Savant's Words

In my undergraduate Alma Mater (and HBCU) there were a good number of Jews of European descent, many of whom came to America in the aftermath of WWII and the Nazi genocide. Most of them are dead or retired now. They commonly were educated at the best universities in Europe, but found themselves subject to discrimination in academic employment in the USA. Some went to HBCU's. I know of one German Jewish woman with a Ph.D. from her native Germany who took menial jobs and concealed her education to avoid drawing attention of Nazi authorities. She hid out until the end of the war, concealing her Jewish identity. She then came to the USA and taught at Morgan State University. With her background in both German history and Literature she played a role in developing both the department of foreign languages and History. Another German Jewish lady taught at another nearby HBCU and eventually married an AA man, also a professor. Some Jews have entered AA life as a result of persecution in the lands of their birth, and anti-Semitic discrimination here. When they arrived the Jim Crow system which they found resembled in some respects systems of persecution they had known in Europe. That may have something to do with the relatively liberal perspective of many Jews of that generation, and their willingness to support the Black Movements of the 1960s. -Savant