When sometime in the next century social commentators begin discussing the disappearance of the American Jewish community through assimilation, disunity and lost political influence, Murray Friedman's history of the black-Jewish civil rights alliance may well serve as Exhibit A in the anthropological record.
"What Went Wrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black- Jewish Alliance" is intended, Mr. Friedman says, "to demonstrate that there was a black-Jewish partnership, albeit one sometimes marked by conflict and suspicion ... blacks and Jews must recognize that they still have common areas of concern and common enemies."
Taken at face value, the book is informative, thorough and refreshingly readable. But it will be as a symptom of the liberal Jewish obsession with relations with blacks that it is likely to be remembered and should be read today.
American Jews currently are faced with changes that threaten the future of their community, including the passing of the Holocaust generation, an intermarriage rate of more than 50%, and the decline of support for Israel as a kind of secular substitute for religious faith. At the same time, anti-Semitism is at an all-time low and Jews are generally accepted and even welcomed in the larger society.
But anti-Semitism is twice as high among blacks, and even higher among educated blacks, according to some studies. In New York City, which remains home to the largest single population of American Jews, polling shows that 63 percent of blacks hold anti-Semitic views.
Not only are these attitudes reflected in the ranting of confirmed anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan, they have been given intellectual credibility by influential black academics such as Howard Cruse. In his seminal revisionist history of black America, "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual," Cruse notably charges Jews with using the civil rights movement to advance their own )) interests and not those of black Americans.
Mr. Friedman -- who cites Cruse not fewer than 18 times -- is clearly on the defensive, and it shows. First, he counters the charge that Jews played a significant role in the slave trade by citing evidence that Jews represented less than 2 percent of slave interests in the New World. Then he traces the history of Jewish philanthropy toward black institutions.
The highlight, of course, is the role Jews played in the founding of the NAACP and their importance to the success of the integration and voting rights movements. From this high-water mark, the alliance among blacks, Jews and the labor movement began to rapidly lose its energy and cohesion, as black militants took "the movement" leftward and American Jews rallied around Israel following the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars. In the end we are left with a lament, not only for the lost days of "the movement" but for the failure of blacks to acknowledge the Jewish role with kindness, gratitude and love.
Unfortunately, it is liberal Jewish readers who are most likely to find an interest in Mr. Friedman's history of a grand alliance that only they wish to remember. All the more unfortunate will be their use of this book to continue dwelling in the past - even as black America has moved well beyond it.
Jonathan R. Cohen, an aide to Edgar M. Bronfman, president, World Jewish Congress and chairman of the Seagram Company Ltd., was an adviser to former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch. In 1991 he was consultant for Freedom House. He has a law degree from New York Law School and is also a speech writer and lobbyist.
"What Went Wrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance," by Murray Friedman. Illustrated. 423 pages. New York: The Free Press. $24.96