| Blacks in the Jewish Mind: A Crisis of Liberalism Revised Edition Contributor(s): Forman, Seth (Author) |
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ISBN: 081472681X ISBN-13: 9780814726815 Publisher: New York University Press OUR PRICE: $30.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2000 Annotation: "[A] rich, engaging, scholarly, and nuanced chronicle of an . . . often-tormented interethnic, interreligious, interracial relationship." "--MultiCultural Review" "Bold and uncompromising. Cleverly, he turns a lot of revisionist race history on its head." "Insight, authority and scrupulousness are among the virtues of Seth Forman's account of the interaction of two conspicuous minorities in the postwar era. In its clarity and its wisdom, "Blacks in the Jewish Mind" constitutes a marvelous advance over previous scholarship; and in showing how frequently Jews misunderstood their own communal interests, this book offers a challenge to the present even as the past is illuminated." Since the 1960s the relationship between Blacks and Jews has been a contentious one. While others have attempted to explain or repair the break-up of the Jewish alliance on civil rights, Seth Forman here sets out to determine what Jewish thinking on the subject of Black Americans reveals about Jewish identity in the U.S. Why did American Jews get involved in Black causes in the first place? What did they have to gain from it? And what does that tell us about American Jews? In an extremely provocative analysis, Forman argues that the commitment of American Jews to liberalism, and their historic definition of themselves as victims, has caused them to behave in ways that were defined as good for Blacks, but which in essence were contrary to Jewish interests. They have not been able to dissociate their needs--religious, spiritual, communal, political--from those of African Americans, and have therefore acted in ways which havethreatened their own cultural vitality. Avoiding the focus on Black victimization and white racism that often infuses work on Blacks and Jews, Forman emphasizes the complexities inherent in one distinct white ethnic group's involvement in America's racial dilemma. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Minority Studies - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - History | Jewish - General |
| Dewey: 305.896 |
| Series: Crisis of Liberalism |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6" W x 9" (0.85 lbs) 284 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Ethnic Orientation - Jewish - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Religious Orientation - Jewish |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Since the 1960s the relationship between Blacks and Jews has been a contentious one. While others have attempted to explain or repair the break-up of the Jewish alliance on civil rights, Seth Forman here sets out to determine what Jewish thinking on the subject of Black Americans reveals about Jewish identity in the U.S. Why did American Jews get involved in Black causes in the first place? What did they have to gain from it? And what does that tell us about American Jews? |
Contributor Bio(s): Forman, Seth: - Seth Forman teaches in the Department of Political Science at SUNY at Stony Brook. His work on politics and culture has appeared in Partisan Review, the American Scholar, Midstream, and Newsday, and he is the coeditor of Great Jewish Speeches Throughout History. |