Levine
Museum of the New South houses many exhibits that foster community connections.
One of which, Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black
Colleges is on view through Sept. 14, 2014. In the exhibit, it discusses
the not widely known connection between several Jewish refugee professors who
came to the U.S. during WWII and ended up teaching at Historically Black
Colleges.
By 1939, Germany
had already purged itself of Jewish professors, scientists and scholars- many
of which came to the U.S. looking for refuge. Some of these immigrants found unexpected positions at
historically black colleges in the South, where they struggled with their
newfound racist environment. While it might have seemed like an odd pairing,
both Black and Jewish communities stood
on the common ground of being oppressed figures in society. The relationship
between Jewish teachers and African American students blossomed into a kinship
fueled by empathy towards what Jews had endured in Europe and what Southern
Blacks were going through in the United States.
Bonnie Gurewitsch, curator of the Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow exhibit, had
never heard of Jewish refugee scholars teaching at colleges for black students
before watching the film. Earlier this year, Gurewitsch told this blog about
the challenges that came along with curating this exhibit:
“Outlining
a story that would accurately reflect the experiences of the refugee scholars
and the black students, then finding the artifacts that would illustrate
the main points of that story, and setting the story in the three-dimensional
setting of an exhibition. We decided to create parallel background areas, one
for the scholars' backgrounds and their immigration to the US, and a second for
the background of the students and their decisions to go to college. We brought
the two story strands together in the central section of the exhibition-the
encounter, and showed the effects of the encounter on both groups.”
In the Charlotte community, there is a history of kinship between the
Black and Jewish
communities. During the Civil Rights Movement, many Jewish
were able to understand what it was like to be the “other.” Rabbi Abraham
Joshua Heschel marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama and was
quoted saying, “I was praying with my feet.” Harry Golden, longtime Charlotte
resident and publisher of The Carolina
Israelite, was known for his commentary on race relations in the South.
In order to better understand how
Black-Jewish relations had impact on Charlotte and beyond, Levine Museum is
hosting Kinship & Conflict: Black/Jewish Relations, a
panel conversation featuring Rabbi Judy Schindler of Temple Beth-El, and Dr. Ronald
Carter of Johnson C. Smith University. Moderated by Jackie Fishman, the program
begins at 7 p.m. on today, and is free to attend. Reservations are
requested.
Kinship & Conflict: Black/Jewish
Relations
Today at 7:00 p.m.
A conversation
with Rabbi Judy Schindler, Temple Beth-El, and Dr. Ronald Carter, Johnson C.
Smith University, moderated by Jackie Fishman.
Free to attend.
Reservations requested.
