In the modern world, those of the Jewish faith, have always been a minority in every country, until the creation of Israel in 1948, but this only occurred after Jews, had been persecuted, stripped of their possessions, and massacred by the empowered Nazis' of Germany during World War II. Blacks, too, have been persecuted, stripped of their possessions, stolen from their homeland, enslaved, also lynched and treated for the most part at best as "second class citizens" for their entire sojourn in America. Those of the Jewish faith, celebrate their exodus from Egypt at a time when they too were slaves, who were ultimately redeemed and saved by their prophet and leader Moses, and later received their proper blessings as the "chosen people" by Yahweh.
In America, there is a commonality that runs through the Black and Jewish experience, one that often tells the tale of discrimination, fear, hatred, abuse, distortions, vitriol, and oppression. Not too surprisingly, during the Civil Rights era, Jews and Blacks, together, saw that a country that became more inclusive of those that had historically been treated with disdain and denied equal rights, would be a victory for not just Blacks as well as Jews, but a victory for American democracy as a whole, and subsequently there was a meeting of minds between these two groups as to how best to achieve these noble desires.
Today, when we recognize great Civil Rights leaders, the names that roll off of our tongues are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Julian Bond, Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin, Maya Angelou, as well as so many others, but behind the scenes, working hard for those same civil rights, were Henry Moscowitz, Kivie Kaplan, and Stanley Levison. While Jews were never enslaved in America, nor lynched, they too suffered the indignities of being of a creed that was historically shunted aside in America. Consequently, when housing authorities in different cities all over America, set up Restrictive Covenants, they denied access to that housing to all "non-whites" as well as to those of "Jewish descent". Also, top universities in America, addressed the "Jewish problem" by changing or modifying their admissions policy in such a way as to limit Jews attending their college, or by adding official or unofficial quotas of Jews that would be admitted, whereas Blacks, if admitted at all, had quotas attached to their race that essentially limited their numbers at any of the great Northeastern Universities to single digits or perhaps to a couple dozen students in total.
During the height of the Civil Rights cause, there were many martyrs, such as Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Vernon Dahmer, the Reverend George Lee, as well as many, many others. Jews and Blacks, worked together during the Civil Rights era, in a common cause, to help bring justice and dignity to all. The victories that have been won by Blacks and Jews in America to bring opportunity and freedom to all peoples, is a process that continues today and will continue until we do come upon that time, when all are judged not by color of their skin, or of their religious persuasion, but instead by their actions and by the content of their character, so that then, truly, the steel chains of injustice and in-toleration will have been vacated into the very dungeons of hell.