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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with Ms. Godbergs article. Obviously in the US, most Jews are able to assimilate or more easily "pass" because of the mutli-cultural nature of the country.

However, that doesn't diminish that historically, many Jews have stood with African-Americans, Muslims (see the uproar over the travel ban in 2017 and you will see many Jewish orgs and Jewish lawyers working pro-bono to get through the issue and help those stranded at airports etc) and other groups against hate and prejudice.

To see some posted on this thread deny that history and bond is both sad, disappointing and abhorrent.[/quote]

We are definitely in agreement with regard to the fact that it is true Jews have stood with and supported African-Americans and their causes, but one must take into consideration that it is not common knowledge for many people.  One also has to take into consideration the fact that simply because some Jews sought to assist blacks and empower them in their struggle it doesn't negate the fact that some Jews sought out profit by exploiting blacks and further perpetuating their struggle.  Allow me to direct your attention to another opinion piece, this one from famed author James Baldwin...

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"When we were growing up in Harlem our demoralizing series of landlords were Jewish, and we hated them. We hated them because they were terrible landlords, and did not take care of the building. A coat of paint, a broken window, a stopped sink, a stopped toilet, a sagging floor, a broken ceiling, a dangerous stairwell, the question of garbage disposal, the question of heat and cold, of roaches and rats--all questions of life and death for the poor, and especially for those with children--we had to cope with all of these as best we could. Our parents were lashed to futureless jobs, in order to pay the outrageous rent. We knew that the landlord treated us this way only because we were colored, and he knew that we could not move out."

"The grocer was a Jew, and being in debt to him was very much like being in debt to the company store. The butcher was a Jew and, yes, we certainly paid more for bad cuts of meat than other New York citizens, and we very often carried insults home, along with the meat. We bought our clothes from a Jew and, sometimes, our secondhand shoes, and the pawnbroker was a Jew--perhaps we hated him most of all."

"Not all of these white people were cruel--on the contrary, I remember some who were certainly as thoughtful as the bleak circumstances allowed--but all of them were exploiting us, and that was why we hated them."

"The Jew's suffering is recognized as part of the moral history of the world and the Jew is recognized as a contributor to the world's history: this is not true for the blacks. Jewish history, whether or not one can say it is honored, is certainly known: the black history has been blasted, maligned and despised. The Jew is a white man, and when white men rise up against oppression, they are heroes: when black men rise, they have reverted to their native savagery. The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto was not described as a riot, nor were the participants maligned as hoodlums: the boys and girls in Watts and Harlem are thoroughly aware of this, and it certainly contributes to their attitude toward the Jews."

"It is true that many Jews use, shamelessly, the slaughter of the 6,000,000 by the Third Reich as proof that they cannot be bigots--or in the hope of not being held responsible for their bigotry. It is galling to be told by a Jew whom you know to be exploiting you that he cannot possibly be doing what you know he is doing because he is a Jew. It is bitter to watch the Jewish storekeeper locking up his store for the night, and going home. Going, with your money in his pocket, to a clean neighborhood, miles from you, which you will not be allowed to enter. Nor can it help the relationship between most Negroes and most Jews when part of this money is donated to civil rights. In the light of what is now known as the white backlash, this money can be looked on as conscience money merely, as money given to keep the Negro happy in his place, and out of white neighborhoods."

"One does not wish, in short, to be told by an American Jew that his suffering is as great as the American Negro's suffering. It isn't, and one knows that it isn't from the very tone in which he assures you that it is."

— James Baldwin - April 9, 1967, [i]New York Times[/i]

[url]https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-antisem.html?mcubz=3[/url][/quote]

1. I have to take issue with the holding of Jewish retailers guilty.   They did not create the conditions inn AA ghettos, they just tried to make a living selling products.  Retail sales are not theft.  And in general, a Jew who could avoid having a business in a poor area, did so.

2. The notion that black suffering was less know than Jewish suffering, MAY have been true in 1967 (I am not sure that is the case) but it certainly is not now.

3.  [i]It is true that many Jews use, shamelessly, the slaughter of the 6,000,000 by the Third Reich as proof that they cannot be bigots--or in the hope of not being held responsible for their bigotry.[/i]

Few Jews do that.  Most acknowledge a Jew can be a bigot - just as, an AA can be.

But the PTSD in from the shoah in survivor's families is real (and of course antisemitism continues to exist).

4. The notion that Jews go back to neighborhoods that AAs cannot enter, strikes me as a bit odd, even for 1967.  It was quite common in those days, and the next couple of decades, that the white neighborhoods where AA's were quickest to enter were often Jewish neighborhoods.

None of this of course has to do with liberalism or conservatism, but is about opposing racism AND antisemitism, and countering narratives that excuse either.[/quote]

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