Preface

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Dear Family,

My thoughts when I began to create our family Haggadah, were to compare the history of the plight of the Jewish people as compared to that of the history of the plight of the African American people. I thought that through my research, I would gather a plethora of information about their similarities in history. Since we have an interracial, blended family, my aspirations were to write a Haggadah that would be inspirational to us as well as others in a similar family dynamics. During my research, I learned more history than I expected.

The slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt, has often been compared to the slavery of African Americans in America. I wanted to find a clever way to weave these two parts of history together. However, I found that slavery is really only the beginning common thread between these two cultures. There is an obvious vast difference in the roles that society played on each as history moved forward through to the present.

The slavery that the Hebrews experienced in Egypt and their subsequent exodus, has been compared to that of the African American movement out of the South. It's been often noted that the Jews and African Americans both lived in ghettos and that the Jewish pogroms were congruent to the African American riots in the South. With all these events in mind, Jews have believed that they are more compassionate than any other group towards the African Americans and their history. The book Uncle Tom's Cabin had even been translated into both Yiddish and Hebrew!

Though the Jews have shown compassion for the African Americans in their plight, it has not always been welcomed by them. It is true that both these cultures have been oppressed and that their compassion for one another should be equal thus bringing them closer together. On the surface, this would seem just. There is one great gap that should be obvious to all Americans: Skin color!

American Jews have never experienced the problems of racism and discrimination as encountered by African Americans. While the Jews were eventually allowed freedom of most privileges of the white person, blacks have never experienced the social-economic prosperity of the Jews. The most significant time in black history that only slightly parallels that of the Caucasians, occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the Greenwood District. It was an area known as the Black Wall Street. It was one of the most affluent and prosperous African American communities in the United States. On May 31, 1921, there was a report that a black man, Dick Rowland, attempted to rape a white woman, Sarah Page. The whites refused to wait for an investigation to take place which sparked two days of violent racial protests. Nearly, 35 blocks of the city went up in flames and over 300 people died with 800 injured. (See daily.jstor.org, for more details).

In my feeble attempt to compare African American life to the Jewish people, I have not been successful. Forced slavery seems to be the one common thread between the Jews and the African Americans. Forced slavery for the Jews in the time of Pharoah and forced slavery for the African Americans in the early 1600s.

As white Jews in American, we do not encounter the daily barrage of racism and inequality that the African American people experience. Jews are indistinguishable amongst the background of the general public, Yet the moment a black person steps away from his house and into the public realm, he is subject to immediate recognition and often persecuted for his skin color.

A quote that aptly and simply explains this comes from James Baldwin who wrote in 1967, "The Jewish travail occurred across the sea and America rescued him from the house of bondage, but America is the house of bondage for the Negro, and no country can rescue him." 1

The idea that all people regardless of their race, color, gender, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and socioeconomic status is an evolved and advanced method of progressive thought. I would venture that it's become almost a far-fetched path of futuristic thought. There are too many past and present wars fought against discriminatory behavior. And yet, instead of a decrease in this behavior, it is on the rise again. So, when will the future finally arrive when we can truly all be treated as equals?

The quotes contained herein, by both Jewish and African American leaders and scholars are familiar to most, but are often forgotten and only sometimes put into practice. Though my Haggadah is focused mostly on the treatment of Jews and African Americans, my hope is that my version of this text will be a beginning of a bridge into the near future and finally close the big gaping wound for all the people that Hashem created!

haggadah Section: Introduction

Source: Blacks & Jews Entangled; Internet Article; Edward s. Shapiro; My Jewish Learning