Al Jolson and the Jews

Award-winning author Michael Alexander explored Jewish identity for Al Jolson, Felix Frankfurter and Arnold Rothstein in a talk titled "Mammy, Don't Ya Know Me?" at the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life on January 30, 2008. By the 1920s, Jews were -- by all economic, political and cultural measures of the day -- making it in America. Yet many deliberately identified with groups that remained marginalized. Alexander, author of the National Jewish Book Award-winning "Jazz Age Jews" (2003), tells the stories of Al Jolson, Felix Frankfurter and Arnold Rothstein. The gangster accused of fixing the 1919 World Series (Rothstein); the defending lawyer for the infamous Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial, who went on to become a Supreme Court justice (Frankfurter); and the star of the first talkie (Jolson) all became heroes to the American Jewish community for their association with events that galvanized the country and defined the Jazz Age. Alexander's book pulls together from the threads of their lives a theological explanation of 1920s Jews, who thought of themselves as outsiders no matter how successful they became. Michael Alexander is the Murray Friedman Professor of History and director of the Myer and Rosaline Feinstein Center for American Jewish History at Temple University. Established in memory of USC alumnus Burton Lewis, the Burton Lewis Lecture Series focuses on the Jewish role in arts and culture -- a topic of great interest and close to the heart of the late Mr. Lewis and his family.

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[thegreeensky]

well said.. nice piece...

[blastingcaps]

@CoolMovesNow No. It doesnt mean anything.

[megaswenson]

@Heathen531 I absolutely agree with you. Everyone should be free to self-segregate if they want to. And yes, there is a 'holy' racial war against white separatists. Who's behind it? Narcissistic religious 'leaders' (including Christian churches intent upon destroying the very groups who are their core demographic), Marxists? Competing ethnic groups? Multinational corporations? All of the above?

But again, every group has the right (IMHO) to racial preservation. I totally agree.

[Heathen531]

@megas "we possess what are considered "the crucial genes"/"the advantageous alleles". This is true for almost all Jews, everywhere. We are a distinct group..." Do you think, as a Jew, that it would only be fair that the rest of us retained our "crucial genes"? Can we now all promote racial preservation free from persecution, forced integration, and psychological subterfuge? Will Jews and their organization (like the ADL) stop waging their holy racial war against white separatists?

[Heathen531]

This is great! We should divide up America and put all the Jews and Blacks in one half and all of the White Gentiles in the other. Blacks and Jews would finally have a thorough understanding of each other then. There is a tremendous amount of perspective twisting and omission of information from the Ministry of Truth. No one can ever come to a proper conclusion when they have been indoctrinated with disinformation their entire life. It is the ambiguity that leads to incorrect conclusions.

[ibrahimali2009]

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[ugha323a]

@argybargy2

The New Testament proclaims that there is neither Jew, nor Gentile, ALL are the same in Gods eyes.

[ugha323a]

@argybargy2

So, thats where the evil witch should go back to.

Who gives a damn if some Jew from 1860 (pre) owned some slaves, that was then, this is NOW, get the f over it

[ugha323a]

@storylady50

This story is pure Bs.

Yoelson was pure entertainer, and NOTHING had to do with 'civil rights'.

He was a patriot that spent 15 hrs a day ENTERTAINING.

It was left wing Commies that have helped Black people go straight back to the slave quarters they call 'projects'.

Jolson was a patriot and didnt give a rats ass about this social/Soviet shit.

[TsarKaiserSir]

@argybargy2 Michelle Obama has a cousin who is a Rabbi in chicago.....