A Black-Jewish partnership once rooted in shared grievance found itself floundering after Israel’s victory in its war of defense against Arab neighbors during the Six-Day War. Organizations including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), whose noble advocacy on behalf of civil rights involved “freedom rides” and sit-ins, began expressing undercurrents of antisemitism by defending the Palestinian cause and condemning the “Zionist Jewish terrorists.”

A paradigm shift emerged in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd murder and in the shadow of Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas, when nationwide protests culminated in a slew of antisemitic attacks. Yet, unlike decades past, narratives surrounding inequality are now popularized through the ideological framework of intersectionality. Its permeation in academic, political, and social media circles renders today’s era of antisemitic hostilities far more toxic than previous versions, with organizations like the official Black Lives Matter movement finding common cause with pro-Palestinian extremists and terrorists.

The 1960s-70s saw prominent minority voices, including civil rights activists Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, and Bayard Rustin, vocalizing support for the Jewish people.

In his book, “Zionism and the Black Church,” founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI), Dumisani Washington, recounts King’s implicit understanding that “the Arab-Israeli conflict could not be reduced to colorism.”

In 1975, responding to the growth of antisemitism within Black communities, Randolph and Rustin organized the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC). That same year, BASIC placed an ad in The New York Times, signed by over 100 Black leaders, “condemning the anti-Jewish blacklist” and “reaffirming the rights of Israel to exist as a sovereign state.”

Yet soon after, mainstream leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton helped anti-Zionism gain a US political foothold. Their hate-mongering involved Jackson remarking that he had an “evil feeling” when visiting Israel, and referred to Jews as “Hymies” during a 1984 Washington Post interview. Sharpton’s eulogy for 7-year-old Gavin Cato following the 1991 Crown Heights riots denounced the neighborhood’s “apartheid ambulance service,” and invoked the diamond merchant libel to describe Jews. Still, Jackson garnered almost seven million votes during his 1988 presidential run, with Sharpton reportedly making over 60 visits to the White House during President Barack Obama’s time in office. Despite comparing Jews to “termites” and blaming them for the evils of racism and slavery, noted antisemite Louis Farrakhan’s list of admirers consists of former Women’s March co-chair Tamika Mallory and celebrities like Nick Cannon.

For their part, organizations like the Jewish Council for Public Affairs backed Sharpton’s 2020 Virtual March on Washington, and encouraged followers to engage with groups promoting racial justice even if led by those “with whom we may disagree. As for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the watchdog group has recently stepped up efforts to address left-wing antisemitism. While offering financial rewards for information on those responsible for the Brooklyn attacks, the organization remains restrained in its rhetoric on the racial makeup of those assaulting Orthodox Jews.

Those who fail to condemn leaders espousing Jew hatred also lend cover to antisemitic criminals, and leave those who are visibly Jewish exposed and vulnerable to attack. Rather than ingratiating themselves with unsavory characters, the Jewish establishment must support minority groups who believe in the IBSI’s goals, and must speak the truth about the minority groups committing attacks on Jews. Refusing to speak the truth about their racial background harms all communities.

Following his 2019 article, titled “The Moral Case for Israel Annexing the West Bank-and Beyond,” Jamaican-born professor of philosophy Jason Hill was censured by DePaul University colleagues and revealed in a Fox News interview that he needs security while walking around the Chicago campus. The ideological debate framing the smear campaign against Hill mirrors the progressive commentary contributing to the rise of antisemitism within Black communities. The gravitational shift from Rustin to Sharpton and Randolph to Farrakhan did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, society’s collective commitment to advancing intersectional myths coupled with the Jewish establishment’s fear of alienating a segment of the Black population is placing Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in the crosshairs of a misguided political pedagogy.

Irit Tratt is a writer who resides in New York. Her work has appeared in The American Spectator, The Jerusalem Post, JNS, and Israel Hayom.

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