Robin Washington is the Forward’s Editor-at-Large. A longtime editor, columnist, radio host and documentarian across mainstream and ethnic media, he was one of the founders of the Alliance of Black Jews and an early pioneer of the term “Jew of color.” Email rwashington@forward.com, Twitter @robinbirk.
Akedah Fulcher-Eze grew up in a Black and Orthodox Jewish family in the Brooklyn, New York neighborhood of Crown Heights and lived there during the violence of Aug. 19-21, 1991. Her family was well known to both Black and Jewish residents, and they were not alone, she says; the neighborhood was home to about a…
Why is this study different from other studies? Read the Forward’s story on this groundbreaking report. If you’re looking for a guide to the perplexities of “Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color,” a good start might be not to think of it as one single study. It’s really two, and…
This article is not about Bob Moses. By that I mean it’s a tribute to a man who insisted that his lifelong efforts to repair the world didn’t always have to be about him. What’s remarkable is that he did repair much of it — in a career dedicated to securing full citizenship rights and…
Although he is little remembered today, a Jewish Congressman from Brooklyn is responsible for some of the most significant legislation of the 20th century. Emanuel Celler was the principal author of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. He also spearheaded the…
Despite the fact that it’s a celebration, I have bittersweet feelings about Juneteenth. Its origins are traced to Union troops arriving in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, bringing the news of freedom to that region’s slaves—months after the South’s surrender and 2-1/2 years past the Emancipation Proclamation. That our ancestors were freed from slavery…
MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The funniest line in the true-life story behind the Spike Lee-executive produced Civil Rights movement biopic, “Son of the South,” is in Yiddish. But it didn’t make the final cut. That’s because the Jewish half of what could have been a hilarious-yet-gripping buddy film was largely written out. In real life, the…
In the time it took to upload a video, Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street one year ago today became the most recognizable, and infamous, street corner on the planet. Now, closed to traffic for two blocks in all four directions and named George Floyd Square, the spot has become a place of consolation and…
Sixty years ago, on May 14, 1961, one of two buses carrying an interracial group of Freedom Riders was firebombed on the outskirts of Anniston, Ala. The riders barely escaped with their lives, only to be beaten by the mob outside. Of lesser import but nonetheless seared into America’s collective memory was the fate of…
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