It was a hot July day on the Jersey Shore in 1970. I was riding waves on my raft a few blocks from my house when I noticed smoke rising from the nearby city of Asbury Park. Being a curious kid, I hopped on my bike and pedaled to its source. Peering around patrol cars and fire engines into the impoverished black business district, I saw burned-out buildings and looted shops. The city’s reputation was marred, triggering a white exodus.
This riot was part of the great civil unrest sweeping the United States at the time. I knew little then about the pent-up frustrations of urban blacks or the complexities of race relations, but I was old enough to pick up on the ambivalence some Jews felt toward African-Americans. They carefully avoided driving through black parts of town, shook their heads at the mention of Black Power and privately used the Yiddish word schvartze. ?At the same time, they considered themselves staunch liberals and believed in legal, social and economic equality for African-Americans.
Much later I learned Jews had been among the civil rights movement’s strongest supporters and were numbered among the founders and main benefactors of the NAACP and other groups. That partnership between races, forged over the century, was severely tested during the tumult of the 1960s and 1970s. My personal education took place in Chicago. During the 1980s I lived in Hyde Park, then, as now, an integrated oasis on the city’s South Side, once heavily Jewish but then and now largely black.
As a young reporter, I regularly traversed the large swaths of the city that had been decimated by riots and wrote about poverty, crime and hopelessness. The Robert Taylor Homes, the giant housing project, awaited those who could no longer find jobs. Gangs proliferated. Inner city institutions, especially schools, were struggling to cope.
It was a time of larger-than-life African-American political personalities. I covered Jesse Jackson at the South Side headquarters of Operation Push, housed in a former synagogue left behind when Jews fled to the suburbs. I wrote about Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, another neighbor. My time in Chicago overlapped with that of the city’s first black mayor, the late Harold Washington, who lived down the street from me and whose steps I was regularly assigned to follow.
Now we have the nation’s first African-American president—whose home is in that very same Hyde Park—moving into the White House. To me, his election heralds a fresh chapter in Jewish and African-American relations, one written by a new generation of leaders. Barack Obama won the presidency with the support of Jews who held high leadership positions in his campaign and provided financial backing.
To commemorate this moment, when Jews and African-Americans have in some ways come full circle, this issue of Moment documents—through text and photographs—the last hundred years (1909-2009) of black and Jewish relations. We highlight Jews in the civil rights movement, some well known, others not, so that they—and the many, many others we have not been able to include—will not be forgotten. We end by focusing in on the Jewish men and women who stood behind Obama from the start, some of whom will be critical players in the new administration—people you will be hearing much about in the coming months and years.
These players are likely to make a sharp break with Bush Administration policy toward Syria. It’s expected that the U.S. will now support, even facilitate, discussions between Syria and Israel. In “Does Syria Matter?,” Moment asks eight veteran Syria-watchers—Tony Badran, Tom Dine, Martin Indyk, Joshua Landis, Moshe Ma’oz, Michael Oren, David Schenker and Andrew Tabler—for their opinions on whether peace talks can succeed.
On the religious front, we profile Tova Hartman, one of the founders of Shira Hadasha, a popular Jerusalem religious community that is stretching the boundaries of Orthodox Judaism. Culture mavens and classical music lovers will discover a lost trove of Russian Jewish art music, brought to American concert halls by Robyn and Charles Krauthammer.
Our columnists—Eric Alterman, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, David Frum, Naomi Ragen and Clifford D. May—are lively, as usual, reflecting on everything from Jewish social activism to the Israeli elections. The book section is stellar. Sherwin Nuland reviews Melvin Konner’s The Jewish Body, a fascinating look at Jewish thought on the subject and the influence of non-Jews on the Jewish self-image. Ari L. Goldman reviews Moment co-founder Elie Wiesel’s 50th book, A Mad Desire to Dance, and The New York Times’ Ethan Bronner discusses Martin Indyk’s memoir, Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East.
I hope you enjoy this intelligent blend of stories and reviews. It’s made possible by hard work and the fact that Moment is an independent, non-profit magazine dedicated to first-rate journalism. There aren’t many publications like ours in the publishing world and even fewer with a non-denominational, non-ideological Jewish outlook. You can support our work by making a contribution or buying a gift subscription for a friend at momentmag.com. Thank you for your continued support.
