and funds. ... especially true in urban service bureaucracies and in universities where blacks are seeking positions presently held by Jews ...
In their struggles against the Jews, organizations of black teachers and their allies made frequent use of anti-Semitic slogans, pamphlets, and epithets designed to frighten and intimidate Jewish teachers and principals and to encourage them to give up their positions - often in poor black neighborhoods where they already felt threatened and vulnerable. As early as the 1960s, groups like the Afro-American Teacher's Association, an organization formed in 1964 to represent black teachers in Brooklyn, asserted, "We are witnessing today in New York City a phenomenon that spells death for the minds and souls of our black children. It is the systematic coming of age of the Jews who dominate and control the educational bureaucracy of the New York public school system . . . In short, our children are being mentally poisoned." ...
[p. 155] ... The majority of the existing principals and teachers in Ocean Hill- Brownsville were Jews.
[p. 157]... Since 1968, the percentage of New York City teaching posts held by Jews has declined from nearly 70% to less than 50%. At the same time, the percentage of New York's teachers who are black or Hispanic has increased substantially. In 1991, under an early retirement plan developed by New York Schools Chancellor, Joseph A. Femandez, 221 of the city's approximately 1,000 school principals retired from their positions. Three-fourths of the retirees were white, and most of these were Jews. Among their replacements, roughly half were black or Hispanic. This has helped to continue the increase in minority principals, who now constitute 30% of all the city's principals. This increase has come mainly at the expense of Jews.
[p. 166] Jews were critically important to blacks when few other whites would help them. This dependence upon Jews, however, made established black politicians vulnerable to attack by insurgent black political forces who could use anti-Semitic appeals as a way of charging that established blacks had sold out to whites and could not be trusted.
The first major black politicians to successfully use this strategy were Malcolm X in the North, and Stokely Carmichael, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in the South. The Chicago-based Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims as they were often called, led by Elijah Mohammed, began to attract national publicity during the middle and late 1960s. In contrast to the message of established black organizations that emphasized integration and coalition building with whites, Mohammed argued for black separatism and against collaboration with those he dismissed as "white devils." ...
Indeed, to this day black members of Congress are among the most reliable supporters of aid for Israel and opponents of aid for Israel's enemies on Capitol Hill. For example, in 1981, sixteen of the seventeen black congressmen voted against the Reagan administration's sale of the AWACS airborne control system to Saudi Arabia - a sale bitterly opposed by pro-Israel groups. This black backing is, to a considerable extent, purchased by Jewish campaign contributions and some assistance on issues important to blacks, such as the anti-apartheid campaign. Most black congressmen, however, insist upon keeping a low profile for their help for the Jewish state. Seldom, for example, will a black member of Congress publicly accept an award from an American Jewish organization or allow a Jewish organization to hold the customary testimonial dinner to honor him for his
[p. 167] support for Israel. Most members of the black congressional delegation fear that a Zionist award would be politically damaging.
By attacking Israel, Malcom X was underscoring the difference between himself and these ''kept" black politicians forced to perform obeisance to a white group in exchange for its support. Thus, in one speech, Malcolm declared, ~'The Jews with the help of Christians in America and Europe, drove our Muslim brothers out of their homeland, where they had been settled for centuries and took over the land for themselves. This every Muslim resents . . . In America, the Jews sap the very life-blood of the so-called Negroes to maintain the state of Israel, its armies, and its continued aggression against our brothers in the East. This every Black Man resents." In another speech Malcolm dismissed a question about the Holocaust by criticizing those who became "wet-eyed over a bunch of Jews who brought it on themselves."
By attacking Israel and the Jews Malcolm was, in effect, attacking his more established rivals for power within the black community who were closely tied to Jewish contributors and who were, as a result, forced to maintain a supportive posture toward Israel. This was now excoriated by Malcolm as behavior utterly inappropriate for a true leader of the African-American people.
This same tactic was used subsequently and for similar reasons by Malcolm's successor, Louis Farrakhan ...
[p. 168] Muslims even went so far as to walk into SNCC field offices in the South to intimidate the Jewish workers who almost inevitably formed a significant portion of the staff, and to embarrass their black coworkers for relying upon the leadership of Jews.
[p. 169] The aggressive anti-Semitism of organizations like SNCC, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers represented a serious threat to more mainstream black organizations and politicians. Groups like the SCLC and the NAACP relied very heavily upon Jewish contributors and supporters. This reliance, however, made them vulnerable to charges of insufficient militancy and undue dependence upon whites, especially Jews - charges that have considerable basis in reality. For example, for years the leaders of established black organizations signed Bayard Rustin's annual Black Americans in Support of Israel Committee (BASIC) statement.
[p. 176] The Reverend Ben Chavis, executive director of the Commission on Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ, urged blacks to show solidarity with Palestinians. In a similar vein, the Reverend Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, attacked New York Mayor David Dinkins for visiting Israel during the [Gulf] war. Butts accused Dinkins of being more concerned with Jewish voters than with his own community. Congressman Charles Rangel, who accompanied Dinkins to Israel, was forced to end his speech at a Harlem antiwar rally prematurely after he was jeered for defending Israel. Both Dinkins and Rangel, it should be noted, were strong critics of the war.
This sense of identification with the Third World is reinforced by the benefits that blacks can obtain from a Third World alliance. While Third World forces can offer little material help to American blacks, they can offer them a sense of power and association with the world's majority, as well as status and legitimacy on the international scene as representatives of anticolonialist and anti-imperialist groups in the United States. As Jim Sleeper has observed, some blacks are drawn to the international left, "not least for the very non-nationalist reason that here, at last, they find whites who treat them as people of importance."
Delegations of American blacks attend international conferences, visit Third World capitals, and so forth. In these contexts, opposition to Israel and Zionism is universal. Very often African Americans participate in the drafting of resolutions condemning what are presented as the morally equivalent evils of racism, imperialism, Zionism, and apartheid. Generally, Middle-Eastern delegations expect Africans and black Americans to support resolutions in opposition to Zionism in exchange for their support for resolutions opposing apartheid. ... relationships between American blacks and Israel's enemies inevitably have domestic repercussions leading to con-
[p. 177] flicts between Jews and blacks in the United States. For example, in 1977, Andrew Young, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and, at that time, the highest ranking black official in the Carter administration, held an unauthorized meeting with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). After vigorous protests by American Jewish organizations, Carter fired Young for violating U.S. policy which forbade such meetings with PLO officials.
In retaliation for the role played by Jews in Young's ouster, a number of black leaders traveled to the Middle east to hold friendly meetings and discussions with Israel's Arab enemies. ...
Harold Cruse, a black Communist, described this situation in his well-known 1967 work, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. Jewish Communists, said Cruse, felt compelled to ensure their complete political and ideological power over their Negro allies. To this end, according to Cruse, Jewish Communists sought to dominate the field of "Negro studies" and made certain that Jews always held the top Communist party posts in the black community. ... Indeed, many American-Jewish leftists are eager to distinguish themselves from "Zionists" and to pretend that anti-Zionism is actually different from anti-Semitism. This fiction can be useful for both black and Jewish radicals. To the extent that blacks attack Zionists rather than Jews, they have an opportunity to build alliances with Jewish leftists which may, under some conditions, be useful. By the
[p. 178] same token, to the extent that Zionists rather than Jews are defined as the enemy, Jewish leftists can maintain their own political credentials and sense of solidarity with the oppressed by joining in the denunciation of Israel and its supporters.
The maintenance of these political credentials is so important to some left-wing Jews that they will go to extraordinary lengths to distinguish themselves from the "fiendish" Zionists. {end quotes}
More on this topic: The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews
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