- Mar 11, 2015
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The relationship between blacks and white members of the Jewish community is complex.
And that needs to be recognized.
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And that needs to be recognized.
Blacks and Jews in America: History, Myths, and Realities
Jews in the Civil Rights Movement
How did the organized Jewish community become involved in the civil rights movement? As of the 1940s, it was not apparent that American Jews would make common cause with blacks. Indeed, this involvement exemplifies how the Jewish community makes a particular issue a priority for action.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the beginnings of the Jewish involvement in civil rights – specifically, in fair employment practices legislation – came not in the 1950s but a decade earlier, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802.3 Roosevelt thereby sought to avert a march on Washington threatened by union leader and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, who saw the expanding industrial base as a means to alleviate discrimination against black employment. Executive Order 8802 outlawed discrimination in defense industries (later expanded to include all federal contractors) and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to oversee enforcement.
Beset with serious employment discrimination against their own community, Jewish leaders saw their opportunity and in turn created the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations Concerned with Discrimination in the War Industries. This body, with its cumbersome name, was incorporated in 1944 in the newly formed National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC).4 Toward the end of the war, as conservatives threatened to abolish the FEPC – the one agency that gave teeth to Executive Order 8802 – Jewish groups became involved with the National Council for a Permanent FEPC, created by Randolph in 1943. It was this coalition that marked the beginning of what became known as the civil rights movement.
Jewish groups hardly expressed unanimous support in the 1940s for making common cause with blacks. At an early NCRAC plenary session, in a forum on “Relations with Negroes,” a vigorous debate took place on the wisdom of coalition-building with blacks. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, an American Jewish Congress and NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) leader, argued for continued involvement based on Jewish self-interest. His rationale, a rearticulation of the original reasons for Jewish involvement in the civil rights struggle, is key to understanding Jewish engagement in this area.
Jews were not involved in civil rights because they were liberals – which they were – or because it was the right thing to do – which it was. What motivated Jews, rather, was Jewish self-interest. Wise and other Jewish leaders understood that the struggle for minority rights strengthened the fiber of society and benefited all minorities, especially (at the time) Jews. The 1940s were a period of high anti-Semitism in America, when institutional discrimination against Jews in employment, education, and housing was still significant. Jewish reluctance to take the lead in the struggle reflected the fact that the Jewish community was insecure and defensive, and did not relish visibility. Courageous and far-sighted leaders such as Wise, however, realized that this timidity needed to be overcome, and eventually it was.5
The genesis of Jewish involvement in civil rights exemplifies a central principle of American Jewish life: Jews become involved in issues to the extent that they implicate Jewish security; communal self-interest is primary.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the beginnings of the Jewish involvement in civil rights – specifically, in fair employment practices legislation – came not in the 1950s but a decade earlier, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802.3 Roosevelt thereby sought to avert a march on Washington threatened by union leader and civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph, who saw the expanding industrial base as a means to alleviate discrimination against black employment. Executive Order 8802 outlawed discrimination in defense industries (later expanded to include all federal contractors) and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to oversee enforcement.
Beset with serious employment discrimination against their own community, Jewish leaders saw their opportunity and in turn created the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations Concerned with Discrimination in the War Industries. This body, with its cumbersome name, was incorporated in 1944 in the newly formed National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC).4 Toward the end of the war, as conservatives threatened to abolish the FEPC – the one agency that gave teeth to Executive Order 8802 – Jewish groups became involved with the National Council for a Permanent FEPC, created by Randolph in 1943. It was this coalition that marked the beginning of what became known as the civil rights movement.
Jewish groups hardly expressed unanimous support in the 1940s for making common cause with blacks. At an early NCRAC plenary session, in a forum on “Relations with Negroes,” a vigorous debate took place on the wisdom of coalition-building with blacks. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, an American Jewish Congress and NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) leader, argued for continued involvement based on Jewish self-interest. His rationale, a rearticulation of the original reasons for Jewish involvement in the civil rights struggle, is key to understanding Jewish engagement in this area.
Jews were not involved in civil rights because they were liberals – which they were – or because it was the right thing to do – which it was. What motivated Jews, rather, was Jewish self-interest. Wise and other Jewish leaders understood that the struggle for minority rights strengthened the fiber of society and benefited all minorities, especially (at the time) Jews. The 1940s were a period of high anti-Semitism in America, when institutional discrimination against Jews in employment, education, and housing was still significant. Jewish reluctance to take the lead in the struggle reflected the fact that the Jewish community was insecure and defensive, and did not relish visibility. Courageous and far-sighted leaders such as Wise, however, realized that this timidity needed to be overcome, and eventually it was.5
The genesis of Jewish involvement in civil rights exemplifies a central principle of American Jewish life: Jews become involved in issues to the extent that they implicate Jewish security; communal self-interest is primary.
Blacks and Jews in America: History, Myths, and Realities
Black-Jewish relations, while not a paramount concern for most American Jews in 2006, are a useful vehicle for exploring intergroup conflict. The history of Jewish involvement in the American civil rights movement is highly instructive in this regard.
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