It should also be noted that on one level or another, there was always tension between Black and Jewish members in the local chapters. It was never Shangri-la. This had more to do with the Jews being White than their 'jewishness'. That being said, I have come across no evidence of any large scale effort by groups of Blacks with in CORE NYC to push Jews into the sea, throw them in ovens, etcetera.

Many of the Jewish members did not disagree with the concept of Black Power per se. In many ways it was seen, as Terry Perlman stated, a natural progression. It was seen as problematic specifically within the context of CORE itself. Discrimination based on race being a no-no was inherent in the name itself and therefore hypocritical. It was also seen as problematic in that they played an enormously important part in helping the organization become what it did. Being pushed out of CORE had to be humiliating. That's only human. Again, this has little to nothing to do with their being Jewish, it is their being White which was the issue.

Anti-semitism in general was not a problem to the extent that when an incident did occur, it was seen as out of the ordinary and strange, not 'more of the same'. The fact charges of anti-semitism were made against Black members of CORE by outsiders, however, was a major issue. Some of these members became the poster child for the Black nationalist anti-semite.

The idea the criticisms were directed towards all Jewish people everywhere is misleading. In general, it was American Jews that were being criticized, especially in New York City. These criticisms were directed towards specific groups such as the Jewish dominated UFT. These were seen as White people in positions of power that had more control over aspects of Black peoples lives than Black people. The fact they were members of an ethnic group that pointed out they were historical victims of racism themselves was seen as being hypocritical. However, events like what happened in the case of Mount Vernon only gave weight to counter critics of the Black nationalists.

Should an argument be made here about how the term 'anti-semetic' is used incorrectly? The term 'semitic' has to do with language more than anything. Arabs are also considered semitic because they are a semitic speaking people. The term 'anti-semitic' does not apply to those who are critical of Arabs as it is against those who are critical of Jews. Often it has been a tag used to marginalize and discredit critics as a former official of the Israeli government, Shulmati Aloni, admitted to in a 2002 interview.(16)

Last But Not Least...
The story of these Jewish members of CORE takes on an added significance when one considers that if CORE in NYC represented the best efforts of Blacks and Jews to successfully work together, it has to be asked, how did it go from one thing to the other?

In the mid 1980's Jesse Jackson, a former chairman of his college CORE chapter famously referred to NYC as 'Hymietown' during his campaign for President of the United States. Then mayor Ed Koch, one of the most significant Jewish leaders in the Unted States and one of the many civil rights lawyers who worked on the Mississippi Freedom Summer project, stated in the press he believed all Black people were anti-semitic.

Between the racist actions of Al Shankar of the UFT and the Crown Heights riots of 1991, NYC became known as a town where there was an almost historic enmity between the Black and Jewish communities. The obvious question becomes what happened? How do you go from a situation where so many Blacks and Jews were not only working together so effectively to one where it was war in the streets, media and academia?

This is a subject that hopefully will be explored in future research. Shalom, baby.

footnotes
*I bit the title, 'Jewzapalooza', from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. God bless Richard Pryor.
1. http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_pgc_jewish_essay.shtml
2. Lederhendler, Eli. 'New York City, the Jews, and "The Urban Experience"'. Studies in Contemporary Jewry. page 54
3. Kihss, Peter. "Many Steps Taken for Integration". New York Times. February 4, 1964
4. The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State.Benjamin Ginsburg. University Of Chicago Press. pages 125, 225
5. How Jews Became White Folks and What that Says About Race in America.. Brodkin, Karen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998
6. Lederhendler, Eli. 'New York City, the Jews, and "The Urban Experience"'. Studies in Contemporary Jewry. page 55
7. Joanne Shane interview. The Sheila Michaels Oral History Collection. Columbia University Library.
8. Crisis of the Black Intellectual. Cruse, Harold. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1967. Page 516.
Malcolm X . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2yrFAKtmTQ
9. CORE; a Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942-1968. August Meier, Elliot Rudnick, 1973, Oxford. pages 225, 336.
10. Dr. Anne Lyons, Oral history interview.
11. What Went Wrong?: The Creation & Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance Friedman, Murray. Free Press. pages 188-9.
12. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Arsenault, Raymond. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. pages 53-55. *note - the original source for this quote comes from Jervis Anderson's Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen in which Bayard Rustin is quoted directly. I have found no other source material that exactly confirms Rustin's recollection of what the judge said about Roodenko being Jewish.
13. . Joanne Shane interview. The Sheila Michaels Oral History Collection. Columbia University Library.
14. Polier, Shad. "The jew and the racial crisis, AJC, , july 15, 1964
15. Race Matters. West, Cornel. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993, page 71. 16. Shulmati Aloni interview. Democracy Now. August 14, 2002