I had been working on finishing The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store for maybe a month, but I finally finished it today. Consider this a momentous occasion. The last five pages of the book make up for how hard it was to get through the first 100. Anyway, welcome back to history class. I’ve been wanting to do this topic for some time, but was pushed into it by finishing the book in which Black and Jewish relations have a major role. It also combines with how many of my friends don’t know what sharecropping is and how Black history rarely goes beyond the basics of the Civil War and Civil Rights Movement. Jewish history is similarly overlooked. Everyone knows about the Holocaust and Anne Frank but that’s about it. Coincidentally, it’s also Jewish American Heritage Month. At school, they have a display but it mostly is there to glorify Israel (Palestine), so I don’t relate to it much. Also, no shade to her, but why would you pick Sue Bird to showcase famous Jewish people instead of an ACTUALLY famous Jewish person? Anyway moving on. Make sure to tune into my live show which is Tuesday at 11am PST on KSDT.
First, some background is needed on the Jews. Not all, but many, Jews are White. When we think of the Jews who were immigrating to America, they were predominantly White and from Eastern European countries. The first Jews came to America prior to the American Revolution. There were maybe 2,000 of them. There’s a letter from the Hebrew Congregation of Newport written to George Washington in 1790 which actually praises American commitment to freedom of religion.1 Washington responded in a way that makes me think he actually was cool with the Jews which is not something I expected. In between 1820 and 1924 was where Jewish immigration was at its peak. While one half of my family did not come to America until 1937, the other half immigrated during this period. Just like all other immigrants making their way to America, Jews considered the U.S. to be a land full of opportunity, leaving their small European towns for a chance at wealth. The Jewish population in America went from 3,000 in 1820 (so not much of a change in the 50 year gap since the American Revolution) to 300,000 in 1880. Many of these immigrants were also escaping persecution. During this time, there was a steep rise in tenement housing in New York’s Lower East Side. Tenements were small buildings with even smaller apartments filled with huge families. Think ten people in a 325 square foot apartment.2 Many Jewish (and Italian and Irish) immigrants worked in the garment industry which was dangerous and paid very little. Antisemitism has always been around, hence why many Jews left Europe. In America, even with freedom of religion, Jews were separated from other White immigrant groups. You can in part thank Henry Ford (of Ford cars) for antisemitism in America. In the 1920s, his newspaper published a whole thing on how Jews were a threat to capitalism and would take over the nation and also that Jews did World War I.3 Historically, race was decided based on visuals. This is in part why why there was a sort of confusing with what to do with Mexicans (who were automatically made U.S. citizens) after California was made a state. The Jews coming to America were visibly White, but at this time in America ethnicity was important. Jews were not White like real Americans were. At Harvard, there were protests over the enrollment of Jews as they would change the college’s status. In some cases, Jews were associated with Black Americans, though generally they were just other. Jews mostly rejected assimilation which in part contributed to the narrative that they were not White. Americans only wanted (and still seem to want) immigrants who were completely open to throwing their identity out the window in favor of pure Americanism.4 To summarize, for much of American history, Jews were in a category of their own.
In The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, the Jewish and Black citizens of Pottstown, Pennsylvania live in Chicken Hill. While many of the town’s Jews move away to become more integrated with said White society, main characters Moshe and Chona stay. The titular Heaven & Earth Grocery Store served the residents of Chicken Hill, both Black and Jewish. Chona, who ran the store, gave items on credit and treated all her customers the same. She was beloved by both the Jewish and Black communities. Jews had some similarities to the Chinese immigrants in the Mississippi Delta in that they were somewhere between White and Black. Both had stores that served Black people. Thus, Jews in the South (and in the North to an extent) relied on Black customers for income and Black customers relied on Jewish merchants for goods. Jews sometimes charged high credit at their stores, which could have been a justified risk. There is no formal evidence that Jews charged high credit out of greed, to take advantage, or as a risk factor. Jews did however lend credit to their Black customers generally whenever it was needed on condition. Overall, Jewish store owners had good relations with their Black customers. Prices were mostly kept low and Jews would have advertisements in Black newspapers. What’s more, Jewish store owners often hired Black clerks. This was a visible show of their solidarity. However, it was here when the Black and Jewish relationship first became strained. Visibly, Jewish merchants were still White and thus had the privileges of their race. If no one knew they were Jewish, then they were just regular White Americans. Black and Jewish Americans were also not immune to engaging in stereotypes. Some Jewish shopkeepers kept their relationships with Black customers to a minimum and wouldn’t address them by Mr. or Mrs. However, some Black customers came to see their Jewish merchants under the same antisemetic lens popular with White society. Though both groups were disliked by this White society, they both came to engage with negative stereotyping against the other group. The relationship was at times strained but by no means hostile.
While in the 1800s, Black and Jewish Americans kept a strict divide between them, there was some hope that the turn of the century would change things. Actually, the turn of the century is still too early. It was really World War II when things got serious. The Holocaust aspect of World War II stuck with Black Americans. They saw similarities between their own suffering and what the Jews were going through. Black newspapers called on Jews to recognize that both communities were suffering in the same way and to unite against both racism and antisemitism. It would be impossible to overlook how Jewish people often discriminated against Black Americans. Jewish department stores were just as bad as other White-owned department stores when it came to discriminating against Black consumers. There was still a call for Jews to work together with the Black community, but there was a greater understanding that Jews would need to still cross the racial divide. Remember that visibly Jews were still white. Being persecuted for ethnicity is not the same as being persecuted for race. However, Jews were still recognized in the South for treating Black customers with respect. There was a lot of back and forth between calls for Jews to step up but also an increasing sense that Jews had aligned themselves with White society.5 Prior to the Civil Rights Era, Black people had seemingly lost faith in Jews to align themselves with the Black struggle for freedom.
Black-Jewish relations were at their peak during the Civil Rights Movement. There was something called the Great Alliance in which “elite African-American leaders [worked] across racial religious lines to advocate for the masses in terms of voting rights and desegregation”. Both groups were othered by White society. While in the earlier half of the twentieth century Jews took the assimilation path, in the 1960s they finally recognized the shared struggle. Jews made up a disproportionate part of White activists during the Movement. In the Freedom Rides of 1961, Jews made up more than half of the White riders. They were also half of the youth participating in the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1965 March on Selma. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were in fact created in the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism during the Leadership Conference.6 Clearly, a lot of good came from the Black-Jewish alliance of the 1960s. It was not without its conflict. Jewish leaders held major positions in Black organizations for some time. However, Black leaders were not given any positions in Jewish organizations. Eventually, with this realization, groups like the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began to exclude Jews from leadership, in some cases blocking them from engaging entirely. At its worst, Jewish stores were vandalized and robbed. Both groups blamed each other for their discord.7 There was still a push for both communities to work together and not abandon civil rights.
I want to talk about a really famous historical moment that didn’t seem right to smush in with the other paragraph on civil rights. You probably have heard of the murders of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Henry Schwerner which occured in 1964. Goodman and Schwerner were both Jewish while Chaney was Black. Schwerner was actually from very, very close to where I’m from. His dad taught at New Rochelle High School (where I would have gone had we not moved in 2014). The three worked for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Mississippi. After being pulled over for speeding, more likely for that they were in a car known to be a CORE vehicle, the three were arrested by Cecil Price. After being released, their car was found in the brush. Their bodies were discovered on August 4. On December 4, 21 men were charged with conspiracy. Of the 21, 18 were indicted in January 1965. The men were again indicted in February of 1967 and were tried by the same judge as in 1965. Judge William Harold Cox was a known segregationist, so what happens next is interesting. When the defense attorney asked if Schwerner was conspiring to rape White women during the summer of 1964, Cox called the question out. This was a clear show that he was actually taking the trial seriously. During this trial is where we learn Price was contacted by the local leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Edgar Ray Killen, with a plan to harm Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner. Price released them only to join the chase to kill them. The Klansmen forced the CORE vehicle off the road where James Jordan shot Chaney and Wayne Roberts shot Schwerner and Goodman. The jury found seven defendants guilty, resulting in a sentence between three to ten years, though no one served more than six. Killen, the leader of the KKK, walked free. The jury also did not give a verdict on two other defendants, one of which was a minister. The case was reopened in 1999. In 2005, Killen was finally charged with murder. The jury did not find enough evidence in the FBI’s 40,000 page document to convict anyone else. Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison where he died in 2018 at age 93.8 I use this to show that at least when it came to Black and Jewish youth, there was a strong sense of solidarity and support. This is just one famous example, but there are countless others that are unrecognized. To use my favorite Jewish saying, may their memories be a blessing.
Where Black-Jewish relations definitively change for the worse than be pinpointed to 1967. The Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states is what led the change. Many Black leaders supported the Palestinian, and thus Arab, cause. Israel, which had become tied to the Apartheid government in South Africa, was not appealing. This would come up again during the Black Lives Matter Movement in which the treatment of Palestinians was compared to that of Black Americans. It’s important to note that not all Jews are in support of Israel. Here’s a complicated way I’m going to explain it using history. There was a time were people were concerned with the amount of free Black people left in America after the end of the Civil War. As a solution, the American Colonization Society proposed sending these freed Black people back to Africa. The ACS resulted in the creation of Liberia to fulfill the purpose of providing a place where freed Black people could be sent.9 Sure, maybe some freed Black people wanted to leave America, but many didn’t know life any other way. This is where the comparison comes in. I was born in America, as were my parents and grandparents. Why would I want to go to Israel? It isn’t the land of my people. I’ve never even been there. How can it be the Jewish state if I, a Jew, have literally 0 ties to it. The difference is Palestinians actually do have ties to the land. They’ve been living there. The Pearlmans have not. In this sense, Jews should in some ways align with Black sentiment on Palestine, but I know this is not a pervasive idea. I don’t necessarily see a time, at least not in the near future, when Black-Jewish relations return to their peak.
This story is obviously longer and much more complicated than I’m making it out to be. There’s a lot of contradictions. It’s important to note that not all Jews and not all Black people contributed to the relationship in any kind of way. I feel like that goes without saying, but it should probably be made clear. I consider this to be more of a broad overview on the topic. An introduction, if you will. Anyway, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is really good. I highly recommend it. It heavily inspired this week’s show. Same time next week for more history class!
“Al Sham” by Elyanna
“Nothing Can Change This Love” by Sam Cooke
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday
“Tell It On the Mountain” by Peter, Paul & Mary
“Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan
“Mississippi Goddam” by Nina Simone
“Society’s Child” by Janis Ian
“Dream A Little Dream Of Me” by The Mamas & The Papas
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel
“What’s Happening Brother” by Marvin Gaye
Moses Seixas (1744-1809) to George Washington (1732-1799)Manuscript letter, August 17, 1790. George Washington Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (5)
https://www.tenement.org/explore/lower-east-side/#:~:text=A%20boom%20in%20New%20York's,made%20up%20of%20three%20rooms.
https://alba-valb.org/resource/anti-semitism-in-the-1920s-and-1930s/
https://jewishcurrents.org/when-did-jews-become-white
https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/webb/Webb-Jewish%20Merchants%20and%20Black%20Customers%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Jim%20Crow.pdf
https://rac.org/issues/civil-rights-voting-rights/brief-history-jews-and-civil-rights-movement-1960s
https://exhibits.temple.edu/s/civil-rights-in-a-northern-cit/page/jewish-african-american-relati
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedomsummer-murder/
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/liberia