Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin [Hardcover]

M. Lerner (Author), C. West (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1995

Examining the issues that have united Blacks and Jews in the past and now separate them, two long-time friends and leading intellectuals try to restore the special relationship between the two groups in a hard-hitting and worthwhile exchange.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The complex history and diverse voices of the relationship between American blacks and Jews necessarily mean that two individuals can't definitively represent hardly homogeneous groups. Thus, readers might best see these edited dialogues as an instructive introduction to the territory. West (Race Matters), who teaches Afro-American studies and religion at Harvard, and Lerner (Jewish Renewal), founder of Tikkun magazine, range from personal histories to current controversies. They disagree on topics like black criticism of Israel and the depth of black anti-Semitism, and they make some worthy points on topics like the symbolism of the Holocaust Museum and the current estrangement of the two groups. However, both men are of the left, and their rhetoric sometimes degenerates into a laundry list of laments, especially Lerner's harping on his "politics of meaning." Their ultimate proposal: a campaign of "healing and repair in both communities," aimed at fighting both anti-Semitism and racism. An ambitious agenda, given that, as they note, there are currently few links between Jewish and black progressives.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This dialogue between two old friends--both consummate thinkers--explores the passion and pain of a dying relationship. More personal (and because of the conversational format, less cogent) than Murray Friedman's What Went Wrong: The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance , the discussion between West, Harvard professor and the author of the best-selling Race Matters (1993), and Lerner, a magazine editor and a proudly proclaimed liberal, goes back in history and forward in speculation as the pair tries to figure out what went wrong with African American-Jewish relations and what to do about it. West and Lerner begin asking each other questions about their backgrounds (informative if somewhat contrived) and go on to press each other's hot buttons: black nationalism, the Holocaust, Farrakhan, Zionism. And after all these issues and more have been discussed--emotionally, urgently, and honestly--the initial conclusions are unsettling for all of us. West, for instance, feels that without systematic change America is headed for a race war. Yet, in keeping with their subtitle (Let the Healing Begin), the authors offer the epilogue "Grounds for Hope," in which they suggest that a shared spirituality could offer the way to resolve discord. Certainly, their final assessment, that change is possible, comes more from faith than from any empirical evidence: "We can build on the positive potentials and not just focus on the problems and difficulties." Let's hope these two charged voices aren't just crying out in the wilderness. Ilene Cooper

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1ST edition (April 6, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399140468
• ISBN-13: 978-0399140464
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,088,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Common Struggles, August 8, 2000

By 

Darryl Boyd (USA San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (Mass Market Paperback)

Micheal Learner and Cornel West attempt to solve some of the problems and tentions that have turned Blacks against Jews, and Jews against Blacks. What ethnic and or religious group have suffered the most? Native Americans,Chinese,Japanese,Blacks, Jews? What ever your answer maybe, the truth is that Blacks and Jews have been the some of the most oppressed poeple in America and the world. It is that one factor that has linked these two groups as allies, and enemies.

The Civil Rights Movement in America was centered around the coalition between Blacks and Jews. Jews and Blacks spent countless of hours, days, and years for the betterment and equality of African Americans. Blacks and Jews protested,fought, and died for the sake of the movement. The late Dr. Martian Luther King, and Rabbi. Abraham Joshua Heshual, Marched side by side in the March on Washington.

Micheal Learner and Cornel West explore the relationship between the two groups, during and after the 1950's-1960's. Learner and West specifically address the bitter end of what seemed to be a good thing. Inspite of the awesome force that the Black-Jewish coalition has forged, like most things, it came to an end. But the ending was not romantic as it was hurtful. The murder of Dr. King declined the progress, and a new Black Nationalism emerged from the surface. The Black Nationalist believed that if "good Whites" were sincere they would, "go back to your own neighborhoods and teach there own people. We blacks have to solve our own problems"! The nationalist movement broke the partnership between the two groups.

Micheal Learner and Cornel West dialog on current tentions, that includes Farrakhan and Crown Hieghts. There is no question that leaders from both sides added fuel to the fire between Blacks and Jews. When Jesse Jackson showed his favor Yassar Arafat, it disturbed the Jewish community. The American Jewish community layed out a full campain to murder the character of Jesse Jackson. They called themselves the "Jews against Jackson". There solgan was "ruien Jesse ruien". The Jewish attempt to destroy Jackson was an outrage to the Black community. No African American was more outraged than Louis Farrakhan.

Farrakhan couldn't believe that Jackson denounced, and dismissed his assistance. As a result, Louis Muhammed Farrakhan lead a huge cusade against the Jewish community. In an attempted to "break up the relationship between Blacks and Jews Farrakhan preached anit-semitism to anyone who would listen. He has distributed literature entitled "the secret relationship between Blacks and Jews, and the Protocals of the Elders of Zion". He has hosted lectures on the "international Jew, and the Jewish conspircy to destroy Black Leadership.

Although there is no question of small elements of Black anitsemitism, Micheal Learner also responds to racism within the Jewish community. He has admitted that racism is a double edge knife that cuts both ways. His book, along with the insite of Cornel West was designed to reach both communities. They reconized the problems and realities, than discovered positive ways of fixing it. They have done an excellent job of getting there serious message heard. Blackss and Jews, let the healing began!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FASCINATING AND "GROWTH-PRODUCING" DIALOGUE, December 28, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin (Hardcover)

Cornel West is a Princeton professor, magnificent public speaker, activist, author (e.g., Race Matters, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism, The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (Wisconsin Project on American Writers), etc.), and preeminent "public intellectual." Michael Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine, a political activist, and author (e.g., The Politics Of Meaning: Restoring Hope And Possibility In An Age Of Cynicism, Left Hand of God, The: Healing America's Political and Spiritual Crisis, Jewish Renewal: Path to Healing and Transformation, A, etc.).

Lerner writes in his Introduction to this 1995 book, "Cornel West and I have holed ourselves away from our respective worlds and spent full days, and on one occasion a full week, talking and recording our conversations. The dialogue contained in this book represents only a fraction of the wide range of philosophical, political, religious, and personal issues that we touched on. We got to know each other's lives, sources of joy and fear, emotional realities, and range of intellectual interests. We read each other's books and articles, we hung out with each other's families, and we grew increasingly excited about the other. In the process, I not only came to deeply respect Cornel's incredible intellect but to love him."

West writes in his Introduction, "We had to cast our exchange in such a way that we highlighted moral ideals and existential realities bigger and better than both Black and Jewish interests. We had to examine what it means to be human as Jews and Blacks and how this relates to keeping alive the best of a precious yet precarious experiment in democracy. We also had to examine the ways in which we could revitalize progressive politics in the light of prophetic traditions in the Black and Jewish heritages."

Here are some quotations from the book:

ML: "To Jews it appears as if Blacks are lumping us together with all whites---and not just any whites but the worst ones on the block." (Pg. 45-46)
CW: "The relationship between America and Israel is much more intimate than between America and any African nation... You can't expect Black folk not to focus on Israel when that's what the papers cover. The major issue Black people fear is white supremacy; and what scenario do you find? White Jewish Israeli society---we see very little Jews of color and Sephardic Jews..." (Pg. 59)
ML: "Black-American ignorance about Israel and about African nation states is not just a fact of nature: it reflects the failure of the Black leadership and of Black liberation struggles. Black progressives spend more time educating American Blacks about what's wrong with Israel than about what's wrong with African states." (Pg. 60)
ML: So the category is about something else besides skin color---it's about one's relationship to oppression. And by calling Jews 'whites,' Blacks are in effect denying our history of oppression." (Pg. 67)
CW: "There is a struggle going on over the minds, bodies, and souls of young Black Americans, some of whom will go through Minister Farrakhan's organization and end up as progressives. How soon? It's hard to say. The progressive Black nationalist position is the closest I come to, although I personally don't consider myself a nationalist of any sort." (Pg. 95)
CW: "Marcus Garvey was a Zionist. Du Bois was a Zionist. King was a Zionist. In their own words they expressed support for the Zionist movement. By the mid-sixties, especially 1967 and the beginning of the Occupation, the mood in the Black community slowly, but significantly, begins to be critical of Zionism." (Pg. 109)
ML: "I'm a religious Zionist. Religious Zionist means that I have the view that the world is governed and ought to be governed by God and that the nation has a relationship and a claim to the extent that it lives according to God's will." (Pg. 128)
CW: "First, I don't think Black churches have adequately reflected on the potentially anti-Semitic element in the Christian narrative. Second, I don't believe progressive Black nationalists have acknowledged the degree to which anti-Semitic elements have been built into the Black nationalist tradition. Not every Black nationalist is an anti-Semite, just as not every Zionist hates Palestinians." (Pg. 137)
CW: "A small percentage of Black people are committing a disporportionate amount of crime. There's nothing racist about pointing that out." (Pg. 140)
ML: "I am not saying, 'You are wrong to have a public debate with Farrakhan.' I'm not against that, although I should say that in my own community I refused to debate Kahane, on the grounds that there were certain kinds of hatred that were so far out of the tradition that they no longer deserve to be considered part of the community's legitimate dialogue. Giving him that debate was in effect legitimating his voice within the community." (Pg. 200)
CW: "There are many King-like figures on the grassroots level in the Black community, but with the chasm in place we hardly ever hear about them. And so one has to go out to do the kind of thing I was talking about before to bring these folk together." (Pg. 268)

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope for fighting Bigotry, September 30, 2001

By 

Leon Davidsson (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (Mass Market Paperback)

It has been said that racism and bigotry are permanent in American culture. Not only is there not an ongoing public dialogue on issues of race and ehtnicity, but there's not even a common vocabulary for creating one. This is what West and Lerner try to change. While each maintains his own unique experience and perspective, the two of them solicit ideas and perspectives from each other, challenging each other's presuppositions, all in the atmosphere of a lasting, respectful, and genuine friendship.

This book is required reading for every American who cares about the growing devides between us.