Bridging the Gap Between Blacks and Jews in America
Georgetown University professors Terrence Johnson and Jacques Berlinerblau co-teach a course that explores the long and complex relation between African Americans and Jewish Americans. Their years of research and teaching together resulted in the book Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue (Georgetown University Press). The work, which features long-form essays and numerous pieces in which the scholars interview one another, probes a variety of hot-button issues. These include Jewish racism, Black anti-semitism, Afro Judaism, the Black/Jewish Civil Rights Alliance of the 1960s, and the strains placed on these communities by the resurgence of White Christian Nationalism. All of these topics have been especially relevant in the past few weeks as voting rights in the United States come under assault and controversy engulfs ABC’s The View and its co-host Whoopi Goldberg. The following is an excerpt from their work which was released this week.
Terrence Johnson: Jacques, we’ve been teaching the Blacks and Jews in America course for five years running. What has surprised you the most about the class?
Jacques Berlinerblau: One of the most surprising things we’ve learned while teaching our Blacks and Jews in America course is that our students have no idea that our syllabus is about the relation between Blacks and Jews in America. Many thought it would consist of two separate components: a “Blacks” module and a “Jews” module. You know, that it would be like a general education (gen ed) requirement, a diversity requirement, or so on. They had no idea an actual relationship between these two peoples existed and stretched back throughout American history. What do you make of their lack of awareness of the lengthy and complex historical encounter between these two minority groups?