Like a bad rash that keeps coming back when it gets too hot, Nation of Islam leader the Rev. Louis Farrkhan has returned. He did so last week with a truly wacky letter to, of all people, Abraham Foxman, the national head of the Anti-Defamation League. For good measure, he sent it to some other American Jewish leaders as well. (What, Louie, my insults aren’t good enough to gain a copy? No more chocolate/toffee matzah Pesach packages for you!)

The letter was wrapped around a two-volume work called “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,” which was written by the Nation of Islam’s alleged “Historical Research Department,” whose staff probably attended marketing seminars put on by the posse of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il.

In his June 24 note, the Rev. Farrakhan accused Jews of perpetrating “the most vehement anti-Black behavior in the annals of our history in America and the world.” And then – it’s true—he asked for a dialogue to “help me in the repair of my people from the damage that has been done by your ancestors to mine.”

Oh Louie, when will you learn?

But the real question is deeper: Does it matter? After all, is anyone surprised that the Rev. Farrakhan has yet again taken himself out of running for righteous gentile of the year?

Actually, it does matter. This is not just an unpolished idiot standing on a street corner. In fact, it’s a well-heeled idiot who lives a lavish lifestyle in a Chicago mansion in comforts of which his tens of thousands of followers can only dream. And they do come out to hear his very open anti-Semitism.

Take, for example, the Rev. Farrakhan’s June 26 speech in the Atlanta Civic Center. According to Mr. Foxman’s ADL – which has made a fine tradition of following the Rev. Fararkhan around—the black nationalist declared “[Jews] have always tied themselves to black people. They attach themselves to our talent. They are the managers, the agents and they are the accountants and that’s why our black artists loved fame and got fame but died poor because somebody else got their money… No black man or woman becomes a multimillionaire without friendship in the Jewish community.” (More excerpts from the recent talk are here: http://www.adl.org/main_Nation_of_Islam/farrakhan_atlanta_israel.htm).

As one who back in the mid-1990s attended one of his speeches – hint: make sure you have plenty of time; he was 90 minutes late and then spoke for three hours – this is far from something new.

Still, as we rightly express our outrage, we cannot allow this to paint the whole canvas of the American black-Jewish relationship.

Take, for example, the recent June 13 program at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History, one co-sponsored with the Jewish Museum of Maryland and called “On Point: The State of African American and Jewish Relations.” The conversation was part of the exhibit “Beyond Swastika And Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars At Black Colleges.” It runs through August 31 and offers a fascinating glimpse at the tensions and shared values of our two communities. It is provocative and worthy of a few hours. Find out more here: http://www.africanamericanculture.org/exhibit_special.html .

And as you walk through the displays, ponder how what’s being focused on is how blacks and Jews have struggled to live together (and not always successfully) – not the glorification of pathological racism so vital to the identity of Rev. Louis Farrakhan and his fellow worshippers of human depravity.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”  -Aldous Huxley, “Proper Studies”, 1927

Neil,

Engaging in ad hominem argument and sophistry is invalid yet useful when deflection is desired. Pehaps one of your blogs should attempt to debunk the facts as presented from the “Historical Research Department”.

For instance, being the skilled jouranlist you are, you should quickly do away with such claims like:

    ‘In his 1983 book Jews and Judaism in the United States, Rabbi Dr. Marc Lee Raphael, the longtime editor of the most prestigious Jewish historical journal wrote in two paragraphs (p. 14) one of the more definitive statements on Jewish involvement in the Black Holocaust: “… Jewish merchants played a major role in the slave trade. In fact, in all the American colonies, whether French (Martinique), British, or Dutch, Jewish merchants frequently dominated. This was no less true on the North American mainland, where during the eighteenth century Jews participated in the “triangular trade” that brought slaves from Africa to the West Indies and there exchanged them for molasses, which in turn was taken to New England and converted into rum for sale in Africa …”

Neil, if you would be a bit honest you would just come on out and say you hate Farrakhan’s guts and wish him evil but gosh darn the “Historical Research Department” findings were quite factual.

Hi Neil;
This seems to be a case of deja vu, you asked in March if it was still important and worthwhile to monitor and comment on the Rev. Farrakhans remarks, and whether it did more harm than good. To which I strongly replied YES!! it is needed now more than ever, this recent outrage proves the point. Eternal Vigilance is a small price to pay in exchange for advance warning of possible comong storms!