5 ways to bring Blacks and Jews back together
Severing the historic Black-Jewish alliance over Israel only serves our common enemies
Van Jones speaks during ‘March For Israel’ at the National Mall on Nov. 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images
This essay is adapted from remarks Jones delivered via the Van Jones Substack on Oct. 7.
The historic alliance between Blacks and Jews has completely broken down.
Since 1909, African Americans and Jews have come together to fight for justice and democracy. The NAACP, founded in that year, was, in fact, a Black-Jewish alliance formed when racism and discrimination against Blacks and Jews was so extraordinary that we had to stand together, our backs against the wall.
Then, the next year, we created the organization that became the Urban League. And every decade in the last century, the best folks in the Jewish community who really believed in repairing the world, and the best folks in the Black community who really believed in justice for all, always worked together. We played a huge role in co-authoring and co-creating what you now call American democracy. You would not have that without the best in these two groups coming together over and over again.
And now that is falling apart.
That is quite dangerous, because the only people who benefit from the two groups that have been the most committed to deepening and defending democracy falling apart are people who don’t like democracy.
White nationalists love it when Blacks and Jews fight. Our geo-political adversaries — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — love it when Blacks and Jews fall apart. Those four dictatorships will never be able to beat America in a straight up war, but they can pull us apart from the inside by exacerbating these tensions.
And so I am committed to figuring out how we get back together, and I have discovered that there are five H’s, and these five H’s give us a little bit of a roadmap on how to work together to heal our divisions.
The toughest one, though, is H number one, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. African Americans are not going to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this continuing humanitarian crisis. It’s just not going to happen. African Americans did not support George W. Bush going into Iraq. Muhammad Ali and Dr Martin Luther King didn’t even support Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War. Black folks, just in general, don’t support wars like this. You can ask us to, but we’re not going to, and if that’s the whole sum of the relationship between Blacks and Jews, then we’re in trouble.
Fortunately, it’s not. It doesn’t have to be. There are four other H’s that we can focus on.
The second H is hostages. Now that’s where we can agree and work together, to free American and Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. Black folk came over here as hostages. We understand hostages. Reverend Jesse Jackson went all around the world freeing hostages. We hate individuals losing their liberty. That’s why Black Americans stand against the incarceration industry. So standing with American Jews, with Israeli citizens saying, Bring the hostages home — that should be no problem.
The third H is hate crimes, which have been going up against Muslims, and also rising in surprising numbers against Jewish Americans. Black folks are not for hate crimes. We are against hate in all of its forms. We didn’t like it when Asians were getting jumped on after COVID-19. We didn’t like it when Muslims were getting jumped on after 9/11, and after then-President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. So standing with Jewish people against the rising tide of hate crimes, we should be able to do that together.
The fourth H: Hamas. Hamas is not worthy of Black support. Nelson Mandela engaged in armed struggle. He went after soldiers, he went after infrastructure. But he didn’t go after women. He didn’t go after children. He didn’t go after grandparents. He didn’t rape anybody. He didn’t kidnap anybody. Nor did Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique, Agostinho Neto in Angola, or Amílcar Lopes Cabral in Guinea-Bissau.
Even when there’s armed struggle, Black folks do not lower our standards down to the depraved tactics of Hamas. Even Malcolm X, who said “By any means necessary,” never personally hurt anybody. Hamas is a freedom-taking organization, not a freedom-fighting organization. The legitimate cause of Palestinian people, for dignity, for sovereignty, for human rights, has been hijacked by this sort of Nazi terror group called Hamas. And I think we should be very clear, as Black folk, we don’t support that type of stuff. We support the Palestinians. We don’t support Hamas.
And then there’s the fifth H, the idea of a secure homeland for both people. The Palestinians need a secure homeland. The Israelis need a secure homeland. People say it’s too late, it can’t be done. There’s always a way. People are saying that Jewish people have no right to a secure homeland. People are trying to push that, and I think we should be pushing back, saying both people deserve a secure homeland.
That’s the pathway, the five H’s. Deal with the humanitarian crisis — we’re not going to be supportive of Bibi Netanyahu. But yes, let’s work together to get the hostages home, oppose hate crimes and anti Jewish bigotry, and establish a secure homeland for both people, including the people of Israel. And, let’s together say no to Hamas. We should be able to find common ground on that basis.
If we do that, we will frustrate the white nationalists. We’ll frustrate the extremists, like Hamas. We’ll frustrate our geopolitical adversaries — Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Most importantly, Blacks and Jews will get ourselves back onto a good footing.
There has never been a time when we needed more of a unified defense and a deepening of democracy than right now, and there have never been two ethnic groups in the history of humanity that have a better, stronger track record of working together to deepen and defend democracy than Blacks and Jews. So let’s get back together. Let’s make the right people unhappy and the right people happy. Black people need more friends and fewer enemies. Jewish people need more friends and fewer enemies. It makes no sense for us to be enemies of each other.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
