In ‘Black and Jewish America,’ Henry Louis Gates Jr explores the history of Black-Jewish partnership and conflict
A new PBS series on Black and Jewish relations shows the promise and peril of allyship
By Olivia Haynie

The new PBS series Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History is not the first piece of media to investigate the relationship between the two communities. But what’s unique about the program, narrated by scholar and Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr., is that it doesn’t shy away from the historic complexities of this partnership — and the many times it almost fell apart.

Alarmed by the recent rise in white supremacist hate crimes, Gates reconnected with Paul Bertelsen and Sara Wolitzky, who had worked on some of his past projects and are co-directors and co-producers of the series.

“I think we all felt collectively the same kind of revulsion at this rise of white supremacist hate,” Bertelsen, who was a producer on Gates’ Peabody Award-winning series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, told me over Zoom. “The hoods came off, you know, and so we all, as storytellers and historians, grew concerned, and found this to be a great opportunity to kind of show the importance of shared experience and coalition building.”
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The first episode of Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History premieres on PBS on Tuesday, February 3rd at 9pm EST. On Feb. 5, Henry Louis Gates Jr., the filmmakers, and Sen. Corey Booker will discuss the series at 92NY.

https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/802411/in-black-and-jewish-america-henry-louis-gates-jr-explores-the-history-of-black-jewish-partnership-and-conflict/