Hillel, BAS discuss ethnic cooperation

When Jewish professors and intellectuals escaped Nazi Germany before and during the Holocaust,… When Jewish professors and intellectuals escaped Nazi Germany before and during the Holocaust, many came to the United States seeking a more inclusive society.

The American South, entrenched in the segregated customs of “Jim Crow,” hardly embodied the ideal society that Jewish refugee-scholars sought. In fact, Jim Crow laws in Southern states created social regimes that were racially divided and, with few exceptions, unequal.

But some refugee-scholars found an unlikely home: black colleges. As depicted in the film “From Swastika to Jim Crow,” which was presented to a group of local students Wednesday night, Jewish professors taught black students, developed friendships in black communities of the South, and formed bonds of long-lasting significance.

These are just the kinds of bonds that Hillel’s Jewish Student Life Coordinator Jackie Braslawsce hopes to create. By bringing Hillel and Pitt’s Black Action Society together, Braslawsce believes that she can pave the way for other new relationships on campus as well.

“Hopefully, by spreading ties between these two groups, it’ll spread to other groups as well,” Braslawsce said. “I want to try to bridge these gaps.”

More than 25 students viewed “From Swastika to Jim Crow” in the Public Health Auditorium Wednesday night, in an event that also included dialogue and small-group reflection. The film, which showed alternating images of Nazi violence towards Jews and violent police suppression of black citizens in the United States, suggested similarities in the treatment of blacks and Jews.

Mark Shabason, a Pitt student who attended the event, believes the similarities are striking.

“We always think of America as the land of freedom, where everyone has equal rights,” Shabason said. “There were a lot of parallels between the Jews in Germany and African-Americans [in the United States].”

The Anti-Defamation League, which screens “From Swastika to Jim Crow” at campuses nationwide to improve relations between blacks and Jews, facilitated the event. According to Vanessa Gerideau, president of Black Action Society, the event is not a reaction to any particular incident, but a proactive measure to establish channels of discourse.

“We’re both minorities. If any incidents occur, we already have that communication,” Gerideau said.

Many students were not aware of the phenomenon of Jewish professors finding academic homes in black universities. Encountering more insidious forms of anti-Semitism and nativism in well-known and predominantly white American universities, refugee-scholars found that they were very welcome at schools with names like Tougaloo College, Hampton Institute and North Carolina Central University.

Black universities were generally exempt from segregation laws, so white professors and staff often worked side by side with blacks.

The interaction between the once unfamiliar cultures tended to be a fruitful one. John Herz, a refugee-scholar who taught political science at Howard University, recalled in the film that he “assumed that his black students would have more interest and a better understanding in fascism, Nazism and racism.”

Dina Clark Rodriguez, an Anti-Defamation League facilitator, aimed to get students talking about their differences in a thoughtful way. She said that, too often, students mix only within groups with which they are familiar. She and another facilitator, Cindy Goodman-Leib, sparked conversation in several groups of six or seven that gathered around the auditorium.

“If you don’t have to think about your experience or what’s going on in the world, change can’t happen here,” Rodriguez said.

By the end of the event, Hillel’s Braslawsce was confident that the story of refugee scholars, and the broader message of mutual respect, had been presented well.

“I see it as a starting point. The 25, 30 students that were here … they are the starting point of something that will be great.”