''The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews'' is a three-volume work of

pseudo-scholarship Pseudo-scholarship (from pseudo- and scholarship) is a term used to describe work (e.g., publication, lecture) or a body of work that is presented as, but is not, the product of rigorous and objective study or research; the act of producing such w ...

, published by the

Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the Afr ...

. The first volume, which was released in 1991, asserts that

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

dominated the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

. ''The Secret Relationship'' has been widely criticized for being

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and for failing to provide an objective analysis of the role of Jews in the slave trade.Austen, p. 134.Encyclopedia of American Jewish history, Vol. 1, p. 199. The

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

issued a statement condemning claims that Jews played a disproportionate role in the Atlantic slave trade, and other historians such as Wim Klooster and Seymour Drescher concluded that the role of Jews in the overall Atlantic slave trade was in fact minimal. The book uses selective citations in order to exaggerate the role of Jews.

Reception

The book's thesis has been labeled an

antisemitic canard Antisemitic tropes, also known as antisemitic canards or antisemitic libels, are " sensational reports, misrepresentations or fabrications" about Jews as an ethnicity or Judaism as a religion. Since the 2nd century, malicious allegations of ...

by historians, including Saul S. Friedman, who contends that Jews had a minimal role in the New World slave trade.''Jews and the American Slave Trade'', Saul S. Friedman, Transaction Publishers, 1999 pp. 2, 40. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., head of the department of Afro-American studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, called the book "the Bible of

new antisemitism New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working d ...

" and added that "the book massively misinterprets the historical record, largely through a process of cunningly selective quotations of often reputable sources".Gilles Kepel ''Allah in the West: Islamic movements in America and Europe'', Stanford University Press, 1997 pp. 68–69. Other black academics came forward to condemn the book. Eugene Genovese, an American historian and expert on slavery, wrote that the book "rivals ''

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

'' in fantasy and gross distortion. The absurdity of its pretenses to scholarship are outweighed by its sheer viciousness. It must be taken with deadly seriousness as a transparent attempt to foment antisemitism, irrationality, and hatred, and to subvert intellectual discourse and common decency on our campuses." Wim Klooster noted that in "no period did Jews play a leading role as financiers, shipowners, or factors in the Transatlantic or Caribbean slave trades. They possessed far fewer slaves than non-Jews in every British and Spanish territory in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and the Caribbean. Even when Jews in a handful of places owned slaves in proportions slightly above their representation among a town's families, such cases do not come close to corroborating the assertions of The Secret Relationship." The book was criticized for being antisemitic and for failing to provide an objective analysis of the role of Jews in the slave trade. Common criticisms were that the book used selective quotes, made "crude use of statistics," and was purposefully trying to exaggerate the role of Jews.Austen pp. 133–134. Historian Ralph A. Austen criticized the book, saying that the "distortions are produced almost entirely by selective citation rather than explicit falsehood ... more frequently there are innuendos imbedded in the accounts of Jewish involvement in the slave trade," and " ile we should not ignore the antisemitism of ''The Secret Relationship''..., we must recognize the legitimacy of the stated aim of examining fully and directly even the most uncomfortable elements in our lack and Jewishcommon past." In 1995, the

(AHA) issued a statement condemning "any statement alleging that Jews played a disproportionate role in the Atlantic slave trade." The publication of ''The Secret Relationship'' spurred retorts published specifically to refute the thesis of ''The Secret Relationship'': * 1992 – Harold Brackman, ''Jew on the Brain: A Public Refutation of the Nation of Islam's The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews''. The booklet was published independently by

Bill Adler Bill Adler (born December 18, 1951) is an American music journalist and critic. Since the late 1960s, he has worked in the music business in a variety of capacities, including as a record store clerk, radio disc jockey, critic, publicist, biogra ...

, the former director of publicity for

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

, after learning that the rapper

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

had endorsed ''The Secret Relationship''. In his foreword, Adler wrote, "I care way too much about black-Jewish relations – and particularly about black-Jewish relations in the rap community – to allow 'The Secret Relationship' to go unchallenged." The booklet's afterword was written by

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...

. It was republished that same year, minus its original foreword and afterword, as "Farrakhan's Reign of Historical Error: The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews" by the

Simon Wiesenthal Center The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating antisemitism, tolerance educati ...

. In 1994, it was republished for a second time under the title "Ministry of Lies: the Truth Behind 'The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews'" by

Four Walls Eight Windows Four Walls Eight Windows was an American independent book publisher in New York City. Known as 4W8W or Four Walls, the company was notable for its dual commitment to progressive politics and adventurous, edgy literary fiction. History Four W ...

. * 1992 –

David Brion Davis David Brion Davis (February 16, 1927 – April 14, 2019) was an American intellectual and cultural historian, and a leading authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, ...

, "Jews in the Slave Trade," in ''Culturefront'' (Fall 1992) pp. 42–45. * 1993 – Seymour Drescher, "The Role of Jews in the Atlantic Slave Trade," ''Immigrants and Minorities'', 12 (1993), pp. 113–125. * 1993 – Marc Caplan, ''Jew-Hatred As History: An Analysis of the Nation of Islam's "The Secret Relationship"'' (Published by the Anti Defamation League). * 1998 – Eli Faber, '' Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record Straight'', New York University Press. * 1999 – Saul S. Friedman, '' Jews and the American Slave Trade'', Transaction. Friedman's work has been described as a successful rebuke of ''The Secret Relationship''. In his work, Friedman referred to ''The Secret Relationship'' as the "Handbook of Hate", and described it as "one part fact and nine parts fable". Holocaust historian

Deborah Lipstadt Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947) is an American historian and diplomat, best known as author of the books ''Denying the Holocaust'' (1993), ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'' (2005), ''The Eichmann Trial'' ...

called the book the "African American-oriented version" of ''

''. Legal historian

Paul Finkelman Paul Finkelman (born November 15, 1949) is an American legal historian. He is the author or editor of more than 50 books on American legal and constitutional history, slavery, general American history, and baseball. He has also published more than ...

states that the central thesis of the book is "ludicrous and considered absurd by all serious scholars." Historian Glenn C. Altschuler and Robert Summers called ''The Secret Relationship'' a "compendium of conspiracy theories."

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

scholar Mary Lefkowitz called the book "hate literature" and wrote: "The authors of ''The Secret Relationship'' continually misquote Jewish sources, taking quotations out of context, or citing as support works that actually say the opposite of what they are claiming. They make a number of claims that are impossible to substantiate, such as that Jews (rather than Arabs) dominated the transatlantic slave trade; that they were the dominant slave traders and holders in the South; that they raped black women; that they infected Native Americans with smallpox...The known facts about the slave trade give a completely different picture of the level of Jewish participation." Seymour Drescher who analyzed the role of Jews in the overall Atlantic slave trade concluded that it was "minimal," and only identified certain regions (such as

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

) where the participation was "significant."Drescher: JANCAST: p. 455: "only in the Americas – momentarily in Brazil, more durably in the Caribbean – can the role of Jewish traders be described as significant." .. but elsewhere involvement was modest or minimal p. 455.

Subsequent volumes

Volume Two of ''The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews'' was published in 2010, with the subtitle "How Jews Gained Control of the Black American Economy". According to the Anti-Defamation League, Volume Two blames Jews for "promoting a myth of black racial inferiority and makes a range of conspiratorial accusations about Jewish involvement in the slave trade and in the cotton, textiles, and banking industries". Titled simply ''The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews Volume 3,'' the third installment was published in 2016. As summarized by the ADL, the work claims the resurgence of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

and the subjugation of Black people during the early 20th century not only enriched but also was orchestrated by Jewish businessmen of the time. Further, the responsibility of the lynching of Leo Frank was also the work of Jews.

Notes

References

* Austen, Ralph A., "The Uncomfortable Relationship: African Enslavement in the Common History of Blacks and Jews", in ''Strangers & neighbors: relations between Blacks & Jews in the United States'', Maurianne Adams (Ed.), Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1999, pp. 131–135. * Brackman, Harold, ''Jew on the brain: A public refutation of the Nation of Islam's The Secret relationship between Blacks and Jews'' (self-published), 1992. Later renamed and re-published as ''Farrakhan's Reign of Historical Error: The Truth behind The Secret Relationship'' (published by the

). Expanded into a book in 1994: ''Ministry of Lies: The Truth Behind the Nation of Islam's "the Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews"'' (published by Four Walls, Eight Windows). * Caplan, Marc ''Jew-Hatred As History: An Analysis of the Nation of Islam's "The Secret Relationship"'' (published by the Anti Defamation League), 1993. * Davis, David Brion, "Jews in the Slave Trade", in ''Culturefront'' (Fall 1992) pp. 42–45. * Drescher, Seymour, "The Role of Jews in the Transatlantic Slave Trade", in ''Strangers & neighbors: relations between Blacks & Jews in the United States'', Maurianne Adams (Ed.), Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1999, pp. 105–115. * Drescher, Seymour, (EAJH) "Jews and the Slave trade", in ''Encyclopedia of American Jewish history, Volume 1'', Stephen Harlan (Ed.), 1994, pp. 414–416. * Drescher, Seymour, (JANCAST) "Jews and New Christians in the Atlantic Slave Trade" in ''The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1400–1800'', Paolo Bernardini (Ed.), 2004, pp. 439–484. * Faber, Eli, ''Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record Straight'', New York University Press, 1998. * Friedman, Saul S. ''Jews and the American Slave Trade'', Transaction, 1999. {{DEFAULTSORT:Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews 1991 non-fiction books African American–Jewish relations Antisemitic tropes Antisemitic propaganda Antisemitic books Conspiracy theories in the United States Judaism and slavery Pseudohistory Nation of Islam Non-fiction books about American slavery Works about the Atlantic slave trade

Reception

Subsequent volumes

See also

Notes

References