“Rise of the Planet of the Apes’” David Oyelowo Stars in “Who Do You Love” at L.A. Jewish Film Fest

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on May 11, 2011

Black students group slams ‘apartheid’ abuse

Published on April 8, 2011

An African American students group took out ads in college newspapers blasting "Israel Apartheid week" organizers for abusing the term. In a full page entitled "words matter" and appearing in the newspapers on April 7, Vanguard Leadership Group accuses Students for Justice in Palestine of a "false and deeply offensive" characterization of Israel.

Farrakhan appearance dividing Pittsburgh’s black, Jewish communities

Published on March 9, 2011

A planned appearance by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in Pittsburgh has caused friction between the city's Jewish and black communities. Farrakhan, who has stepped up his campaign of anti-Semitism in recent years, is scheduled to appear on a panel Friday on a live radio broadcast from the Pennsylvania city.

Obama and the myth of the first black president

By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Published on February 28, 2011

First black female rabbi to leave congregation

Published on January 6, 2011

The first African-American female rabbi will leave her congregation this summer. Rabbi Alysa Stanton's contract with Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, S.C., was not renewed, the Forward reported Thursday. "We felt Rabbi Stanton has brought a lot of gifts to the congregation, but we felt she wasn’t a good fit for the direction we’re going,” board president Samantha Pilot told the Forward. “I can tell you with certainty that race -- I never heard that come up once during her tenure or now. It’s a non-issue."

Jackie Mason Calls Obama the ‘SCH’-word

Published on March 16, 2009

It can’t happen here

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 12, 2008

"People choose to remain gay, and people choose to remain Jewish," said an organizer. "Why should the majority of us be forced to honor that choice?"

Turning a page in the history books

By Steve Greenberg
Published on November 5, 2008

Rosh Hashanah means frank talk with family, not just apples and honey

By The Web Guy
Published on September 24, 2008

But he’s a Muslim!

By Marty Kaplan
Published on August 25, 2008

The Muslim issue is a way to talk about race without talking about race, and without having to squirm about saying that race is not an issue.

Newspaper: ‘Two Jews and a black man ...’

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on August 13, 2008

Final aliyah flight leaves Ethiopia for Israel, U.S. revokes Fulbright winners’ visas

Published on August 6, 2008

The last official airlift of Ethiopian Jews was scheduled to land in Tel Aviv tonight, bringing to an end a state-organized campaign that began nearly 30 years ago and brought in some 120,000 immigrants from the east African nation

Being an African American candidate is different

By Raphael J. Sonenshein
Published on August 6, 2008

An African American candidacy is different. Obama can't easily be the racial middleman as Clinton was. And being aggressive carries its own special dynamics.

Student on track to become first black female rabbi

By Sue Fishkoff
Published on May 15, 2008

Alysa Stanton-Ogulnick isn't particularly interested in being a standard-bearer.


She's proud to be black, proud to be a woman and proud to be a 45-year-old single mother who raised her adopted child on her own.

Spectator - A Sane Italian Jew? Fugedaboutit

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on March 30, 2006

An adept impressionist, Solomon imitates his Old World Italian and Jewish relatives, as well as Jamaicans, Indian taxi drivers, pet dogs, even metal detectors. While many comedians draw upon the clashes between their parents, few would characterize them as Solomon does in a phone interview -- "the cup is half-full for my dad; for my mom, it's half-empty with poison in it."

We Mourn ‘First Lady’ of Civil Rights

By Rabbi Marc Schneier
Published on February 9, 2006

Coretta Scott King understood that a people who fight for their own rights are only as honorable as when they fight for the rights of all people. In this spirit, she championed the legacy of her late husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in strengthening black-Jewish relations, in fighting for the civil rights of Jews and in supporting the issues and concerns of the Jewish community with the State of Israel in particular. Coretta Scott King, who died Jan. 30 at the age of 78, was honored Tuesday in a tribute attended by four presidents and an estimated 10,000 mourners.

Rosa Parks’ Message for Today

By Leonard Fein
Published on November 3, 2005

The moral -- these many years later -- is not immediately obvious. Yes, it's about what one person can do, but it is about much more than that. It's about leadership and about community organization

Jews Note Role in Historic School Case

By Matthew E. Berger
Published on May 13, 2004

Esther Swirk Brown wasn't the Brown for whom the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case desegregating schools is named -- but she is the Jewish woman who helped find Oliver Brown, no relation, to be the lead plaintiff in the historic case.

As a young woman in Kansas, Esther Brown was horrified by the conditions of the school that black children, including the children of her housekeeper, were forced to attend. The one-room schoolhouse in South Park had dilapidated walls and missing light bulbs.

The Other Side of the South

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on September 4, 2003

What surprised Warner Shook was the play's reference to Jewish bigotry: "I had known nothing about the conflict between German and Eastern European Jews," he said. Shook was so fascinated he decided to direct the piece; to learn more, he read books on Jewish Atlanta and watched documentaries such as "Delta Jews," narrated by Uhry.

Men in Black

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on March 28, 2002

There in my darkened doorway were two men in black mid-length coats with long, curly beards and black hats; a younger and an older man, with eyes burning so clear and bright that they seemed to be reading from an inner script. There was about their smiling countenances such a sense of purpose, that the word "messenger" sprang to mind. They knew and I knew. They had come for me.

Meanwhile, Back in Florida…

By Wendy J. Madnick
Published on November 16, 2000

While the nation watched and waited as the battle over the presidency continued to unfold, two old friends met in Florida last week to try to bring a resolution to the dispute over the ballots in West Palm Beach. Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills and his longtime colleague, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, spent the week after the election touring the state, attempting to bring together what they called the disenfranchised voters of Florida's Black and Jewish communities.

Coalition Politics That Work

By David Evanier
Published on October 5, 2000

"It's almost magical," said Jon Friedman, a Democratic activist, of the effective coalition politics waged by the 47th Assembly District Committee. The committee, which covers a wide rectangular area including Culver City and the South Fairfax and Beverlywood neighborhoods, and extending east as far as central city areas north of the Inglewood city line, is comprised mainly of Black and Jewish members who have formed a bond of closeness and trust. The ages ranges from 20's to 70's. Members are civil servants, teachers, lawyers, show business folk, small business people, health care technicians.

Black and White

Published on January 20, 2000

I met Cliff Freeman the summer I was 16; it was the end of the 1940s. He was about a year older than me and was the first black person I ever knew well.

Death of a Patriarch

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on October 8, 1998

Tom Bradley was buried Monday, hailed as Los Angeles' longtime mayor, statesman, leader and friend. His is a grand biography; a son of Texas sharecroppers and the grandson of slaves, Bradley broke down ethnic and class barriers and forged a new multiracial political base that re-created this capital city of the Pacific Rim.

A One Woman Show With a Vengeance

By Charles Marowitz
Published on February 19, 1998

Harriet Tubman, the fugitive-slave andabolitionist, was a kind of African-American Mata Hari.