ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways Jews reacted to the events of the 1960s and 1970s: to struggles for community control, the ascendancy of Black Power, the formation of new coalitions by their old allies. Tensions have mounted in recent years and spirits that soared in the early 1960s. Whatever the agencies of government say, Jews are still a minority in America. Spanish Jews in the fifteenth century, Russian Jews in the nineteenth, and German Jews in the twentieth were successful minorities but, it turned out, terribly vulnerable ones. From the early part of the twentieth century, American historians have noted that Jews have been in the forefront of many movements to seek human dignity and unfettered opportunity for all. Jews formed strong alliances with Blacks, with labor and human rights groups, and despite their diversity successfully pursued common causes, especially during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency. American Jewish history and folklore are filled with stories of struggle, setback, survival, and success.
