Prof. Peniel Joseph (AAAS), Wall Street Journal editor Jonathan Kaufman and Harvard Law School Prof. Randall Kennedy agreed on Sen. Barack Obama's success in attracting a large number of Jewish supporters and debated the impact his presidency could have on black/Jewish relations and on race policy in the United States during a panel discussion last Thursday. Prof. Ibrahim Sundiata (HIST) moderated the event, "Blacks, Jews, and Obama: Can Obama's Candidacy Restore the Old Liberal Alliance?," which featured panelists Joseph, who has worked as a political commentator for the Public Broadcasting Station, and Kaufman and Kennedy, who have written respectively about Black/Jewish relations and race and the law.

Joseph and Kaufman explained that Obama's large circle of Jewish supporters and advisers gives him a lot of power to restore black/Jewish relations that grew tense during the last few decades of the 20th century.

Joseph explained that Jews and African Americans in the 20th century were both in "pursuit of small-deed democracy," a democratic society free of any kind of discrimination in light of their own experiences.

He and Kaufman cited Jewish involvement in causes such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement; however, Kaufman cautioned that there were some unequal power relations and that African Americans felt that the wealthy Jews sometimes treated them "as the little brother in suffering" because of the Jews' long history with discrimination.

Joseph explained that divisions between the groups ensued after events such as Jesse Jackson's reference to New York as "himey town," using a derogatory term for Jews, during his 1984 presidential bid. Urban rioting in New York in the 1990s, which stemmed from a car accident that killed a black man and the subsequent killing of an innocent Jewish person, also contributed to a division, he said.

Kaufman expressed optimism that an Obama presidency could re-energize the black/Jewish relationship rather than keep it as the flat line, with no positive growth, that it has been during President Bush's administration.

He called the rise of Obama the "tip of an iceberg of black achievement," and said that African Americans have decision-making roles in American society in far greater numbers than in the past. He said an Obama presidency can bring the country back together again and bring about better cooperation between African Americans and Jews.

The panelists elucidated and sought to dispel concerns that Obama is anti-Semitic. They emphasized the need to question allegations about Obama's racial and religious sentiments in the first place.

Joseph said that there is an onus on the Obama candidacy to show that Obama does not carry anti-Semitic sentiments like other prominent African American leaders such as Jesse Jackson. He said Obama "has purged himself of a de facto anti-Semitism that fills the black community."

Kaufman said charges that Obama is Muslim and secretly hates Jews are "almost laughable" because of Obama's close support from Jewish leaders.

Kennedy explained that allegations of Obama's Muslim background raise the deeper question of "How should he and we respond to the fact that a person's religious identity is itself an allegation suggesting that someone is not worthy of being President of the United States?"

He questioned whether Obama would address issues like these directly and said he would be surprised if Obama had explicit conversations about race relations. He said Obama would focus on diversity rather than traditional forms of liberal race policy such as affirmative action.

Joseph responded to a question from the audience that Obama can serve as a representative force for various minority groups and that his presidency will have enough symbolic power to transform race relations within the United States, but that he has to stoke reconciliation by creating a presidential dialogue on this subject.

Nathan Robinson '11 asked whether Obama is creating a different figure for himself than the first generation of black politicians, to which Kaufman responded that Obama would be criticized for not addressing urban issues in light of his assimilation in mainstream America.

Obama's campaign is the "watershed of ultimate progress but not the ultimate destination," Joseph said.