A “new and mature partnership between Blacks and Jews is being forged at the local level, far from the harsh and often divisive glare of national media attention,” Rabbi James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee told the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People meeting here last week.
Rudin, the AJC’s interreligious affairs director, said: “While the old coalition of the 1960s is over, Blacks and Jews in many American cities are today creating a new reality. Together they are actively engaged in many crucial issues, including human rights, quality education, economic opportunity, full and fair employment, and the countering of South African apartheid, political extremism, racism and anti-Semitism.”
The AJC leader, a founder of the national interreligious task force on Black-Jewish relations, cited the Black-Jewish coalitions in Atlanta and Washington as examples of the “new reality.” In both cities, Rudin said, the AJC and NAACP play key roles in “these constructive model programs.”
Rudin also praised the NAACP for its efforts in combatting all forms of racial and religious bigotry. “Whatever the issues … the extremism of Louis Farrakhan, the insensitivity of the Presidential visit to Bitburg, support for Soviet Jewry, solidarity with the State of Israel … the NAACP is always there extending its hand in friendship to the Jewish community,” said Rudin.
He added: “For too long extremists in both our communities have resorted to destructive rhetorical attacks and negative stereotypes, but Blacks and Jews deserve better. While as equal partners, we may disagree on some issues, we still remain prisoners of hope, and we still remain each other’s best allies in the continuing effort to achieve a free, open, and just American society.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
