Discuss the major forms of prejudice that have historically been leveled at Jewish Americans. As the text (p. 323) points out, the most persistent negative stereotypes against Jews have been “cheap, misery manipulator of money, forever preoccupied with materialism…” Are these real or imagined? Do Jews really control the American economy (or even world economy) as many people believe they do?
Source: An Anti-Defamation League Survey, 2013. Click here to access the entire report.
As the above graph shows, it is true that anti-Semitic attitudes have been declining in the US since 1964. Nevertheless, as shown below, blacks and whites seem to think differently on this matter:
So, we would like to focus on the fact that blacks are far more likely to be anti-Semitic than whites as shown in our mini-lecture.
Contrary to popular belief, African Americans and Jews share a long history of mutual respect and assistance. What historical examples do we have indicating this mutual friendship between blacks and Jews? If some of us can research “Troubling the Waters,” “Joel Spingarn,” and the civil rights coalition between these two groups, that will be great.
What went wrong? What controversies between these two groups can you think of? If some of us can research about conflicts between Hasidic Jews and blacks in Brooklyn and Crown Heights, that will be great.
How about Louis Farrakhan, a leader of the Nation of Islam who once called Judaism as a “gutter religion”? Were Jews really responsible for the Atlantic Slave Trade? (Be careful about researching this topic as the Net is full of disinformation regarding this.) Is the Nation of Islam a hate group? Is Louis Farrakhan a racist?
