The history of the Jews is long, but not necessarily unique. Like many other ethnic groups, in the past and in the present as well, the people who were identified as Jews were outcasts. This was especially true in Europe where Jews were forced to live in ghettos and were refused the opportunities and protections accorded other citizens.
Also, like many other ethnic groups, they had to contend with programs of extermination or genocide.
It is my contention, that after centuries of victimization, many of the Jewish people assumed the responsibility to actively participate in social, economic, and political struggles in the search for a more equitable, just society.
That is why we saw a heavy Jewish involvement in the struggles for worker union organizing, for a fairer distribution of wealth and economic resources through socialism and communism, and for racial justice.
Growing up in New York City, I did not personally know of or experience anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism was something my elders referred to in their conversations, especially during WW2.
I recall that at the age of 16, on a summer Sunday, being in the Bronx Zoo with a friend, trying to pick up girls. And, in fact, we engaged in conversation with a couple of girls. After a few minutes, the girls said they could not talk to us. When asked why, one of the girls informed us that it was because we were “Christ killers.” When I questioned her further, she admitted that her priest told her this about Jews.
At the age of 18, I was ready to go off to college. Being a high school basketball player, I was searching for a basketball scholarship. The University of North Carolina seemed interested in me. But after several weeks, my high school coach informed me that they would not offer me a scholarship because they already had a couple of Jewish players. And so, my education about the realities of life began.
A year later, I went off to college at George Washington University in DC. This was the first time I heard fans at a basketball game chant, “Get the Jew, get the Jew.” They were targeting one of the players on the GWU team. Who were these welcoming chanters? The fans from Georgetown University, a nice religious, spiritual, God fearing Catholic school.
Anti-Semitism had found a place in my heart.
That was a time that, although Jews were European, they were not white and were not privy to the privileges of white people; they were outcasts. They were despised, not only for being “Christ killers,” but for being communists or socialists or anti-capitalists . . . all of which, except the “Christ killer” accusation, was in essence, true and for which I stand proud.
However, things changed dramatically for modern Judaism with the advent of Israel. Zionists declared Israel a “Jewish” state, ignoring the fact that it was once Palestine and had been occupied by Palestinians for many centuries.
In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour issued a document stating that the British government supported establishing Palestine as a national home for the Jewish people. The use of the term Jewish “home” rather than Jewish “state” was due to the opposition in the British Cabinet to the Zionist program.
The document included the following, “Nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” What they did not choose to consider was that this land was already occupied and it was not theirs to give.
What people also refused to consider was, that prior to the gift offered to Zionism, this very territory was home to both Jews and Palestinians who lived and worked side by side for decades without hostilities.
But, in 1948, after WW2, it was decided to activate the idea of a Jewish sanctuary. Jews were given their own homeland and to ensure it became a Jewish state, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes by Israeli militants (Zionists) while their means of financial support were destroyed. As the Palestinians were being forced from their homes, hundreds of thousands of European Jews emigrated to Palestine. Jews were no longer the victims of hate, they were the victimizers of hate.
Slowly, but surely, the Jewish ethos changed in the U.S. After the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, we find more Jews voting Republican and fewer Jews at the forefront of human rights and progressive causes. Instead, we find Jewish organizations expressing more conservative and reactionary points of view, and where Israel is concerned, support for their ethnic cleansing and fascist policies.
Even the more progressive Jewish voices have become muted when Israel is the topic. People who have been and continue to support many progressive programs in the U.S. become brain dead when confronted with Israel’s crimes against humanity.
Back in 1950, City College of New York (CCNY), won both the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) postseason basketball tournaments. The team consisted of mostly African-American and Jewish ballplayers from New York City. YES, you read that correctly, Jewish ballplayers!!
In the final game, CCNY, coached by Nat Holman, played Kentucky University, coached by Adolph Rupp. Everyone thought Kentucky couldn’t lose but CCNY won 89-50. Coach Rupp was so embarrassed and angry that he made a comment that his team lost to a bunch of “niggers” and “kikes.” Today, Kentucky’s basketball team, with a majority of its players being black, plays in the Rupp Arena, an arena constructed in honor of Adolph Rupp, an American icon. Go figure.
But I have wandered off message. A friend of mine said to me several years ago, “The problem with Jews today is they stopped playing schoolyard basketball.”
Metaphorically, he’s absolutely right. We are now an accepted part of the U.S., we are “white” and, therefore, entitled to the privileges that go with being “white.” We have lost part of our soul and have become an integral part of the disease that contaminates this country and the world, capitalism. In fact, Jews are “in.” We are welcome in any community, we can hold any job, we can even run for the presidency.
Even the Christian far right supports the Jewish state of Israel because the “second coming” can only occur if the Jews occupy Israel.
But, in this so-called “progress,” we have lost something. We have lost our idealism and our desire to struggle for the underdog, and identifying with those who struggle for freedom and equity. Too many of us have become a part of and identify with the capitalist, imperialist, ruling class.
We can no longer accept this role . . . if we are to recapture our soul as a people and return to the schoolyard, we must remember, “white men can’t jump.”
GOD BLESS AMERIKA!!!
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.
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When Jews became ‘white’
Posted on September 1, 2015 by Dave Alpert
The history of the Jews is long, but not necessarily unique. Like many other ethnic groups, in the past and in the present as well, the people who were identified as Jews were outcasts. This was especially true in Europe where Jews were forced to live in ghettos and were refused the opportunities and protections accorded other citizens.
Also, like many other ethnic groups, they had to contend with programs of extermination or genocide.
It is my contention, that after centuries of victimization, many of the Jewish people assumed the responsibility to actively participate in social, economic, and political struggles in the search for a more equitable, just society.
That is why we saw a heavy Jewish involvement in the struggles for worker union organizing, for a fairer distribution of wealth and economic resources through socialism and communism, and for racial justice.
Growing up in New York City, I did not personally know of or experience anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism was something my elders referred to in their conversations, especially during WW2.
I recall that at the age of 16, on a summer Sunday, being in the Bronx Zoo with a friend, trying to pick up girls. And, in fact, we engaged in conversation with a couple of girls. After a few minutes, the girls said they could not talk to us. When asked why, one of the girls informed us that it was because we were “Christ killers.” When I questioned her further, she admitted that her priest told her this about Jews.
At the age of 18, I was ready to go off to college. Being a high school basketball player, I was searching for a basketball scholarship. The University of North Carolina seemed interested in me. But after several weeks, my high school coach informed me that they would not offer me a scholarship because they already had a couple of Jewish players. And so, my education about the realities of life began.
A year later, I went off to college at George Washington University in DC. This was the first time I heard fans at a basketball game chant, “Get the Jew, get the Jew.” They were targeting one of the players on the GWU team. Who were these welcoming chanters? The fans from Georgetown University, a nice religious, spiritual, God fearing Catholic school.
Anti-Semitism had found a place in my heart.
That was a time that, although Jews were European, they were not white and were not privy to the privileges of white people; they were outcasts. They were despised, not only for being “Christ killers,” but for being communists or socialists or anti-capitalists . . . all of which, except the “Christ killer” accusation, was in essence, true and for which I stand proud.
However, things changed dramatically for modern Judaism with the advent of Israel. Zionists declared Israel a “Jewish” state, ignoring the fact that it was once Palestine and had been occupied by Palestinians for many centuries.
In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour issued a document stating that the British government supported establishing Palestine as a national home for the Jewish people. The use of the term Jewish “home” rather than Jewish “state” was due to the opposition in the British Cabinet to the Zionist program.
The document included the following, “Nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” What they did not choose to consider was that this land was already occupied and it was not theirs to give.
What people also refused to consider was, that prior to the gift offered to Zionism, this very territory was home to both Jews and Palestinians who lived and worked side by side for decades without hostilities.
But, in 1948, after WW2, it was decided to activate the idea of a Jewish sanctuary. Jews were given their own homeland and to ensure it became a Jewish state, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes by Israeli militants (Zionists) while their means of financial support were destroyed. As the Palestinians were being forced from their homes, hundreds of thousands of European Jews emigrated to Palestine. Jews were no longer the victims of hate, they were the victimizers of hate.
Slowly, but surely, the Jewish ethos changed in the U.S. After the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, we find more Jews voting Republican and fewer Jews at the forefront of human rights and progressive causes. Instead, we find Jewish organizations expressing more conservative and reactionary points of view, and where Israel is concerned, support for their ethnic cleansing and fascist policies.
Even the more progressive Jewish voices have become muted when Israel is the topic. People who have been and continue to support many progressive programs in the U.S. become brain dead when confronted with Israel’s crimes against humanity.
Back in 1950, City College of New York (CCNY), won both the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) postseason basketball tournaments. The team consisted of mostly African-American and Jewish ballplayers from New York City. YES, you read that correctly, Jewish ballplayers!!
In the final game, CCNY, coached by Nat Holman, played Kentucky University, coached by Adolph Rupp. Everyone thought Kentucky couldn’t lose but CCNY won 89-50. Coach Rupp was so embarrassed and angry that he made a comment that his team lost to a bunch of “niggers” and “kikes.” Today, Kentucky’s basketball team, with a majority of its players being black, plays in the Rupp Arena, an arena constructed in honor of Adolph Rupp, an American icon. Go figure.
But I have wandered off message. A friend of mine said to me several years ago, “The problem with Jews today is they stopped playing schoolyard basketball.”
Metaphorically, he’s absolutely right. We are now an accepted part of the U.S., we are “white” and, therefore, entitled to the privileges that go with being “white.” We have lost part of our soul and have become an integral part of the disease that contaminates this country and the world, capitalism. In fact, Jews are “in.” We are welcome in any community, we can hold any job, we can even run for the presidency.
Even the Christian far right supports the Jewish state of Israel because the “second coming” can only occur if the Jews occupy Israel.
But, in this so-called “progress,” we have lost something. We have lost our idealism and our desire to struggle for the underdog, and identifying with those who struggle for freedom and equity. Too many of us have become a part of and identify with the capitalist, imperialist, ruling class.
We can no longer accept this role . . . if we are to recapture our soul as a people and return to the schoolyard, we must remember, “white men can’t jump.”
GOD BLESS AMERIKA!!!
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.