AJHS Announces Upcoming Program Black Power, Jewish Politics

Join us for a panel to celebrate the publication of Marc Dollinger's Black Power Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s with the author and special guests.

In this book, Marc Dollinger charts the transformation of American Jewish political culture from the Cold War liberal consensus of the early postwar years to the rise and influence of Black Power-inspired ethnic nationalism. He shows how, in a period best known for the rise of black antisemitism and the breakdown of the black-Jewish alliance, black nationalists enabled Jewish activists to devise a new Judeo-centered political agenda including the emancipation of Soviet Jews, the rise of Jewish day schools, the revitalization of worship services with gender-inclusive liturgy, and the birth of a new form of American Zionism.

AJHS is home to the records of the American Jewish Congress, where numerous photos trace the participation of Rabbis and other prominent Jewish leaders in the 1963 March on Washington, the 1965 March from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama, and other events and causes of the Civil Rights movement era. AJHS is also home to the collection of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, which helped Ethiopian Jews receive recognition, aid, and refuge as they were trying to flee Ethiopia since the 1970s.

The Shalom Hartman Institute is a leading center of Jewish thought and education, serving Israel and North America. Our mission is to strengthen Jewish peoplehood, identity and pluralism and ensure that Judaism is a compelling force for good in the 21st century.

American Jewish Historical Society, 15 W 16th street, New York 10011. 212-294-6165, AJHS.org.