Stan Halpern, Dialogue and the Jews

Update

Date: Sat, 08 Feb 1997 15:17:04 EST

From: shalp5@juno.com (stan halpern)

I just received a letter from a rabbi who is also interested in dialogue with the Nation of Islam. It seems that my

"Letter to my Jewish Friends" that I mailed to him never got to him. When I wrote to him a second time asking about my letter he responded saying he is looking forward to my sending him another copy. He sent me a copy of his article that was printed and it certainly was a wonderful article. I am sure that we will have an ongoing relationship from now on. It is really wonderful for me to have a fellow Jew who thinks along the same line that I do. It's awfully lonely out there.

I believe I told you I was invited to a Black/Jewish meeting here in Boca Raton. It was limited to 20 people. Two Afro-Americans out of the 10 invited showed up. In the question and answer period I brought up the subject of Minister Farrakhan but as expected the moderator of the program (an American Jewish Committee official) told me it was best not to speak about Minister Farrakhan as it was too disruptive a topic. After the meeting I approached him and asked how does his organization intended to deal with Minister Farrakhan and his response repulsed me. He said Farrakhan is a 70 year old man who has cancer and that he would not live forever. How disgusting can you get?

I am now in the middle of taking a senior course in "Jews in Colonial America" with the promised outline of dealing with Jews and the slave trade. It is a six week course. During the first two weeks the instructor talked about the prominence of Jews in Spain, the Marranos, and their part in advancing shipping in those days. During the first two weeks when I asked him about slavery he kept me off my saying he would fully discuss it in the third session. At one point in those first two weeks he said that the Jews were so prominent in industry in Portugal that the word Portuguese was synonymous with Jew.

This Friday was the third week of the class which consists of about 40 senior Jewish students. Finally he reached the subject of Jews and Slavery. I raised my hand and told him that he had been making anti-Semitic statements in his previous lessons because of his statement that "Portuguese was synonymous with Jews." I told him about the "Secret Relationship..." and the Wiesenthal Center's answer to the book written by Dr. Harold Brackman.

He says that the "Secret Relationship..." purposely mistakes Seymour Liebman's statement that "Portuguese was synonymous with Jew" to make an anti-Semitic point (See The Secret Relationship, p. 88). And here my instructor was telling his class the exact same thing, that Portuguese was synonymous with Jew and no one was calling him an anti-Semite. My instructor was taken aback. When I asked him as an instructor of such a class if he had ever read "The Secret Relationship..." and he said he had not. When I quoted to him the statement of Dr. Marc Lee Raphael (of the American Jewish Historical Society)and started asking if indeed Jews had played a disproportionate role in slavery he accused me of disrupting the class.

Thereafter the instructor would not recognize me when I raised my hand but as he went on telling of how good Jews treated their slaves and how kind they were to the Black women that they fornicated with I could not keep still and told him how what he considered kindness was actually rape and murder. That shook up the class somewhat. I finally consented not to ask any more questions (it was about 5 more minutes to the end of the class anyway) if the instructor agreed to take home a copy of the "Secret Relationship..." and talk about it in the next session. This he agreed to do. I asked him if in his reading of the book he can point out to me the Big Lie being propagated by the Jewish press that the book says that the Jews "dominated" the whole of slavery. I read the first page of the book where indeed Henry L. Feingold statement that "Jews who were frequently found at the heart of commerce could not have failed to contribute a proportionate share to the slave trade directly or indirectly."

I do not know what will happen next Friday for the 4th class. I am considering asking for at least one hour to discuss the book in detail since it is so vital a topic. I am pretty sure he will not agree saying he has his outline. I will then ask the class if they would agree to such a discussion since some of them I hope would be a least curious to know what the book says. If all else fails I thinks I will place tape across my mouth and sit in silent protest as he goes on with his lecture.

I will keep you informed.

Stan

Re: Update

Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 14:52:46 EST

From:shalp5@juno.com (stan halpern)

Hi,

I am sending this on Wed. Tomorrow is my class. What I did was to print up 40 copies from you web page under to heading "What are the Issues?" I figure if I am not given the opportunity to really dialogue with the Instructor at least I will hand out the copies. I should get some kind of reaction from the handout.

Stan

Re: Update

Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 18:04:44 EST

From: shalp5@juno.com (stan halpern)

Hi, I just came back from my class in "Jews in Colonial Times". Man am I disgusted. On last Thursday I gave my instructor "The Secret Relationship..." I ask him one thing. Did the book say that the Jews "dominated" the slave trade as the big lie that is being spread about the book by Jewish sources, or did it say that the Jews were dis proportionately involved in the slave trade.

Since he is an instructor and for the past 3 weeks he had been talking about how prominent Jews had been in trade and shipping how could he not admit to that.

When he started the class today he said he had read for the first time "The Secret Relations..." and he wanted to talk about it for 5 minutes and only 5 minutes because he did not want to waste the class's time. He started out by saying that it was a very clever book but completely anti-Semitic and full of lies and misquotes. He read a few passages from the book which told of the Jewish involvement and he commented that nowhere in the book does it tell of the involvement of others in the Slave trade.

After his 10 minutes of denouncing the book I raised my hand and said I would like to respond to his remarks. His answer was that he had said at the beginning of the class that he would only take 5 minutes to discuss the book and he said he does not want to waste the class's time in discussing it.

I said I could not believe that in a college setting with 40 people attending the class that they would not be interested in hearing what was in the book from a different point of view. I said as intelligent adults at least they would want to hear another opinion of the book. I told them I was not a Nazi, or a skin head and that I had a right to be heard.

I thought that at least a few students would say "let him speak." I was wrong. The pack of students started yelling for me to sit down and stop disrupting the class. When I said I could not believe what I was hearing one of the students (a big one) jumped out of his chair and stood over me telling me to keep my mouth shut.

After order was restored I took out a gag I made from my handkerchief. I placed it over my mouth and sat down in front of the class in silent protest.

The instructor went on to talking about another matter for 10 minutes and finally said he could not continue teaching with me sitting there and that if I did not return to my seat he would call the college guard and have me physically removed.

For a moment I did not know what to do but I finally decided to take the gag out and return to my seat.

During the intermission in the class I search the room for at least one of my fellow students to give me an encouraging word. My search was futile. You can't believe the hatred I encountered.

When the class resumed I kept quiet until the last 5 minutes of the class when again the Instructor talked about how "my book" The Secret Relationship..." lied because it was to Brazil that most of the slaves were brought to. For the first time since I returned to my seat I raised my hand. When he did not call on me I shouted out. "Is it true or not that the Encyclopedia Judaica says that in Brazil at that time it says that the 'Jews dominated trade in Brazil?'" The Instructor became nervous and responded "I will not answer that question. When I asked him why not, it was a simple question. He was the instructor. Did or did not the Encyclopedia Judaica and others say that the Jews dominated the trade in Brazil?

He reiterated that he would not answer while the pack of students yelled that I was upsetting the class and I should stop disrupting by my questions. I could not believe what was happening. These were 40 well educated people, many of them I am sure were college graduates, one told me later he had three degrees from three universities. He told me this as the class ended and I told the students as they were departing for the class to take my handout which was a reprint of "What are the Issues?" from your web page.

Of the 40 students who left the class only 3 people took my handout.

The last two remaining sessions are outlined to be Jewish intermarriage and Jewish role in the Revolutionary war. I made a last appeal to the instructor to give me at least 5 minutes to tell the class where I am coming from. To convince them that I am not a Nazi or skin head, that I am a Jew like them who is only asking for 5 minutes. He said he would think about it, but I do not think he will allow me to speak.

As a last resort I am thinking of writing out 10 questions and asking him to comment on them without my saying a word. If that doesn't work I am not sure what I will do next.

I still cannot believe what happened to me.

Stan

P.S. Forgive the spelling and grammar but I wrote in the heat of anger