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Black-Jewish relations-at the symbolic level-are in shambles, writes Cornel West. One has only to recall the 1991 Crown Heights tragedy and its aftermath to recognize to what extent Black-Jewish relations have deteriorated. The emergence of frequently anti-Semitic black demagogues like Louis Farrakhan and Leonard Jeffries and the Jewish community's turn to neo-conservatism have only made matters worse. Mistrust, ambivalence, and other negative feelings characterize much of Black-Jewish relations. Unlike most books on this topic which are written from a sociocultural, historical, and literary perspective, this anthology looks at the psychological motives, beliefs, and desires that impair relations between the two groups. For example, unresolved vulnerabilities in respective communities from the Holocaust and slavery remain driving and complex passions that still disrupt Black-Jewish relations. Psychoanalysis is a powerful conceptual tool to untangle these issues and other aspects of the larger societal race-relations problem.
List of contents
Introducion: Black-Jewish Conflict by Alan Helmreich and Paul Marcus
Time Line of Black-Jewish Relations by Alan Helmreich and Paul Marcus
Black-Jewish Conflict and the Regions of the Mind by Alan Hemreich and Paul Marcus
If I Am You, Then You Are Fake by C. Fred Alford
Black Liberation and the Jewish Question by E. Victor Wolfenstein
Black Myths and Black Madness: Is Black Anti-semitism Different? by Mortimer Ostow
Ruptures in Time: The Branch that Holds the Fork in African American and Jewish American History by Maurice Apprey and Howard F. Stein
Unlearning Racism at Women's Music Festivals by Cynthia Burack and Bonnie J. Morris
Speaking the Unspeakable by Aisha Abbasi
Sharing the Mark of Cain: The Jewish and African American Communities in America by A. Michele Morgan
The Conflict between Blacks and Jews: A Lacanian Analysis by Mark Bracher
Black-Jewish Relations: A Social and Mythic Alliance by Lee Jenkins
Practical Psychoanalytically Informed Suggestions for Communal Leaders for Improving Black-Jewish Relations by Alan Helmreich and Paul Marcus
Index
About the author
PAUL MARCUS is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist in private practice. He is the co-editor of Healing their Wounds: Psychotherapy with Holocaust Survivors and Their Families (Praeger, 1989), Psychoanalytic Versions of the Human Condition, Philosophies of Life and Their Impact on Practice (1998), and Blacks and Jews on the Couch (Praeger, 1998).
