In time for a potentially turbulent school year, new course focuses on Black-Jewish ties
Even as some universities prepare for protests against the war on Hamas, rabbi and prof create semester-long class at historically Black schools on the communities’ cooperation
Reporter at The Times of Israel
Amid a marked uptick in antisemitism on campuses nationwide, two professors, one Jewish and one Black, are expanding a program at two historically Black universities to combat Jew-hatred and deepen students’ understanding of the historic Black-Jewish alliance.
As students return to campus for the fall semester, Rabbi Meir Muller and Prof. Devin Randolph look forward to welcoming them to a new course at South Carolina State University and Voorhees University. The course covers Black civil rights leaders’ support for Zionism and the role “Historically Black Colleges and Universities” (HBCUs) played in giving refuge to Jewish professors fleeing Nazi Germany during World War II.
It also teaches students about Black newspapers’ coverage of the Holocaust and the Jewish activists who helped found the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
Learning about the Black-Jewish bond is especially important given the atmosphere on college campuses nationwide following the October 7 Hamas onslaught, Muller and Randolph told The Times of Israel in a joint Zoom interview.
Since the first days of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war — which began on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel and butchered 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip — university campuses have been hotbeds of anti-Israel sentiment that many students say crosses the line into antisemitism.
Along with protests aimed at disturbing everyday campus life, in the previous academic school year, student protestors have occupied academic buildings and erected massive tent encampments, often with the help of outside forces. Some of the most vocal members of the anti-Israel protest movement express support for the Hamas terror group, condone the October 7 atrocities as a legitimate form of resistance and openly call for Israel’s destruction.
“We want to present a message of truth about the historical alliance. We want to show the alliance has ebbed and flowed, but that there have always been relations between the two communities,” Muller said. He added that “the importance of this work cannot be overstated, as there is an ongoing need to create ambassadors for Israel and promote pro-Jewish ideas on campus, including among the African American community.”
“A recent poll shows that most of the Black community are not in support of [Israel’s] war,” Muller said. “We believe that HBCU campuses are particularly receptive to pro-Jewish and pro-Israel messages. Over the past year, there has not been a single encampment on an HBCU campus and only one school held a protest march. While there are various theories as to why this is the case, it suggests that these campuses can be conducive environments for discussing openly pro-Jewish and pro-Zionist ideas.”
The depths of the Black-Jewish bond
One of a handful of Jewish students who participated in last year’s pilot program, rising senior Avi Gluck said he found the class fascinating.
Born in New York City, Gluck, a history major, said he knew about some of what was covered but had not realized the depths of Black-Jewish relations.
“These are two minority communities with a rich history, and we should all know about their relation to each other. Even the stuff that is hard to talk about was made easy to talk about — things like Jim Crow, the civil rights movement and the Holocaust,” Gluck said.
A three-year grant of $25,000 per year from the Academic Engagement Network, a nonprofit that trains faculty and higher education administrators to “oppose the denigration of Jewish and Zionist identities,” helped make the seminar possible. There are plans to expand the program to at least five more HCBUs in South Carolina.
Close friends and colleagues, Muller and Randolph conceived of the course after developing and teaching a course titled, “Anne and Emmett: Confronting Antisemitism, Racism and Otherness through Pedagogy,” in 2020. That course tackled anti-Black racism and antisemitism.
“Students see we have skin in the game. They see our rapport and see that we approach the topics from a place of caring. We’re trying to carve out a very safe space for free-flowing conversation,” Randolph said.
A safe space amid turbulence
Although much of the spotlight has focused on the most virulent protests, most of which have been centered in well-known universities such as Harvard, Columbia, and Berkeley, anti-Israel and anti-Zionist demonstrations have also occurred in smaller colleges and HBCUs.
For example, students at North Carolina A&T State University held pro-Palestinian demonstrations and Howard University students demanded the university divest from companies “complicit in the crimes of Zionism.”
This is why Muller and Randolph say their course is needed.
“Now more than ever, we have to reach a younger generation,” Randolph said.
As part of the program, several students will be able to serve as program ambassadors after receiving extra training. They will work with the professors to help craft policies regarding campus antisemitism.
Muller explained that the ambassadors will be crucial to fighting the spread of bigotry and antisemitism, poisonous ideologies that are alarmingly contagious.
“Antisemitism is a bundled hatred. It’s the hatred that had the person who killed people in the Buffalo supermarket put a swastika on his gun,” Muller said. “It’s the hatred of the person who killed the people in the South Carolina church.”
Randolph added that through knowledge and exposure, comes power and empathy.
“I had the opportunity to travel to Israel in 2023 and I feel like everyone should have the opportunity to visit there. It humbled me,” said Randolph. “So often you talk about a place, but not until you’re actually there can you understand what it’s like.”
