Michael Rogin to Al Jolson

Al Jolson,
I believe that your efforts to portray an play about Jewish identity is far more damaging to blacks than beneficial to Jews. In depicting an immigrant Jew as a Broadway star working within the blackface minstrel tradition, you obscure your own Jewish pedigree in order to proclaim your white identity. The message is abundantly clear, that Jewish immigrants deserve the same rights and privileges associated with whiteness that has already been accorded to earlier generations of European immigrants. In the common difference to blackness, whites and Jews are one people. You have absolutely trashed the image of blacks in order to gain acceptance for Jews. In addition, I believe that your film actually avoids honestly dealing with the tension in Jews assimilation into the American mainstream. Without dealing with the conflicts and issues between Jewish identity and American identity head on, undoubtedly one day when the blackface wears away Jews will be faced with the same difficulties that they are facing today.

Michael Rogin

Should Jewish Americans identify more with the experiences of the African-Americans or the white majority? Certainly our readings from the past couple weeks have made the argument that Jews entered the white "mainstream." But, the prejudice that blacks and Jews faced in the early 20th century has some similarities.