|
407
took was a mock debate between Israel and a sociology professor from Hopkins;
Israel condemned Nazi persecution of Jews, the professor, for purposes of
discussion, laid out a Nazi position. Israel was shocked by the seemingly sincere
applause the Nazi position received from some portions of the overwhelmingly
Black audience: There seemed to be a yearning... to pour certain perceptible
sympathies into that applause." During the discussion period, Israel's "anguish
increased" as discrimination against Blacks by Jewish-owned department stores was
raised. In his subsequent article, Israel, minimized racism by department store
managements, by writing that it was true "in one or two instances," while he
emphasized his own staunch opposition to all such racist practices. ^
Israel was further horrified over what happened after the chairperson of the
meeting, Juanita Jackson, picked up on his suggestion and moved a resolution
opposing the participation of the U.S. team in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Several
well known community figures got up and opposed the resolution because this
Olympics was the first opportunity for Blacks to compete; under the guidance of the
Forum leadership, however, the resolution passed. Israel felt what he witnessed at
the Forum was not an isolated incident, but "As a by-product of Hitlerism... there
seems to be a great increase in anti-Semitism among Negroes."-*1
There was a range of responses to Rabbi Israel's article in the "Letters from
Readers" section of subsequent issues of The Crisis. One letter from an African
American man in West Virginia felt that Israel was guilty of the kind of
stereotyping he abhorred by blowing up a few "regrettable" instances into the
"dismal conclusion that the race is becoming anti-Semitic." Another from a white
Jewish man in Virginia lectured Israel for failing to understand the oppressive
conditions under which Blacks live and the ways in which some Jews contribute to
that oppression. Two others denied that serious enmity between Blacks and Jews
existed in their sections of the country - the South and Chicago respectively. Five
out of the ten letters that were published, however, came from Baltimore. Two of
|
