Shared pain creates bond

Four months after Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany in 1933, all of the country’s 1,200… Four months after Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany in 1933, all of the country’s 1,200 Jewish professors were fired as anti-Semitism continued to grow in the country.

Upon fleeing to the United States a few of those refugee scholars, such as Albert Einstein, were embraced by American society.

However, most did not encounter such acceptance, and in the face of prejudice, a few fled to the Deep South, toward black communities that accepted and befriended the Jewish refugees more readily than their white counterparts.

Despite this escape, life was not easy for the scholars who resisted the injustice of the country’s Jim Crow laws. The struggles of these scholars and the relationships they formed with their black students were recorded in a documentary, “From Swastika to Jim Crow,” shown on campus Tuesday.

The event, arranged by the Hillel Jewish University Center through use of the Gendler Family Advocacy Grant, was also co-sponsored by the African Students Organization, Amnesty International and the Anti-Defamation League.

It was the first movie shown on campus this semester through Hillel’s new Social Justice Movie series.

“Hillel actually showed the movie on campus two years ago,” member Emily Hamiowitz said. “And we thought the movie’s message was so strong that we had to bring it back.”

The documentary recounts the experiences of the refugee scholars and their black students in a time and place where friendly interracial friendships and fraternization were prohibited by the law and common culture.

Scorned by white American families in the North and in the South simply for being Jewish, these German professors found refuge in black colleges and universities where they developed lifelong bonds with their students.

Because of the bonds with black students, some of the refugee scholars were arrested, denied tenure and ostracized further by their suspicious white neighbors. Meanwhile, their students flourished under their guidance, gaining life mentors.

“We thought it was important to show the movie so close to Martin Luther King Jr. Day because of its relevance,” said Adam Fudala, the head of Hillel’s Social Justice Group. “We just hope that everyone who watched this will leave with a better understanding of prejudice and how important it is to fight it.”