Caleb Amilicar; Review: The Jewish Onslaught, by Prof. Tony Martin
TEI Book Analysis: The Jewish Onslaught
The Jewish Onslaught by Professor Tony Martin, Copyright 1993 by The Majority Press
By Caleb Amilicar
Professor Tony Martin has taught at Wellesley College in Massachusetts since 1973. He was tenured in 1975 and has been a full professor of Africana Studies since 1979. He is among the most respected scholars in Black academia.
Martin has published numerous works dealing with the study and analysis of the ideology, philosophy and organization of the UNIA, founded by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. He has catalogued a tremendous body of research in published works on Pan-Africanism and Blacks in the African Diaspora and is considered an expert on Pre-Colonial Africa.
The Hillel Student Union—ostensibly the student operatives of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith — initiated a campaign filled with character assassination, half-truths and outright lies in an attempt to have Professor Tony Martin removed from his tenured professorship at the elite and prestigious women’s college.
If you are scarcely acquainted with the controversy surrounding Professor Tony Martin, and others at the forefront of scholarship and research, then The Jewish Onslaught is definitely worth reading.
This book is far from just another self-serving discourse written by a professor attempting to clear his name. Undoubtedly, you have seen these types of writings by “controversial” professors, and later found it simply to be a ruse employed to create interest an obscure and independently generated opinion based hoping to gain notoriety to increase book sales and speaking engagements.
You might ask why the enemies of free speech targeted Professor Martin with their operatives on the campus of Wellesley College. While it does not take much for the reactionary Zionist elements to become offended and hurl phantom, cosmic and specious claims of anti-Semitism, they were most incensed by the fact that Professor Martin included the well-researched and highly influential book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume One in a list of recommended readings for his class on African American History. The book was compiled by students and scholars from the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam from the writings of Jewish rabbinical scholars, Jewish journals, Jewish port records and wills of slave owners detailing the admitted involvement of Jews in the transatlantic African slave trade.
The Hillel students were not enrolled in Professor Martin’s class however sat in on a portion of his class and spied. Then found willing assistance from the media to launch a scurrilous and defamatory attack not only on Professor Martin but indirectly, on Black academia and scholarly research from sources from outside of the perceived mainstream.
For one uninitiated in the devious tactics of these types of organizations, this may be surprising, however it is a particularly troubling fact, for if this is one time when they allowed their intentions to be made known by running to the media to use it for their own ends, how many times have they sat in classes unobserved, while gathering information on students, professors, and student organizations with whom they disagree?
The content of Martin’s book is well organized and effective in chronicling the battle to maintain control of Afrocentric research and scholarship.
With alacrity and insight, Professor Martin points out not only the arrogance of members of the Jewish community in thinking that they have the right to determine what a tenured professor should or should not use as a part of the educational process that he is in charge of, but the boldness with which they operate, aided by the major radio, television and newspaper outlets.
Professor Martin even takes some time out to scold Mary Lefkowitz, who is a well-known enemy of free-thought and expression and has challenged the research findings of several Afrocentric scholars. Professor Martin respectfully points out her errors in dealing with areas of this vital subject.
On pages 62 and 63, Professor Martin showed how the well-respected scholar, Ms. Lefkowitz, publicly embarrassed herself by neglecting to check the references provided by some of his students in challenging an article she had written in the New Republic. Martin pointed out in Ms. Lefkowitz— and identified a point found with many respected scholars of the day, that there seems to be an “unfounded assumption of Jewish intellectual superiority over those she considered Afrocentric and therefore academically lightweight.”
In chapter 5, he delivers information regarding the ADL San Francisco spy scandal in which they acknowledged guilt in spying on perceived enemies, and the leaders of other Jewish organizations with whom they disagree. Additionally, this spying points to collusion with the government of South Africa and police departments across the United States.
Given the state of affairs, and the brutality of the secret police in South Africa under apartheid, it would not be a stretch to state that some of this information gathering may have resulted in imprisonment and/or physical harm being inflicted upon individuals and families who were opposed to such oppression.
In Chapter 8, The Conclusion, Professor Martin expresses hope that meaningful dialogue will come out of introducing these topics for the public to engage in intelligent debate, and if need be, respectful argument. He writes:
And perhaps somewhere out of all this will come the realization that the frenetic shrieking of organized Jewry that greets any legitimate difference of opinion—the lies, the distortions, the attempts to rob people of their good name and deprive them of a livelihood—will more than likely be counterproductive.
It is amazing that in their zeal to stifle free thinking and expression, attempts are made to prevent differing views from entering into public discourse. It is quite unusual that many Jews consider themselves experts on Black studies, while it would be perceived as absurd if one were to consider an individual from outside the Jewish community, as an expert in Jewish studies.
The book is not very long but it is insightful. Included as an added bonus is particularly attention grabbing correspondence from Martin’s supporters and enemies.
Broadside No.1, the first of a series also written by Mr. Martin provides an opportunity for the reader to place this particular controversy in the wider context of the assault on study and exploration by those deemed, unqualified, because they have emerged from outside the mainstream.
The Jewish Onslaught identifies the stratagem involved in conducting a well-orchestrated media attack on free thought. We have seen these tactics at work, and they remain pervasive. An observer might say that the aim and goal is to marginalize and discredit Afrocentrism and this may be true, however, the attack points to an overall pervasive and insidious strategy ultimately aimed at discrediting research challenging previously accepted versions of history.
The Truth Establishment Institute finds this particularly troubling and dangerous.
It is the position of the TEI that though some topics may be controversial and painful for some, the greater good of society is served by honest and frank discussion and uncovering of the truth.
If those who have assumed the position of thought repressors are allowed to continue to frame the debate on such vital issues, society collectively suffers, and a more equitable relationship between the families of man will become more and more difficult to achieve.
Caleb Amilicar is a Research Fellow at the Truth Establishment Institute.