Category: Judaism

  • Jews in America struggled for decades to become white. Now we must give up whiteness to fight racism. The Washington Post 2015-09-22 Gil Steinlauf, Senior Rabbi Adas Israel Congregation, Washington, D.C. Let’s teach our children that we are, in fact, not white, but simply Jewish. Adapted from a Rosh Hashanah sermon delivered at Adas Israel…

  • Difference of a Different Kind: Jewish Constructions of Race During the Long Eighteenth Century University of Pennsylvania Press 2014 280 pages 6 x 9 12 illus. Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8122-4609-4 Ebook ISBN: 978-0-8122-0970-9 Iris Idelson-Shein, Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow Martin Buber Professur für Jüdische Religionsphilosophie Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main European Jews, argues Iris Idelson-Shein,…

  • The top 13 Jewish newsmakers of 5775 JTA: Jewish Telegraphic Agency 2015-08-26 Julie Wiener (JTA) — With the Jewish year winding down, here’s a look back at 13 Jews who repeatedly made the news in 5775. Whether you love them or hate them — or your feelings are purely pareve — it’s hard to deny…

  • Does ‘Half Chinese, Half Jewish’ Condemn Me To Being Neither? Forward 2015-08-21 Rachel E. Gross When I was four years old, my father introduced me to his colleague, Jing. “Are you Chinese?” I asked, eyeing her shrewdly. “Yes,” she replied. “So am I,” I said. “And shoe-ish, too!” My father likes to tell this story,…

  • Lacey Schwartz didn’t know she was black, but her black friends did Fusion 2015-08-19 Collier Meyerson With two white parents and no black family members (save for a dark Sicilian uncle a couple generations removed), Lacey Schwartz was raised thinking she was white. Growing up, Schwartz’s community was predominantly white: her friends, her classes, her…

  • Holocaust Art By A Jew Who Was Black Josef Nassy’s Vision Of Nazi Camps Has Its First U.s. Show Here. The Philadelphia Inquirer 1989-04-04 Leonard W. Boasberg, Inquirer Staff Writer There are strength and pathos in the drawings. There are loneliness and community, a sense of the desperation of the individual – the prisoner, the…

  • I’m a Mizrahi Jew. Do I Count as a Person of Color? Forward 2015-08-10 Sigal Samuel, Deputy Digital Media Editor Eye of the Beholder: Sigal Samuel has been considered white and non-white, depending on who’s looking. (Image: Martyna Starosta) Am I a person of color? You’d think there would be a straightforward answer to a…

  • One Tough Cookie: Fran Ross’s “Oreo” Written Decades Before Its Time Lawrence Public Library 707 Vermont Street Lawrence, Kansas 2015-07-31 Kate Gramlich There are a handful of books I have re-read several times because I found some deep, emotional connection with the characters, and each read is like a conversation with a dear old friend.…

  • Black, Jewish and challenging ideas about the face of federation Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) New York, New York 2014-12-01 Rebecca Spence (JTA) — When Ilana Kaufman, a program officer at the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, arrived at San Quentin State Prison for a meeting with the Jewish chaplain at California’s oldest correctional facility, the…

  • Op-Ed: For black Orthodox Jews, constant racism is exhausting Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York, New York 2015-07-16 Chava Shervington, President Jewish Multiracial Network NEW YORK (JTA) – When I was 24, an Orthodox matchmaker tried to set me up on a date with a man older than my parents. When I objected, she told me,…