(RNS) — A new four-part PBS documentary series traces the history between Black and Jewish Americans, examining their connection through shared experiences of persecution and tests to the relationship involving politics and societal dynamics.
“Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History,” which premieres at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday (Feb. 3) and is hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., explores the two communities from the era of slavery to present day. The series spotlights religious leaders who have promoted intercommunal cooperation, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, as well as those who have sown discord, such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.
The documentary opens with a Passover Seder that gathered prominent Black Americans and Jews in Manhattan, including Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi and cantor; Gates; and writer Jamaica Kincaid and chef Michael Twitty, both who are Black and converted to Judaism. The group met last spring to reflect on the Exodus story, share their personal histories and, of course, eat.
“It was such a rich discussion, and it’s a shame we could only, in the end, use bits and pieces in the first episode,” documentary co-director Sara Wolitzky said in a recent interview, adding that the goal of the Seder and the entire series is to “bring everyone to the table.”
The first episode, “Let My People Go,” covers the 1909 foundin …