Should the African-American and Jewish experiences be compared?

Answer 1

Yes.

Both the African-American and Jewish experiences chronicle a group of people with unique spiritual beliefs and a separate ethnic identity being repressed by both Arabs and Whites (for African-Americans, the Arab repression was on their brethren in Northern Africa who were enslaved). Both of them lived in a segregated world that could be viciously cruel towards them. Finally, each one had to fight to be emancipated and to attain the civil rights given to their oppressors.

There are also a number of differences. Jews did have certain freedoms of mobility and were able to live with their families. They lived in Jewish communities which allowed them unrestricted access to their traditions and they were also capable of earning wages (although the permissible professions were severely limited). The Jewish Civil Rights Movement spanned centuries and did not really bear fruit until the American Revolution and the Rise of Napoleon.

African-Americans by contrast were ripped away from their homes and sold separately from their families. They were treated as property to be transferred between owners without a second thought. Racism against the African-American was entirely based on skin color (as opposed to race and religious practices). African-Americans, because of their separation, became alienated from their former faiths and overwhelmingly adopted the Christian faith with a specific lens and direction. The African-American Civil Rights movement occurred very recently and many Jews (including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel) openly supported the African-American Civil Rights Campaign based on their own history as Jews.