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Yiddish culture shared mainstream racist stereotypes of the 1920s, new book shows
This article initially appeared in Yiddish and can be read here.
America held many surprises for Jewish immigrants arriving at its shores over 150 years ago but one of the most significant was meeting African Americans, something that was very unfamiliar, even alien to them.
Sholem Aleichem conveyed this feeling in his series of stories Motl, Pesye the Cantor’s Son. In one memorable episode, its protagonist Motl, aged about nine, gets on the New York subway for the first time and sees a Black couple on the train. Stunned, he describes them in terms that would shock today’s readers: “Crude creatures. Horribly thick lips. Large white teeth and white nails.”
Critics would naturally focus on the racist stereotypes in this passage. But who’s to blame here: the author or the character?
In his latest book, Gil Ribak (University of Arizona) tackles this very question, putting Motl’s words right in the title: “Crude Creatures: Confronting Representations of Black People in Yiddish Culture.” Hillel Halkin’s English translation of these Sholem Aleichem stories, Ribak notes, omits the phrase, in a sign of modern discomfort around racist language.
Ribak isn’t the first scholar to take on this complicated, sensitive topic. However, until recently, scholars tended to tread carefully around attitudes toward African Americans as reflected in Yiddish literature; positive stories were amplified, and any negative elements kept quiet. Racist stereotypes didn’t figure in conversation, although they had existed all along. Even the Yiddish leftist literati, who openly sympathized with the hardships of Black people, made use of such expressions.
And as Ribak argues in his thoroughly researched study, we must keep in mind that the terms and images that sound so offensive today didn’t have the same meaning for readers a hundred years ago.
The stereotype of Black people as “wild animals” emerged in Hebrew and Yiddish when Ashkenazi Jews were still living in Eastern Europe, where most people had never seen an African person. European culture in general played a major role in transmitting this image, but it also reached Jewish communities through traditional Yiddish books. One example: The popular Yiddish Bible adaptation, Tsenerene, explains that the children of Noah’s son Ham, as punishment for their father’s sin, would be made “dark” and “black.”
When American Yiddish journalists set out to explain the American race problem to their readers, they viewed the South through an Eastern European lens, likening the African Americans to Russian peasants. Yiddish socialists claimed that the bitter experiences of slavery had made both the African Americans and the Russian peasants “slow,” “coarse” and “lazy.” The comparison was bolstered by the fact that Russian serfs and African American slaves had both been emancipated around the same time, in the 1860s.
In the United States, Ribak notes, the African American became a kind of Russian peasant incarnate in the American Jewish imagination. Ab Cahan, the editor-in-chief of the Forverts, drew a parallel for his readers between the Southern whites in America and Polish nobles back in Eastern Europe: hospitable and civil with their own, but when it came to those they considered their inferiors — the slave and the serf — they treated them as less than human.
Even as they protested anti-Black violence in the South, progressive Yiddish journalists and activists like Baruch Vladek and Ab Cahan still used racist stereotypes. Reporting for the Forverts on the Leo Frank trial in Atlanta in 1914, Cahan observed that “the streets were full of Negroes, mostly filthy and ragged.” To see how widespread these stereotypes were, one need look no further than the numerous caricatures by Jewish cartoonists that appeared in the popular satirical weekly Der Groyser Kundes (The Big Prankster).
Sometimes Jews and African Americans found themselves residing side by side in America’s urban centers. As Ribak notes, in Harlem, New York, in the early 20th century, Jews were practically the only white residents living among the majority Black population. But the two groups didn’t mix much, and by 1930, nearly all the Jews had left the neighborhood.
To be sure, Yiddish socialists upheld racial equality as an important principle, recognizing that Black people were the victims of discrimination and oppression. In practice, however, they had little direct contact with African Americans and often perceived them as “weaker and younger brothers.”
This ambivalence also plays out in the works of other American Yiddish writers like Sholem Asch, Joseph Opatoshu and Boruch Glazman. They all opposed racism, but their fictional portrayals of African Americans consistently drew on racist stereotypes, most visibly so in their descriptions of Black physicality, of faces and gestures. Opatoshu’s well-known story, A Lynching, is a telling example.
Ribak concludes that the authors’ negative, aesthetic representations in these literary works were at odds with their progressive, ethical worldviews. In other words, these writers were internally conflicted by their own diametrically opposed attitudes.
Ribak’s book is packed with vivid details from thousands of Yiddish, Hebrew and English sources. Unlike most Yiddish scholars today, he doesn’t limit his analysis to well-worn samplings of “high” culture and progressive journalism, but also cites examples in low-brow Yiddish popular culture.
Ribak’s wide-ranging approach allows him to reveal a series of complicated and sometimes contradictory positions that Eastern European immigrants held on the American race issue in the first othree decades of the twentieth century.
The many examples in this book support Ribak’s argument that Jewish immigrants were far from bias-free when it came to race. There’s a bit of implicit polemic here, too, against the tendency in the field of Yiddish Studies today, to focus exclusively on the progressive, anti-racist elements of American Yiddish culture.
It’s fair to say that by appropriating racist clichés, Jewish immigrants were hoping to take one step further on the path toward Americanization. It made them feel like truly “white” Americans, a very real matter at a time when American society was intensely xenophobic and antisemitic. But things would change. By the 1930s, leftist Jews began to see Black people as potential partners in the struggle for social and economic justice.
The post Yiddish culture shared mainstream racist stereotypes of the 1920s, new book shows appeared first on The Forward.
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Mamdani draws lines around how Jews should use ‘sacred spaces’
After protesters hounded people entering an event promoting immigration to Israel at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan last month, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani condemned the demonstration — with a notable caveat.
“He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation,” Dora Pekec, Mamdani’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “And that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
Mamdani may have had a previous news cycle in mind when he issued this response. Last year, protesters in New Jersey and California were accused of antisemitism for demonstrating outside several synagogues before the target of their ire — real estate seminars offering property in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — became clear and blunted some of the criticism.
But the event at Park East was more complicated than the real estate seminars, and Mamdani’s implicit condemnation of the synagogue for hosting it marked a messy entry into the fight over when Jews deserve protection, and when they don’t.
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Protesters were targeting an event hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh, an NGO sponsored by the Israeli government that serves as the primary clearinghouse for North American Jews who want to make aliyah, or immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, regardless of their politics.
The argument that any synagogue that promotes aliyah is engaged in the violation of international law is so charged because almost every mainstream congregation in the United States supports Jews moving to Israel, at least implicitly. Aliyah is a core component of Zionism and rooted in the religious beliefs of many Jews. Nefesh B’Nefesh references a line from the Torah, “we shall surely ascend and inherit the Land,” in its promotional materials.
Mamdani’s office tried to clarify his statement following the initial uproar, and stated that he only objected to Nefesh B’Nefesh encouraging immigration to Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
But here’s the rub: The Israeli government refuses to acknowledge any meaningful distinction between Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the rest of Israel — and, in fact, they often make distinguishing between the two illegal.
This came up in my reporting on Ben & Jerry’s unsuccessful attempt to stop doing business in Israeli settlements. Marc Stern, chief legal officer at the American Jewish Committee, explained to me that the Israeli government prohibits businesses from refusing to serve settlements. That means operating in Israel effectively requires operating in the West Bank, and boycotting Israeli settlements in the West Bank — a strategy once referred to as “Zionist B.D.S.” — effectively means boycotting the rest of Israel.
So it’s true that Nefesh B’Nefesh lists several Israeli settlements as potential destinations for American Jews. But as a quasi-state enterprise, the organization likely couldn’t exclude the settlements from its programming even if it wanted to.
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The possibility that contemporary support for Israel may be inseparable, at least in practice, from supporting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, has caused plenty of consternation among American Jews.
But it’s treacherous territory for Mamdani to enter because, as I’ve written before, failing to distinguish between Jewish leaders and organizations that are actively promoting and supporting a right-wing vision of Israel, and everyone else, risks declaring open season on the vast majority of American Jews.
And the protesters outside Park East certainly weren’t making careful distinctions about where, exactly, those in attendance were interested in moving.
Chants from demonstrators included “resistance, you make us proud, take another settler out,” reported Luke Tress in the Times of Israel, and “settlers, settlers, go back home, Palestine is ours alone,” celebrating violence against Israeli civilians and calling for the wholesale expulsion of Jews from Israel — both of which would be violation of international law in their own right.
Mamdani is clearly wary of playing into the hands of Jewish leaders who consider the vast majority of demonstrations against Israel to be antisemitic. But many synagogues display Israeli flags on the bimah, organize congregational trips to Israel and issue statements of solidarity with Israel during times of war.
The Park East incident was no doubt only a preview of things to come, and as Mamdani prepares to take office he’ll need to decide with much more precision what, exactly, he believes marks a synagogue as sacred or profane.
GO DEEPER:
- What does Mamdani’s response to synagogue protests mean for Jews? No one will like the answer.
- NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch apologizes for allowing ‘turmoil’ outside synagogue
- Most American Jews believe Zohran Mamdani will make NYC Jews less safe, Israeli poll finds
- What the LA synagogue pro-Palestinian protest was really about
The post Mamdani draws lines around how Jews should use ‘sacred spaces’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Israel Publishes Draft Law Seeking to Boost State Revenues From Dead Sea Minerals
A drone picture shows part of the Dead Sea and its shore near Ein Gedi, Israel, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
Israel on Wednesday published a draft law that aims to boost state revenues from a concession for extracting minerals from the Dead Sea as well as tackling its environmental consequences.
The Finance Ministry said the proposed law intends to redefine the concession to ensure the public and the state get their rightful share, while ensuring the preservation of nature and environmental values.
“The law serves as the basis for allocating the concession and the terms of the future tender for resource extraction from the Dead Sea, with an emphasis on promoting optimal competition, lowering entry barriers, and attracting leading international players,” it said.
Fertilizer maker ICL Group has held the concession, giving it exclusive rights to minerals from the Dead Sea site, for five decades, but its permit is set to expire in 2030.
Last month, ICL gave up right of first refusal for its Dead Sea concession under a government plan to open it up for tender, although it would receive some $3 billion if it loses the permit when it expires.
ICL, one of the world’s largest potash producers, has previously said its Dead Sea assets were worth $6 billion. ICL extracts mainly potash and magnesium from the concession.
Under the draft law, which still needs preliminary approval from lawmakers, the state‘s share of concession profits would ultimately rise to an average of 50% from 35% currently, partly through royalties, the ministry said.
The law also aims to tackle negative impacts of resource extraction activities in the Dead Sea, which continues to shrink.
ICL plans to participate in the future tender and has said it believes it is the most suitable candidate to operate the future concession.
Accountant General Yali Rothenberg said the law places emphasis on fair, efficient, and responsible use of one of Israel’s most important natural resources.
It “will ensure that the state maximizes economic value for the public, promotes optimal competition, and protects the unique environment of the Dead Sea region for future generations,” he said.
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Israel Says It Received Body From Hamas, Indicates Rafah Crossing to Open Soon to Let Gazans Cross Into Egypt
People hold images of dead hostages Ran Gvili and Sudthisak Rinthalak, whose bodies haven’t been returned yet, as Israelis attend a rally calling for the immediate return of the remains of all hostages held in Gaza, more than two years after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nir Elias
Israel received a body that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said was one of the last two deceased hostages in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israel said it would allow Gaza’s gateway to Egypt to open once all hostages were returned.
A body has been transferred by the Red Cross to the Israeli military and will undergo forensic identification, a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said.
Hamas also handed over remains on Tuesday, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said were not of any hostage.
The handover of the last hostages’ bodies in Gaza would complete a key condition of the initial part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the two-year Gaza war, which also provides for the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to open in both directions.
Israel has kept the crossing shut since the ceasefire came into effect in October, saying that Hamas must abide by the agreement to return all hostages still in Gaza, living and deceased.
“The crossing will be opened both ways when all of our hostages have been returned,” Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters.
Since the fragile truce started, Hamas has returned all 20 living hostages and 26 bodies in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners, but two more deceased captives – an Israeli police officer and a Thai agricultural worker – are still in Gaza.
ISRAEL SAYS PREVIOUS ‘FINDINGS’ NOT LINKED TO HOSTAGES
The armed wing of the Hamas-allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group, the Al Quds Brigades, said it had found a hostage body after conducting a search in northern Gaza, along with a team from the Red Cross.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had handed over the body to the Red Cross late on Wednesday afternoon. The groups did not say which of the two remaining deceased hostages they believed it to be.
The two are Israeli police officer Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, both kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered two years of devastating war in Gaza.
OPENING OF CROSSING COULD ALLOW OUT THOSE NEEDING TREATMENT
COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees humanitarian matters, said the Rafah crossing would be opened in the coming days to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt.
The decision to open the crossing for those seeking to leave Gaza was made in “full coordination” with those that have mediated between Israel and Hamas during the war, Bedrosian said.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the US, has acted as a mediator.
COGAT said it would be opened under the supervision of a European Union mission – a similar mechanism to that employed during a previous Gaza ceasefire agreed in January 2025.
Before the war, the Rafah crossing was a key entry point for aid into the territory, as well as weapons smuggling for Hamas. It has been mostly closed throughout the conflict.
At least 16,500 patients in Gaza require medical care outside of the enclave, according to the United Nations. Some Gazans have managed to leave for medical treatment abroad through Israel.
Violence has tailed off since the Oct. 10 ceasefire but Israel has continued to strike Gaza and conduct demolitions against what it says is Hamas infrastructure. Hamas and Israel have traded blame for violating the US-backed agreement.