By Barrett Holman Leak
SAN DIEGO — Often in the last two years, I have been told by fellow Jewish friends and acquaintances that they are prioritizing fighting antisemitism over aligning with the African American community.
Typically, that statement has been justified with the addition of telling me that the American Jewish community has done so much for the African American community and then they have told me they personally did this or that and then they often end with the phrase “I am done.”
Living in the intersection, it has been disappointing and sad to me. It has also made me want to share the latest edition of Black Power, Jewish Politics, which has an afterward by Ilana Kaufman, CEO of Jews of Color Initiative.
Historian and academic Marc Dollinger (specifically in his book Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s), explains the American Jewish community’s “failure” to stand up for African Americans post-1950 is not just a story of withdrawal, but of a specific political transformation.
Dollinger challenges the standard narrative that Jews were simply “kicked out” of the Civil Rights movement by radical Black activists. Instead, he argues that Jews actively made choices to prioritize their own newfound status and ethnic identity over the continued struggle for racial justice.
Here are the key ways Dollinger argues the community failed or did not stand up for African Americans:
- Complicity in “White Flight” and Segregation
Dollinger emphasizes that in the post-WWII era, Jews became beneficiaries of structural racism, effectively joining the White establishment that Black Power activists were fighting.
* Suburbanization as Abandonment: Jews utilized the GI Bill and FHA loans to move en masse to the suburbs. These government programs actively excluded Black people (redlining), meaning Jewish upward mobility was directly tied to a segregated housing market. By moving to White-only suburbs, Jews physically and economically separated themselves from the urban Black communities they claimed to support.
* The “White” Pass: In the American racial binary, Jews were increasingly accepted as “White.”
Dollinger argues they accepted the privileges of this status (access to good schools, safety, capital) while failing to acknowledge that this access was denied to African Americans.
- Opposition to Affirmative Action
A central pillar of Dollinger’s critique is the Jewish institutional shift from supporting civil rights in the abstract to opposing specific mechanisms for racial equity, particularly affirmative action.
* Myth of Meritocracy: Many Jews attributed their rapid rise solely to hard work and education (“pulling themselves up by their bootstraps”). Dollinger argues this view ignores the government assistance and White privilege that aided them. Consequently, many Jews judged African Americans for not achieving similar success without acknowledging the far steeper structural barriers Black people faced. (And I will add, still face and even more so with the latest Republican political moves).
* Protecting Status over Equity: When Black activists demanded “group-based” rights (affirmative action) to remedy systemic inequality, Jewish organizations largely retreated to a defense of “individual rights.” Fearing that quotas might limit their own children’s access to elite institutions (reawakening traumas of past Jewish quotas), they fought against policies designed to level the playing field for Black Americans.
- The “Inward Turn” (Particularism over Universalism)
Dollinger posits that Jews did not just leave the civil rights movement; they took the lessons of “Black Power” and applied them to themselves, turning inward.
* Shift in Resources: Inspired by Black pride, American Jews poured their energy and funds into Jewish particularist causes: the Free Soviet Jewry movement, Zionism (especially after the 1967 Six-Day War), and Jewish day schools.
* Abandoning the Domestic Front: While this cultural revival was positive for Jewish identity, it represented a withdrawal of political capital from the fight for domestic racial justice. (happening right now, too) The focus shifted from “saving America” to “saving Jews.”
- Paternalism and Reaction to Black Leadership
Dollinger suggests that the “breakdown” of the alliance was partly due to Jewish discomfort with Black leadership.
* Loss of Control: He argues that the Jewish establishment was comfortable helping African Americans as long as Jews could hold leadership positions (funding, legal strategy). When the Black Power movement demanded self-determination and Black leadership, many Jews felt “betrayed” and withdrew rather than accepting a secondary, supportive role.
* Ocean Hill-Brownsville: In conflicts like the 1968 NYC teachers’ strike, the Jewish establishment framed the issue as “Black antisemitism” against Jewish teachers.
Dollinger argues this often obscured the legitimate grievances of Black parents seeking community control over failing schools, pitting Jewish union interests against Black educational advancement.
- Erasure of Jews of Color
In his more recent self-reflections, Dollinger has critiqued himself and the field of Jewish history for erasing Jews of Color. (happening now)
* Reinforcing the Binary: By framing the history as “Blacks vs. Jews,” the community reinforced the false idea that all Jews are White and all Black people are Christian. This erasure failed to stand up for Black people within the Jewish community and ignored the intersectional reality of race and religion. (happening now)
This is all quite heavy and a lot to digest. Meanwhile, here is a conversation with Dollinger and Kaufman. The book is on Amazon and other online stores.
What are YOUR thoughts?
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Barrett Holman Leak is a Black Jewish freelance writer based in San Diego.