B’nai B’rith Executive Says Black Extremists Use Anti-semitism to Gain Following

Rabbi Jay Kufman, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, today accused Negro extremists of using anti-Semitism as a “conscious and cynical deceit” to win a following in the black ghetto. He said “effective counter-action” to the rise in anti-Jewish sentiment “must come from within the Negro community itself.” adding, the white community, while “offering aid when requested or when mutually agreed upon, can only play a secondary role.”

Addressing B’nai B’rith’s board of governors, Rabbi Kaufman charged that Negro extremists are exploiting anti-Semitism to “cloak the emptiness of their solutions to real ills and to gain support” in black ghettoes. “Unable to offer any constructive program to mitigate the suffering among deprived Negroes, they offer them the jobs Jews have attained through training, labor, proficiency and seniority.” he said. “It is a cheap and larcenous scheme.”

In calling for a “vigorous campaign of Negro counter-action to black anti-Semitism.” Rabbi Kaufman said it was deplorable that while the vast majority of Negroes may not accept extremists’ views, “little has been done to resist the infection.” “The problem.” he added, “is that quiescent acceptance of anti-Semitism in the Negro community is regarded as a fact of life–realistic if not legitimate.”