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An uneasy alliance: Jews and Blacks in the United States, 1945–1953

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Notes

  1. The Black Panther, October 26, 1974, p 2

  2. Chicago Daily News, November 16, 1974, p 14

  3. Chicago Defender, May 18, 1946, p 15, May 25, 1946, p 15 The author of these articles. Earl Conrad, is white

  4. Ibid

  5. New York Amsterdam News, June 1, 1946, p 10

  6. Ibid

  7. Charles I Glicksburg,“The Negro and the Jew,” The Chicago Jewish Forum V (Summer 1947) 229

  8. Ibid

  9. Leonora E Berson,The Negroes and the Jews (New York Random House, 1971) p 96.

  10. Chicago Defender, November 6, 1948, p 7

  11. Morgen Zhurnal, Mormng Journal, December 13, 1945, p 5 hereafter, the termMorning Journal will be used rather diimMorgen Zhurnal, Carl Dreher, “Racism and America’s World Position The Potential Democratic Nationalism,”Commentary 4 (Aupist 1947) 164–69; Charles I. Glicksburg, “The Negro and the Jew,”The Chicago Jewish Forum 5 (Summer 1946): 229–33; Arthur Zuckerman, “The City College Student Serie and Academic Freedom,”The Reconstructionist 15 (May 13, 1949) 22–26, Rabbi Sidney J Jacobs, “Words and Music,” The Sentinel 166 (May 5, 1949) 32

  12. Chicago Defender, December 3, 1949, p 7 Walter White, who served as executive secretary of tlw NAACP from 1930 to 1955, was one of the most prominent black journalists in the United States

  13. Ibid, July 16, 1949, p 7 Willard Townsend, the article’s author, pointed out that ttie Soviets had made this clear by pnntmg in brackets the original Jewish names of the 49 who had adopted Russian surnames

  14. On February 19, 1949, Townsend had (declared ttiat the Soviet dictatorship was, in toto, no different from the Nazi one

  15. Jewish Courier, June 7, 1946, p l5,Jewish Independent, January 3, 1947, p4, Morning Journal, Apnl 11, 1950, p 4, Edward N Saveth, “Discrimination in the Colleges Dies Hard Progress Report on an Amencan Sore Spot,”Commentary 9 (February 1950) 115-21, “Editorials Are Medical Schools Admittung Enough StuAmts?”The Reconstructionist 15 (January 27, 1950) 6-8

  16. New York Amsterdam News, August 18, 1945, p 12-A

  17. Forward, December 23, 1948, p 4

  18. Ibid , November 10, 1949, p 4, January 22, 1949, p 4 At the end of 1951, theChicago Defender published a stinging editorial condemning the bombings of both synagogues and black project hornes in Miami Beach, FloridaChicago Defender, December 15, 1951, p 10

  19. Barbara Martm, “My Dark Sister,”Chicago Jewish Forum 10 (Fall 1951) 33-37

  20. Forward, August 21, 1951, p 4,Morning Journal, June 5, 1950, p 4

  21. Foward, April 17, 1950, p 4

  22. New York Amsterdam News, August 17, 1946, p 8

  23. That all Jewish-owned stores are closed on the High Holidays while all synagogues are open, wrote a journalist of theChicago Defender in 1946, “is a tribute to a people who were being lynched and persecuted way back when Blacks in Africa were kings and emperors ”Chicago Defender, September 24, 1946, p 6

  24. New York Amsterdam News, October 20, 1945, p 12 In 1952, the black poet and jounalist, Langston Hughes, complained that Jews, Italians, and other whites, but not Negroes, were involved in organized crime New York CityChicago Defender, August 2, 1952, p 10

  25. Forward, January 3, 1946, p 4 Shaya Grayson, author of these articles, noted that this group of wealthy blades, with imcomes much larger than those of physicians, dentists, aad other black professionals, consisted largely of gangsters, (dope pushers, and others mvolved in lllicit activities Moreover, the former group did not number more than 5,000 ot 6,000 among more than 350,000 blacks living in Chicago in 1946 Even thr few wealthy blacks were paupers in comparison to upper-class whites

  26. Ibid

  27. Ibid., May 17, 1951, p 4, January 8, 1952, p 4, Edwin R Ambree, “The ABC’s of Democracy,”The Sentinel 167 (September 22, 1949) 74-75

  28. Forward frequently published pictures aid articles about middle-class and wealthy blacks. Typical of these articles was one describing the life and work of novelist Frank YerbyForward, May 17, 1951, p 4

  29. Ibid , January 8, 1952, p 4 A similar article appeared inThe Sentinel, pointing out that, m 1862, less than five percent of the Negro population was literate By 1949, 90 to 95 percent of the black population was literate, in numbers equalling the total population of Canada More American blacks were studying in American colleges and universities than were Canadians in their universities Furthermore, the black death rate had declined by 50 percent in the years 1900-1949 Finally, the writer of this article urged Negroes to remember that Jews too are oppressed in the United States Edwin R Embree, “The ABC’s of Democracy “TheSetinel 167 (September 22, 1949). 75

  30. Chicago Defender, June 9, 1951, p 6

  31. New York Amsterdam News, Aprd 21, 1945, p 14-A

  32. Ibid

  33. Ibid Gardner suggested that blacks act directly on their own behalf, and not link themselves politically with any white ethnic group

  34. However, theNew York Amsterdam News never mentioned Jews by name in boycott editorials Furthermore, it censured a group of activits circulating pamphlets calling for the forcible ouster of all Jewish merchants from Harlem Ibid, October 30, 1948, p 15

  35. Forward, January 29, 1948, p. 4, February 3, 1948, p 4 Grayson even alleged that communist agitators were stirring up black Harlemites against storeowners 36 Leonard Dinnerstein and Mary Date Paleson, eds,Jews in the South(Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press, 1973), p 334

  36. Ibid, p 235, Cari Alpert, “A Jewish Problem in and Soudi,”The Reconstructionist 12 (March 22, 1946) 11

  37. The article, as cited in the previous footnote, appeared mThe Reconstructionist, the official publication of Reconstructionist Judaism Its author reported that some southern white Gentiles felt southern Jews to be quite sympathetic with Negroes, nothing their close economic ties At the same tune, Alpert wrote, blacks distrusted Jewish efforts to forge a (common political alliance 39 Mervin J Block, “KKK on the Rampage,”The Seentinel 177 (November 8, 1951) 14

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  38. Harry L Golden, “A Son of the South and Some Daughters Carolina Epistle with a Happy Ending,”Commentary 12 (November, 1951) 379–80 The statements in this letters centered around a project to erect a statue in honor of Judah P Benjamin in Charlotte, North Carolina

  39. Chicago Defender, May 4, 1946, p 15, May 5, 1951, p 6, June 2, 1951, p 6,New York Amsterdam News, April 28, 1945, p 10-A

  40. Chicago Defender, July 28, 1951, p 6.

  41. Ibid

  42. Philip Rieff, “Judaism and Democratic,”Chicago Jewish Forum 9 (Spring, 1951). 169

  43. Ibid Another Judaizing sect, the Chruch of God, Christian Workers for Fellowship, and a splnter group, The Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of Truth, maintained that Jeremiah, Job, Jesus, aad Moses’ wife were of Negroid racial stock, but did not assert that blacks were superior to whites

  44. bk]Morning Journal, September 14, 1951, p 4, Wolf Leslau, “The Black Jews of Ethiopia. An Expedition to the Falashas,”Commentary 7 (March 1949) 216–21

  45. Rita Hinden and Barnett Litvinoff, “The Dilemma That Racism Poses for Britain,”Commentary 12 (August 1951) 151–60, Henry Merrit, “Kenya, Africa,”Chicago Jewish Forum 11 (Summer, 1953) 236–37 Merrit reported the entire colonial world was in a state of upheaval and turmoil

  46. Morning Jounal, September 19, 1951, p 7, April 27, 1952, p 4

  47. Yohanan Botnitzski, “Jews m South Africa,”Di Zukunft 10 (December 1945) 765–67

  48. The Nationalists, opposing South African participation in World War II, sympathized with the Nazis and held similar anti-Semitic views Edgar Bernstein, “The South African Problem,”The Sentinel 165 (December 30, 1948) 37

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  49. In 1948, the 100,000 Jews of South Africa composed seven percent of its white population To attack them would divide the white community, and possibly antagonize world opinion T C Roberton, “Racism Comes to Power in South Africa The Threat of White Nationalism,”Commentary 6 (November 1948) 429

  50. E Bernstein, “South Africa Problem,” p 41

  51. Chicago Defender, November 23, 1946, p 15

  52. Ibid, June 12, 1948, p 14

  53. Ibid, April 5, 1947, p 5. Specifically, White charged that Prime Mmister Atlee, with the connivance of the American State Department, had parried President Truman’s proposal that 100,000 Jewish dispplaced persons be allowed to enter Palestine when the former suggested an Anglo-American commission be established to look into this matter This, White felt, was only a delaymg tactic (White’s information is based on a book by Bartley C Crum, former advisor to Wendell Wilkie.)

  54. Ibid

  55. Ibid, May 17, 1947, p 14,New York Amsterdam News, January 19, 1946, p 8

  56. New York Amsterdam News, August 9, 1947, p 8

  57. Chicago Defender, May 15, 1948, p 15

  58. Ibid Now, DuBois wrote, the Truman administration, like the British government, is retracting its promise to promote the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine

  59. New York Amsterdam News, May 11, 1946, p 10 The author of this article, A.M Wendell Malliet, wrote regularly for theNew York Amsterdam News and advocated what is now referred to as Third World ideology

  60. Ibid Earl Brown, another writer who wrote for theNew York Amsterdam News, took a less critical attitude towards Jewish immigration to Palestine On August 31, 1946, he wrote diat Great Britain and the United States should have absorbed Europe’s homeless Jews Since these two powers failed to do so, the displaced Jews of Europe should be allowed to settle in Palestine

  61. Ibid In January, 1946, Malliet reported that the Netherlands had earlier offered the resettle 30,000 Jews in Surinam Malliet expressed his opposition to this offer and Suggested that Jewish displaced persons be sent to Australia, Canada, Or some other “sparsely settled area ” Ibid, January 17, 1948, p 10

  62. Chicago Defender, August 5, 1950, p 6 Gertrude Martin who wrote the review of Willie Snow Ethridge’sGoing to Jerusalem, noted that Israel therby ignored a United Nations General Assembly resolution urging the Jewish state to compensate Arab refugees for lost property

  63. ibid Gertrude Martin wrote that Miss Ethridge went to Palestine with an open mind, “full of admiration for Israel and its accomplishments, but knowing little of the Arabs ” There she learned that Palestinian Arabs were an agricultural people “who for centuries have cultivated the same land,” only to be evicted from their ancestral homeland and forced to live as refugees under very difficult conditions 66 In July, 1948, Gertrude Martin praised the industry and devotion by which the Jewish people had modernized Palestine Ibid, July 31, 1948, p 15

  64. Ibid, June 23, 1945, p 15

  65. Ibid in the same article, Badger described the Arab League as an expression of the legitimate, nationalistic aspirations of the Arab people

  66. Ibid, February 2, 1946, p 15

  67. New York Amsterdam News, August 31, 1946, p 10 In this article, Brown emphatically stated that “the Jewish and Arab people [sic] in Palestine get along together quite well”

  68. Chicago Defender, November 24, 1945, p 15

  69. Ibid

  70. Ibid, September 4, 1948, p 15 On the eve of the establishment of the state of Israel, A Phillip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, urged the black community to support the United Nations’ plan for thr partition of PalestineNew York Amsterdam News, March 6, 1948, p 10

  71. Chicago Defender, September 4, 1948, p 15

  72. New York Amsterdam News, May 10, 1947, p 12

  73. Ibid, May 10, 1947, p 1 Rabbi Mithews claimed to be the representative for all black Jews in the United States, who, he said, number about 30,000 persons

  74. In the same article. Rabbi Mathews complained that the black Jews of the United States had “never been invited by any Zionist group to participate in the fight for Palestine”

  75. Chicago Defender, September 17, 1949, p 7, September 24, 1949, p 7

  76. Ibid, June 9, 1951, p 7

  77. Ibid

  78. On March 5, 1949, p 6, theDefender reported that Dr Ralph Bunche and his staff had finally obtained the consent “of the dark Arabs and fuzzy-haired Jews” to sign an armistice in Palestine

  79. The Chicago Defender took a more historically accurate point of view when It published several articles describing the Arabs as both friends and enemies of blacks On the one hand, they were the foremost dealers in African slaves (still, in 1948), but, on the other hand, were less color-conscious than the Europeans This was reflected in the honored place held by blacks in the Moslem religion and in Arab cultture Ibid, October 16, 1948, sec II, p 2, January 29, 1949, sec III, p 2

  80. New York Amsterdam News, Fibruary 23, 1946, p 8

  81. Leo Pfeffer, “Columbia’s Restricted Clieritele,”Jemsk Spectator XII (July 1946). 25 Pffeffer explained that Jewish students applied to Negro schools because Colombia and other northern universities limited the number of Jews who could enroll in their medical schools

  82. ChicagoDefender, March 5, 1949, p 6

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    David G. Singer

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Singer, D.G. An uneasy alliance: Jews and Blacks in the United States, 1945–1953. Cont Jewry 4, 35–50 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02965652

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