The True Meaning of a Black-Jewish Dialogue (1996)

by Marcus Lewis

Since the mid-1980s, Black Americans and Jews have held a series of dialogues in various cities from Southern California to New England. Generally called by Jewish leaders, these meetings have taken place in cultural centers, businesses, churches and homes. The stated goal of these gatherings has been to increase mutual understanding and tolerance and thereby reduce bigotry, stereotypes and friction.

Since the Million Man March, which was held in Washington, DC., in October 1995, the number of Black-Jewish dialogues has increased. Most recently, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have been the sites of these gatherings.

In spite of this long-standing and laudable effort to overcome racism and “anti-Semitism,” there is a major flaw in these dialogues. A number of Blacks have visited holocaust museums, attended worship services and other meetings and left disappointed. Some have boldly voiced their concerns and been attacked as anti-Semitic. Others have thrown up their hands and walked away, vowing never again to waste their time on such “charades.”

The nature of a true dialogue fundamentally provides for the presentation of two sides. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in the meetings between Blacks and Jews. A classic example of this inequity took place in one of the workshops sponsored by the Alliance of Black and Jewish Clergy at the University of California at Los Angeles in the early 1990s. At that time a mild-mannered Black minister appeared on a panel with a representative from the ADL (Anti-Defamation League). The Black clergyman reaffirmed his commitment to an ongoing dialogue between Blacks and Jews, distanced himself from Blacks who espouse “anti-Semitic” views and presented a number of issues of concern to Black people (e.g., growing Jewish racism, Israeli support for South Africa, Jewish opposition to quotas, etc.). He was careful to stress that he did not share all of the concerns that he raised on behalf of Black people. His delivery was sincere and cordial, and nothing he said could be rationally construed as militant or radical by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, following the minister’s presentation, the representative from the ADL immediately rose and attacked the speech as “the most anti-Semitic presentation” he had ever heard. He then railed against the minister for inciting bigotry and anti-Semitism.

The Blacks in the audience were astounded. Many of them had viewed the minister as too moderate and frankly felt that his speech had been carefully prepared to avoid presenting issues that would be too sensitive for Jews. After attacking the minister, the ADL representative proceeded to voice a litany for standard Jewish complaints about Black “anti-Semitism.”

After that day-long conference, many Blacks compared notes and reached the same conclusion about the UCLA “dialogue” and other Jewish leaders who are not truly desirous of a dialogue: they are generally only interested in voicing their complaints, and then demanding an apology from the Black community.

This one-sided focus on Jewish grievances, while minimizing Black complaints against Jews, is now reflected in Common Quest magazine. Subtitled “The magazine of Black/Jewish Relations,” this new periodical is published three times a year by the American Jewish Committee and Howard University. If the first issue is a harbinger of things to come, then we can look forward to articles by Farrakhan-bashers, civil rights leaders who rely on Jewish financial aid, Black scholars whose careers and publications largely depend on Jewish favor and other Black apologists. None of the writers in the magazine dared to raise serious issues about Jewish racism against Black Americans.

Another example of the unequal dialogue between Blacks and Jews is the tendency of some Jews to stigmatize Black leaders whom they label anti-Semitic. Over the past decade, many Jewish leaders have demanded of prominent Blacks that they denounce, repudiate or apologize for the statements or actions of the following Black leaders: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Nelson Mandela, Tom Bradley, Jesse Jackson, Desmond Tutu, Al Sharpton, Leonard Jeffries, Tony Martin, Frances Cress Welsing, Yosef ben-Jochannan, John Henrik Clarke, Steve Cokely, Gus Savage and countless other highly respected people. In clear contrast to this, Jewish leaders have never called for the repudiation or condemnation of any prominent Jews who are anti-Black.

We believe that a dialogue should be a dialogue and not a one-sided diatribe. Therefore, we recommend to Black Americans across the nation that the following issues be raised with Jewish people whenever a dialogue or meeting is held between Blacks and Jews on race relations:

(1) Jewish leaders should stop focusing excessive attention on Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. Their obsession with him keeps Blacks on the defensive. and trivializes legitimate Black grievances against Jews.

Since the early 1980s, Jewish leaders have held Minister Louis Farrakhan up as an international pariah. They have vilified him in every forum of the mass media: they have demanded virtually all prominent Black Americans to repudiate him and they have made Farrakhan the focal point of most dialogues between African Americans and Jews.

It is time for this preoccupation with Minister Farrakhan to cease. This obsession serves to disarm Blacks, to put Blacks on the defensive; and to conveniently depict Jews as the innocent victims of the wrath of one Black leader and, by extension, the entire Black race.

(2) Jewish leaders should stop denying the dominant role Jews play in Hollywood. and should condemn Jewish journalists and producers who vilify and stereotype African Americans in the media.

Although Marlon Brando and Dolly Parton have apologized for airing their opinions about Jewish dominance in Hollywood, the truth can no longer be suppressed. Each year Entertainment Weekly and Premier Magazine publish a list of the most powerful and influential people in Tinsel Town. No matter how long the lists are (usually around one hundred people), the top twenty are always predominantly Jewish, and Jews are well represented on the remainder of the lists. …

Over the years, Jewish comedians like Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson and George Burns stereotyped Black Americans in blackface routines. Modern producers, such as Stephen Spielberg, Norman Lear, Mort Lochman, Ed Weinberger, Armyan Berstein, Tom Rosenberg and Mark Abraham have carried this tradition forward by degrading Black people in movies and sitcoms. …

This Jewish smear campaign against Blacks in the media—which has reinforced white America’s antipathy toward Blacks—can only be compared to Julius Streiker’s degradation of Jews in Die Sturmer in Nazi Germany. It is astonishing and ironic that Jewish leaders have failed to take any public stand against these flagrantly racist practices.

(3) Anti-Black talk show hosts must be exposed and censured by Jewish leaders for racist commentary.

The programs produced by Jewish television and radio talk show hosts provide another opportunity for Jewish leaders to take a stand against racism. Geraldo Rivera, Maury Povich, Sally Jesse Raphael, Rikki Lake and Jerry Springer are a few of the more prominent Jews on television who have built careers on shocking the American public with Black criminals, gang members, transvestites, drug abusers, unwed mothers, derelicts and the latest rumors about O.J. Simpson.

… The blatant anti-Black posture of Jewish television and radio talk show hosts has certainly not escaped the attention of Jewish leaders, yet not one of them has raised a public outcry about this terrible problem.

(4) Prominent newspaper ads must be published condemning Jewish scholars and scientists who espouse neo-Nazi theories regarding Black genetic inferiority.

On several occasions Jewish organizations have published expensive ads in respected newspapers revealing statements—classified by Jews as antisemitic—by Minister Louis Farrakhan, Dr. Khallid Muhammad, Dr. Leonard Jeffries and other Blacks. Never have any such ads been taken out to expose the virulent racism of prominent Jews. …

Other Jews, including Howard B. Abikoff of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Rachel Klein of the Long Island Medical Center and Columbia University, and Gail Wasserman, in the Department of Child Psychiatry at Columbia, are engaged in research that has the potential to link genetics to violence in inner-city Black and Latino children. Where are the newspaper ads? Where are the calls for repudiation? Where is the outrage?

(5) Africentric scholars must be granted an equal opportunity to present their perspectives on world history.

Public schools have long included the story of Anne Frank in their curricula and now routinely send students on field trips to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. This resulted from consistent Jewish lobbying regarding issues of importance to them. But, ironically, if the parents of Black students demand that their children be taught Black history, the first people in line to oppose them are often Jews. …

We demand that the unprovoked attacks against Black scholars by Jewish intellectuals cease today; and that the fascist denial of forums to Black scholars be exposed as an unprecedented compromise of the First Amendment in the American educational system and in the mainstream media. We also demand that the books, articles and tapes of Africans and Black Americans be made available to children of all ages in the public schools.

(6) The ADL must be publicly condemned for its long-term spy campaign against Black organizations.

The Hilltop newspaper at Howard, the nation’s largest Black university, ran an article exposing the fact that the ADL had conducted a spy campaign against a number of organizations for many years. Predictably, under Jewish pressure, a retraction was issued by the school administration, certain jobs were lost and the newspaper was shut down for the remainder of the semester. In spite of Jewish hysteria in response to the Howard article, the evidence against the ADL is clear and indisputable.

The San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Times and numerous other newspapers have documented the fact that for decades the ADL ran a private nationwide spy network—”a systematic, long-term, professionally organized political espionage operation complete with informers, infiltrators, money laundering, code names, wiretapping and secret meetings.” Newspapers have revealed that among the 950 organizations and 10,000 individuals that the ADL prepared files on were many Black groups, including the NAACP! …

As a pre-condition to any further “dialogue,” the ADL’s Stalinist tactics must be revealed and condemned.

(7) Jewish leaders must apologize to Black people for the invention of the “Curse of Ham” by Jewish Talmudic scholars.

… We believe that the Curse of Ham (which claims, among other things, that all Black people are forever destined to serve as the slaves of other races), the greatest albatross to ever encircle the neck of any people, is a myth for which Jews should apologize to Blacks. While space and time do not allow for a full explanation of this myth and its origins here, suffice it to say that the Curse of Ham was introduced to the world by Jewish scholars in the Babylonian Talmud over a thousand years before the trans-Atlantic slave-trade (which resulted in the deaths and enslavement of one hundred million Africans) began. Anyone who has studied early Jewish writings should be familiar with this awful stigma. According to Dr. Tony Martin, this “curse” provided “the moral pretext” upon which the entire slave-trade grew and flourished. This myth has also been responsible for the social inferiorization of generations of African people since the end of slavery.

If ever an apology were in order, this one, from Jews to Blacks, is long overdue. We would suggest to Jewish leaders that before they demand another apology from any Black leader in America or Africa, including Minister Louis Farrkahan, that they think long and hard about the Talmudic-conceived Curse of Ham. Not even Hitler’s evil deeds compare in magnitude to the genocidal legacy left by this myth of ancient Jewish origin.

In this dangerous time in American history when various militia and vigilante groups are arming themselves and their leaders are speaking of Black genocide, Black Americans, who claim to speak on our behalf, cannot afford to mince words with Jewish leaders. The time for fake dialogues has long passed. Many ugly issues exist and must be brought out into the open. We have raised some of them above but let us conclude with three more:

(1) Why have Jewish leaders remained silent about the wholesale discarding of blood donated by Black Jews in Israel?

(2) Why are Jewish leaders such vocal opponents of affirmative action when their people have been the recipients of well over $50 billion in aid from European countries as reparations for Jewish suffering during the holocaust, while Black Americans have received virtually nothing for slavery, racism and discrimination that we have endured for over 400 years in this country?

(3) Why are Jewish leaders ignoring the fact that many prominent Jews in the media and in academia are consciously scapegoating Blacks, before the American public, in the same degrading way that the Nazis treated Jews, before the German public—an assault which resulted in the holocaust?

Millions of Blacks—some of whom attend the Black-Jewish gatherings—share the views expressed in this manifesto, but dare not address them to Jews, lest they lose their jobs, social status, political career or, in some instances, even their lives.

Upon reading this statement, many Jews will dismiss its contents as anti-Semitic. This is quite understandable. After all, for years, the American media and major publishing houses have censored anything too sensitive for Jews to read; and, unfortunately, too many of them have come to view as real the mythical world that their own lobby has created. Nevertheless, if Jewish leaders are sincerely interested in talking with ordinary Black people (who are not in any way beholden to them), then, they had better prepare to hear the truth from Blacks in a real dialogue, rather than in the koshered monologues that some Jews are so fond of hosting.

Marcus Lewis is president of
National African Consensus
based in Los Angeles.