Years ago, as a rabbinical student, I was one of a group of rabbinical students who visited an African American seminary in Atlanta. My fellow rabbinical students and I expected an uplifting weekend of interfaith sharing like we had experienced in visits to other (largely white) seminaries. We were unprepared for the raw anger directed against us as Jews. We were blamed for "Jewish exploitation of blacks." We heard stereotypical charges against Jewish pawnbrokers and Jewish landlords, the middlemen who represented institutionalized oppression in the ghetto. Having lived in the buildings of exploitive landlords myself, I could understand their anger against such landlords (not all of whom were Jewish). But I could not understand why these students held so tightly to their anger against all Jews or why they transferred such anger to us. One of the more self-reflective students explained it this way: African Americans were angry that we Jews could succeed in America where they could not because we could pass as whites whereas they could not.
I have thought a lot about those interactions since the recent brouhaha over presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s relationship with his controversial black liberation pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Obama’s recent speech on race was clearly crafted to put at ease not only white America but also Obama’s Jewish supporters. Obama won points in the Jewish community for including a reference to one’s rabbi among other clergy with whom a parishioner might disagree. Obama also won points as a friend of Israel by accusing Rev. Wright of distortion in blaming the conflict in the Middle East on "the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."
Obama’s vision of how, together, we can move beyond mutual recrimination toward real change and betterment for all is truly inspiring. I am convinced this is not just rhetoric for him but reflects his deepest beliefs.
However, in a fairly long speech touted as the definitive response to his relationship with Wright, Obama’s silence on Wright’s support for Louis Farrakan was deafening. Where was Obama’s repudiation of the decision by the magazine run by Wright’s daughter to award Farrakhan the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award as a man it said "truly epitomized greatness"?. Where was Obama's courage to speak truth to power, to decry hate talk in all its permutations?
Obama’s silence reminded me of another memory, this one of a congregant. He remembers his family traveling to the beach on the Maryland shore. He was a child. Maryland was still a segregated state. They arrived at the beach to find a section of beach for blacks only and another section for whites only. Posted between the two was a sign that said: "No Jews or Dogs." The family had to get back in the car and head home. It was a stark reminder that, as Jews, his family did not fit in.
I have not had a chance to confirm the historicity of this memory. It is a telling sentiment, nevertheless, about the ambivalence we Jews experience in discussions about race in America.
One thing this campaign has revealed is that we Jews still see ourselves as a minority in a Christian world whereas the African American community still largely sees us as part of the white majority. If we are ever to effectively resurrect the Jewish-African American alliance Obama talks about, then we will need to address this "race" issue as well.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
I do not for one second doubt that Obama would throw Farrakkahn inder the bus any more than he has Wright - and for the same reason. I have no doubt that he wouldn't throw G.W. Bush under the bus, or you, or me. Barak Obama has made it quite clear that he believes that the central issue which holds the key to our moving past the mistakes of our past is the willingness to move beyond trying to pick out who is best suited to lubricate the path of the wheels of our progress. Each of us (and each of them), however flawed, has a role to play in moving forward as a nation. If we are going to sincerely expect others to set aside racial bias and bigotry, suspiscion and condemnation, we absolutely must begin with ourselves.
Cheryl: "There is no such thing as a different race! It is a social concept."
Okay lets play this tired PC rhetoric out, so we can avoid a, to use Barry's words, "shortcut to avoid paying attention and thinking".
If race is a mere social concept that doesn't really exist and is thereby irrelevant, how much more so could we agree this applies to the concepts of national, political, or cultural/religious/ethnic groups?
Since "the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural/ethnic group" is the definition of genocide and since these are all mere "social concepts", then we must conclude that genocide itself is a non-issue. Since you did not take an overt anti-genocide stance I offer you a cautionary commendation for your lack of hypocrisy.
Now Barry; our brains work like a computer and rely heavily on memory or cache. Creating shortcuts is a natural process that allows us to perform even the simplest of exercises, such as getting out of bed, without having to think about and relearn the problem on a daily basis. It also formulates a framework through which we view the world. Personally I'd rather, both physically and metaphorically, be an active member of society than refrain from using shortcuts. Granted, I'm willing to reconsider these shortcuts and framework, even to the point of religious conversion, but not on the basis of ad nauseum empty PC rhetoric.
Shalom
B"H
Based on an earlier comment that Obama wll employ the services of HAGAR (2 public officials with known pro-Arab stances), you can be assured that the pressure our Secretary of State is putting on Israel to stretch its neck out for the slaughter (Israel easing up on restrictions for those who want Jews to return to Auschwitz) will be nothing compared to the pressure put on Israel in an Obama admistration.
One good will come out of it...perhaps Israel's leaders will finally understand that the oppressive pressure on them to allow Arabs to destroy the Jewish state, will force them to see that giving in to the Arabs is suicidal, and perhaps, seeing that not a single country in the world wants Irael to exist, they will come to understand that they must turn to the Guardian of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps, for our salvation.
And then G-d will, through His open and full hand, deliver them (and all Jews) from the seventy wolves who are licking their jaws, anxious to devour the lamb.
May G-d help us in Nissan, the month of our redemption, by sending His righteous Redeemer takef u'myad mamosh...Yosef H.
Barak's association of 20 years with a man that is blatantly anti-American , antisemitic , and continually promites race hatred. speaks louder than the pretty words he speaks. Pretty speeches are easy to make.
I am a Christian Zionist. Many Jews do not like me because I believe in Jesus.Many Gentiles do not like me because I not only stand publicly for Israel , but for the Jews as a people chosen by
G-D.A man's goal should not be to be popular but right in his own heart.
During the civil right movement I was the member of a church that voted to refuse entry to any Black person that would come to our congregation. I was the only one who spoke publicly against this policy. At another church many years later there were speakers that were openly racist. I severed my membership immediately. This is why I can not understand why a man who wants to be President of the United States of America could not do the same in a 20 year span. I am sure many of us have had similar situations and you stood for right too. Why could he not do so ?
as a jew from new york who grew up in the projects in brooklyn 60's and 70's, i was floored when in 1970 children who i went to kindergarden with suddenly discovered they were black. i was egged because i wasn't one of them, i lost all respect and affection for these former friends.i never saw them as anything different than myself,i never feared them ,i never ostresized them. we were all iwe all lived together in the same enviorment,yet myself and the other few remaning white people were terrorized regularly because we were white in a predominently black neighborhood.i see this as reverse raceism. i do appreciate my living ther ,because it made me stronger.they need to learn this as well and move on