The Quiet Voices

"Jews have long been in the vanguard of the struggle for civil liberties in America. But as this excellent new collection demonstrates, the American Jewish community's reaction to the black civil rights movement was less enthusiastic than many may realize or be willing to accept.... Many of the most provocative points concern northern Jewish ambivalence toward African-Americans and integration.... A carefully crafted and subtle collection that will interest scholars of American Jewish history, black-Jewish relations, and the American civil rights movement." - AJS Review "This collection is organized around a familiar yet still unsettled question: did Jews in the South resist white supremacy? If so, did they act out of narrow self-interest or a larger humanitarian vision? Was Jewish opposition to white racism the result of a few individuals who happened to be Jews, or a prophetic mission on the part of Jews as a group? The book... offers a more specific and grounded understanding of what life was like for southern rabbis caught between the caution and conservatism of their congregations and the moral imperatives of their faith. In doing so, the book allows us to reposition the question from whether a black-Jewish coalition was genuine or mythical, to how activities of rabbis contributed to changing the racial situation in the South. There [is] a wealth of useful and thought provoking material in these pages." - Journal of Southern History"