Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement
Online
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The year 2020 has been a transformative one for American society, but what is it becoming?
Even as the country struggles with a pandemic and massive unemployment, many Americans have at the same time been newly awakened to racial injustice and economic inequality. Much of the change now underway has been tragic; some of it is hopeful; and the combination may yet produce a very different America.
The aim of this online series is to draw on the insights of scholarship to explore the implications of all these changes for American Jews—their role in the changes underway, and/or the stake they have in them as a community. Through presentations by experts from the fields of Jewish Studies, Religious Studies and Political Theory, the series will address the implications for Jews of the #Metoo movement, the continuing struggle against racism, the prospects for freedom of speech, the fight against economic injustice, and the future of America's relationship with Israel.
No one can be certain about what the future brings, but in certain ways, the future is already here. The aim of this series is to encourage reflection about the America to come, and what Jews can do to help shape it.
Renowned scholar and activist Dr. Anthea Butler brings new perspectives to the much-discussed relationship between Black and Jewish Americans in civil rights movements, past and present.
Featuring
Anthea Butler
Anthea Butler is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian of African American and American religion, Professor Butler’s research and writing spans African American religion and history, race, politics, Evangelicalism, gender and sexuality, media, and popular culture. You can find more of her writing and public engagement at AntheaButler.com.
A sought-after commentator on the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, The History Channel and PBS, Professor Butler regularly writes opinion pieces covering religion, race, politics and popular culture for The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and The Guardian. She has also served as a consultant to the PBS series God in America and the American Experience on Aimee Semple McPherson.
Cosponsors
Presented in partnership with the National Museum of American Jewish History.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Klatt Family and the Harry Stern Family Foundation.