Points of Tension

African Americans and Jewish Americans have a long history of shared concerns. The message of deliverance in the Book of Exodus, for example, has always held a special appeal for African American Christians. In the early part of this century, Blacks and Jews worked together to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Black activists were joined by Jewish supporters on the front lines. The lives and deaths of James Chaney, an African American, and his Jewish colleagues, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner -- murdered by Mississippi Klansmen in 1964 -- starkly illustrate that bond.

In recent decades, however, members of both groups have observed that distrust and resistance are eroding this affinity. Political conflicts have grown more heated, and cultural alienation appears more prevalent. Most African Americans and Jews who have analyzed the relationship trace the perceived breakdown back through the same points of tension.

Some Jews assert that the Black Power movement of the mid-1960s, with its rejection of integration ideals, was an affront to Jewish involvement in the Civil Rights struggle. And when Black leaders voiced support for Palestinians around that same time, many Jews were further offended.

African American activists point to Israeli investment in South Africa during apartheid days as a sticking point. And some see the lack of Jewish American support for affirmative action since the 1960s as an example of how Jews stopped sharing their quest for equal economic opportunity.

More recently, one fractious figure has managed to polarize Black-Jewish relations. Many Jews and others have been alarmed by the anti-Semitic rhetoric of Louis Farrakhan and by the lack of a firm denunciation of him by other Black leaders.

Mark Gaines, one of the organizers of PEACE Birmingham, sees his group as an answer to those concerns. "The Jewish kids can say, 'Mark is Black and he doesn't act that way.' We allow a safe environment so they can talk about those issues and learn that not all African Americans are anti-Semitic or follow Farrakhan's teachings. They learn that you have to break away from assumptions."