Moral Men / Difficult Dialogues: Review Essay

42 SHOFAR Spring 1997 Vol. 15, No.3 Moral Men / Difficult Dialogues: Review Essay Debra 1. Schultz Dr. Debra Schultz is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women, Rutgers University (1996-97). She is working on a book about northern Jewish women who went South to work in the civil rights movement during the years 1960-1966. She is particularly interested in seeing Jewish identity included in discussions of multiculturalism. The former -As'sistant Director of the National Council for Research on Women, she continues her commitment to multiculturaVglobaVfeminism and women's studies as an International Advisory Board member ofthe Moscow Center for Gender Studies. Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin, by Michael Lerner and Cornel West. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1995. 276pp. $24.95. This book is a dialogue between Michael Lerner and Cornel West-two progressive and visionary men-one a Jewish American, the other an African-American. Lerner is the author ofJewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation! and founder of the magazine Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique ofPolitics, Culture, and Society. West, professor of Afro-American studies and the philosophy ofreligion at Harvard University, is a prolific author ofmany scholarly and popular books, including Race Matters.2 Both men have tried diligently to reframe contemporary debates on Black-Jewish relations. Having been involved in each others' lives as friends and colleagues discussing BlackJewish relations for six years, they decided to model the type ofcivil discourse they wanted to see in these debates. Their book is an edited compilation ofthe many public dialogues they held around the country on this issue. Having learned from feminists that "the personal is the political," the men laudably begin from their own life experiences, which are illuminating. Readers may be surprised to learn that Cornel West was a real troublemaker as a kid-he was kicked out of school at age nine for beating up a pregnant teacher. This crisis led to a spiritual conversion in the Black Baptist Church. West was also influenced by the Black Panthers as a teenager growing up in Sacramento. These two streams-the political and the spiritual-remain INew York: PutnamlBerkley, 1994. 2Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. Moral Men / Difficult Dialogues 43 central to his work. He went to Harvard at age 17, where he began his rise to prominence as one ofAmerica's leading public intellectuals. Michael Lerner speaks critically of the mixed messages he received growing up in New Jersey from his politically active parents about whether to embrace or hide one's Jewish identity in order to "make it" in America. Making an essential argument about class, Lerner recalls that his mother saw his interest in Judaism as leading to downward mobility. This interest was sustained by one grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi who refused to assimilate; by Joachim Prinz, the rabbi ofhis local temple and one often conveners ofthe 1963 March on Washington; and then, most powerfully, when the 13-year-old Lerner met his mentor, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a close friend and ally ofDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. West mentions developing real social and intellectual friendships with Jewish students in college. Lerner, though influenced earlier by the writings of Wright, Ellison, and Baldwin, says he experienced his first real comradeship with Blacks when he was in jail as an anti-war activist. In jail, he was very open about his Jewishness and he recalls appreciatively that the Black inmates were supportive ofthat. What does it mean that West made friendships with Jews on the elite terrain of Harvard and Lerner connected with Blacks in jail, also under circumstances not likely to be experienced by the majority of young Jewish people today? Given the still insufficient numbers of young AfricanAmericans in college and the absence of cross-racial social movements, where will a critical mass ofBlack and Jewish young people encounter each other and develop real relationships today? Lerner and West are aware ofthese structural limitations, and they try to fill the gap themselves. Both master speakers, they present themselves as teacher-preachers. In their zeal, they can get too didactic. While the intimacy of their dialogue probably heightens excitement for audiences who hear...