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For nearly a century, blacks and Jews were allies in the struggle for civil rights and equality in America. Sometimes risking their lives, they waged battle in the courts, at lunch counters, and in the academy, advancing the cause of all minorities. Their historical partnership culminated in the landmark court decisions and rights legislation of the 1960s - achievements of which both groups are justly proud.
But thereafter, black nationalist activists diverted the movement for civil rights into a race movement, distancing blacks from their traditional allies, and the old civil rights coalition began to disintegrate.
Today, relations between blacks and Jews may be at an all-time low. Hardly a month goes by without fresh outbreaks of hostility and conflict. Controversial figures like Louis Farrakhan, Khalid Mohammed, and Leonard Jeffries fuel Jewish fears about a rising tide of black anti-Semitism - fears that were horribly confirmed for many Jews by the anti-Jewish riots in Crown Heights in the summer of 1991 - and blacks respond with bitter charges of Jewish hypocrisy and racism.
The facts of the historic civil rights alliance have grown dim for both groups; indeed the very existence of the alliance has been questioned by some black and white historians who claim that Jews were never very important in the movement, while others argue that their interest was a limited and ultimately selfish one. Now it is even claimed that Jews financed the slave trade and conspired with the mafia to promote racist stereotypes in Hollywood.
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What went wrong between blacks and Jews? Historian Murray Friedman, also a long-time civil rights activist, takes this question as the starting point for the first authoritative history of black-Jewish relations in America. Friedman's book traces this long and complex relationship from colonial times to the present, engaging the revisionists at every point.
He argues that the future of this important American partnership lies in the outcome of the struggle currently under way between black radical nationalists and blacks seeking coalition with Jews and other whites. "Memory," Friedman concludes, "is the only force that can bring about a reconciliation."
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Previews available in: English
Showing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?
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1
What Went Wrong?: The Creation & Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance
September 11, 2007, Free Press
Paperback
in English
1416576681 9781416576686
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2
What went wrong?: the creation and collapse of the black-Jewish alliance
1995, Free Press
in English
0029109108 9780029109106
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3
What went wrong?: the creation and collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance
1995, Free Press
in English
0029109108 9780029109106
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What Went Wrong?: THE CREATION & COLLAPSE OF THE BLACK-JEWISH ALLIANCE
September 1, 1994, Free Press
Hardcover
in English
0029109108 9780029109106
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5
What Went Wrong?: THE CREATION & COLLAPSE OF THE BLACK-JEWISH ALLIANCE
September 1, 1994, Free Press
in English
0029109108 9780029109106
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Book Details
First Sentence
"Although the Jewish interest in promoting black equality goes back a century or more, from the outset there also existed certain tensions between the two groups."
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- Created April 30, 2008
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August 12, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 14, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the edition. |
April 30, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |