140: Van Jones returns - The hard questions of Black-Jewish relations

August 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Van Jones returns to Ask Haviv Anything to address the hard questions that emerged from his previous appearance—questions from American Jews who felt his framing of Black-Jewish relations minimized real tensions on campus, in progressive politics, and within Black communities themselves. The episode is built around a single, organizing tension: why does the Black-Jewish alliance feel so frayed, and whose responsibility is it to repair it? Jones argues that the breakdown is not primarily about bad faith or deep-seated animus on either side, but about a catastrophic failure of progressive frameworks to include anti-Semitism, a collapse of cross-community conversation, and a structural mismatch in how each group experiences power and precarity.

The Progressive Blind Spot That Left Jews Unprotected

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What you'll learn

1 (00:04) **Introduction and Context for Van Jones' Return** - Haviv explains the feedback from the previous episode and why Van Jones agreed to return for a deeper conversation on Black-Jewish relations.
2 (05:06) **Van Jones on the Need for Dialogue** - Jones frames the conversation as part of a long history of Black-Jewish cooperation and misunderstanding, emphasizing the current lack of cross-community conversation.
3 (07:01) **David's Question: Campus Politics and Black Bigotry** - A Hillel president asks why progressive Black students seem unable to acknowledge bigotry in their own community, citing attempts to ban Hillel from multicultural centers.
4 (13:22) **Debating Power, Privilege, and Campus Dynamics** - Jones and Haviv discuss whether Black students actually feel advantaged on campus, given the broader context of systemic anti-Black bias.
5 (20:34) **Addressing Anti-Semitism Within the Black Community** - Haviv presses Jones on whether the Black community has the capacity to confront its own bigotry, given polling on unfavorable views of Jews.
6 (24:41) **The "David vs. Goliath" Perception Problem** - Jones elaborates on how the Jewish community's feeling of vulnerability clashes with the Black community's perception of Jewish power and success.
7 (28:43) **The Problem of Framing: "Good Jews vs. Bad Blacks"** - Jones pushes back on the common narrative that frames Black-Jewish tensions as a problem of Black pathology versus Jewish righteousness.

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Guests on this episode

Van Jones

Show Notes

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Van Jones came on the podcast a few months ago and said some things that lit up our inbox. A lot of praise, a lot of pushback.

So he came back to answer your questions.

Why did progressives spend twenty years building hierarchies of oppression and leave Jews off the list? Why do Black students on campus struggle to see Jewish vulnerability? What do you do with a community that hears "we're like you, we're Jewish," and thinks: do you want to trade spots?

Van doesn't dodge. He also pushes back on how Jews frame the conversation. It's an honest conversation about campuses, Farrakhan and Black antisemitism, the NAACP voting to disarm Israel, and why the Jewish world "feels like David, but looks like Goliath" to outsiders. Van gives ground where he thinks the critics are right and takes it back where he thinks Jews are getting the Black community badly wrong.

It’s a conversation that doesn't happen enough, and which Van is committed to advancing. That's why he founded the EXODUS Leadership Forum that brings together Jewish, Black and Jewish-Black leaders and activists. You can find out more about their work, including the 70 dinners Van discusses on the podcast, here: https://gather.exodusdinner.org .

Today’s episode is sponsored by SAPIR, the quarterly journal edited by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens. SAPIR’s tagline is, “Ideas for a Thriving Jewish Future,” which is one reason the journal has devoted time and space to the future of Black-Jewish relations, one of the most powerful -- and imperiled -- political alliances in American history. The relationship is important to the thriving of both communities, SAPIR editors believe. I highly recommend Dana White’s article from a couple years ago on the role historically Black colleges and universities once played in building the relationship between Black and Jewish Americans.

SAPIR is, unbelievably, free. Yes, you can receive this beautiful and enriching publication at your door four times a year at no cost. Subscribe today at http://sapirjournal.org/Haviv -- and your subscription will begin with the next issue on the theme of Influence. They won’t even ask you for credit card information. That’s http://sapirjournal.org/Haviv, or click the link in the episode show notes.

If you like what we do here, please consider joining our Patreon community at https://www.patreon.com/c/AskHavivAnything or our Substack at https://havivgur.subst