"The Blacks and The Jews": Dealing With the Narrative of Antagonism

Rabbi Bradd Boxman and his daughter Ashira demand justice for George Floyd’s murder at a Florida rally, June 2020 (The Sun Sentinel).

In the past six weeks, some prominent Black American figures have reproduced antisemitic canards. 

Comedian Nick Cannon and rapper Professor Griff, chatting on Cannon's podcast, claimed Jewish people control the media. Philadelphia Eagles football star DeSean Jackson shared a quote on his social media platform, falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler, that Jews “will blackmail America” and that “their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were”. Former pro basketball player Stephen Jackson wrote that the Jews “are the richest” and “control all the banks.” Both Jacksons proclaimed their admiration for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has a long, well-documented record of antisemitic rhetoric. 

The Black Lives Matter movement has been accused of antisemitism because the BLM-linked Movement for Black Lives took positions critical of Israeli and US policies towards Palestinians. The M4BL’s 2016 platform stated that the US “is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people”, that “Israel is an apartheid state”, and that the US has funded Israel’s “apartheid wall”. Some Jewish groups, like T’ruah, a nonprofit organisation of rabbis, stood with the grassroots movement to end racial injustice in the US while criticising the M4BL platform’s anti-Israel stance. Others, such as Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council, categorically rejected alignment with BLM for “isolating and demonizing Israel”. 

After backlash, Cannon and the Jacksons expressed their regret. “I must apologize to my Jewish Brothers and Sisters for putting them in such a painful position, which was never my intention, but I know this whole situation has hurt many people and together we will make it right,” Cannon wrote on his Facebook page. DeSean Jackson posted the message, “Hitler has caused terrible pain to Jewish people like the pain African-Americans have suffered. We should be together fighting anti-Semitism and racism. This was a mistake to post this and I truly apologize for posting it and sorry for any hurt I have caused.” 

The Anti-Defamation League has emphasized that the BLM is not responsible for position papers from associated groups such as the M4BL. BLM’s campaign and policy goalsdo not mention Israel, nor any other international issues. Instead, they focus on domestic matters including voting rights, criminal justice reform, economic justice and healthcare. The M4BL also joined five Jewish groups in a statement against antisemitism.

Nevertheless, damage has been done. News outlets published articles declaring a conflict between "the Blacks" and "the Jews", with headlines such as“The Rise of Black Anti-Semitism”and “Black Anti-Semitism is a Very Big Problem.” Some tagged the entire BLM movement as antisemitic, “Why Black Lives Matter Protests are a Catalyst for Anti-Semitism”, or claimed “No Wonder Jewish Groups are Wary of BLM”.

A Problematic Narrative

The idea of tensions between "the Blacks" and "the Jews" has been part of American political culture for decades. In the summer of 2020, it has been elevated in the current debates on racial injustice in the US. 

But this old-new "debate" is problematic on many levels. 

First, the juxtaposition of "the Jews" and "the Blacks" leaves no place for those Black Americans who are part of the Jewish community. Black Jews may be either Jewish from birth or converts to Judaism. Many of them are of mixed heritage, having both non-Jewish Black and non-Black Jewish ancestors. 

While there are no exact numbers of Black Jews in the US, Alliance of Black Jews leader Robin Washington estimated in 1998 that they are 200,000 out of the estimated 5-6 million American Jewish population. A 2019 study found Jews of colour constitute between 12 and 15% of American Jews. It also discovered that younger Jews identify more as Jews of colour than older people do, meaning the future of American Jewry is expected to be racially more diverse.

Second, the behaviour of Black individuals, whether prominent or not, should not be treated as representative of a large and diverse community. The suspicion of antisemitism that non-Jewish Blacks in the US face today is a collectivist idea that puts responsibility for Black Americans' behaviour, even if they are not involved, on particular actors. When politicians and journalists demand that the “African American community must stand with Jews against wave of assaults”, ask “Where are African-American leaders condemning antisemitism“, or appeal directly to Black non-governmental organisations to condemn antisemitism, they — wittingly or unwittingly — engage in an association fallacy. 

Not even the existence of Black organisations which promote an explicitly antisemitic agenda, such as some sects of the Black Hebrew Israelites, should justify suspicion against Black Americans. Such antisemitic groups are so marginal that 62% of African Americans are not familiar with their teachings, as a 2019 LifeWay survey established.

Third, studies confirm that African Americans care deeply about antisemitism. A 2018 survey by the PRRI polling firm found fewer than 31% of religiously unaffiliated Americans, 29% of Catholics, 28% of white mainline Protestant and merely 20% of white evangelical Protestants believe that Jewish Americans experience a lot of discrimination. The same survey found that 44% of Black Protestants hold that belief.

Black Americans hold a more positive than negative image of the State of Israel with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the 2019 LifeWay survey, 42% of African Americans have a positive perception of the country and 27% have a negative opinion. More than half said that they support Israel’s statehood, while only 18% disagreed.

Resisting Divide and Rule 

Finally, the focus on a "Black-Jewish animosity" distracts from the deadly threat coming from the far right. Since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, antisemitic hate crime has been on the rise in the US. Almost three-quarters (73%) of American Jews feel less secure since Trump took power. A majority (59%) think he is at least partially responsible for targeted attacks on synagogues, such as the shootings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October, 2018 and Poway, California in April 2019, and 38% believe he is encouraging violent far-right extremists. More than 70% disapprove of Trump’s handling of antisemitism, as he notoriously defended the white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us” at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and endorsed the QAnon movement, an online far-right collective promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

 The antisemitic attacks are part of a surge in reported hate crimes across the US since January 2017, with the sharpest increases in counties which voted for Trump by the widest margins. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric throughout the campaign was validated by his election for perpetrators.

A narrative that constructs non-Jewish Blacks and Jews as "enemies" follows the ancient strategy of "divide and rule", breaking up potential opposition. The idea of an essential "Black-Jewish" animosity instrumentalises the groups, traditional Democratic voting blocs, against each other. 

Instead of reproducing this notion of conflict, activists should pursue a joint coalition against hate crimes in the US. Antisemitism and racism are real, and they should be nonetheless challenged together. At the moment of a far right targeting Blacks and Jews alike, this is the time for non-Jewish Black and Jewish alliances.

Armin Langer is a doctoral student in sociology at the Humboldt University of Berlin and a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.