{"id":38952,"date":"2014-12-17T19:58:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T19:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=38952"},"modified":"2014-12-17T20:18:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T20:18:43","slug":"jewish-tent-widens-as-diversity-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=38952","title":{"rendered":"Jewish tent widens as diversity grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish tent widens as diversity grows<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune<\/a>
\n2014-12-16<\/p>\n

Bonnie Miller Rubin<\/strong><\/a>, Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\nEllen Zemel (left) lends a hand for a symbolic lighting of a menorah for Hanukkah during a party for parents and children of Project Esther: The Chicago Jewish Adoption Network of the Jewish Child & Family Services, at the Elain Kersten Children’s Center in Northbrook. (Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune<\/em>)<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u2018The tribe\u2019 expands to include children of many ethnicities<\/em><\/p>\n

Meira and Tyler Burnett look forward to their family\u2019s annual Hanukkah<\/a> party, when they will light the menorah and enjoy traditional potato pancakes, called latkes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The siblings, ages 11 and 14, respectively, also will sing in the children\u2019s choir at B\u2019nai Yehuda Beth Shalom, where four of the eight participants are African-American \u2014 just like them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I tell friends at school that I\u2019m Jewish, they don\u2019t believe me,\u201d said Meira, at the Homewood<\/a> synagogue. \u201cBut that\u2019s what I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Jewish population has always been overwhelmingly white, with Central or Eastern European roots \u2014 synonymous with matzo ball soup, bagels, Maxwell Street pushcarts and \u201cSeinfeld<\/a>\u201d \u2014 and it\u2019s common to hear Jewish people refer to themselves as members of \u201cthe tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

But today, as Jews prepare to celebrate Hanukkah, the eight-day holiday that begins Tuesday, the tribe looks different, because of interracial marriages, adoptions and conversions. And while the white majority still holds true, experts say more racial and ethnic diversity can be found across the spectrum of Judaism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more variety of narratives than ever before,\u201d said Chava Shervington, president of The Jewish Multicultural Network<\/a>. The Philadelphia-based organization started in 1997 with 20 families and has grown to more than 950 members and almost 3,000 Facebook followers, she said. Its tag line: \u201cBecause Jews come in all colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increase in diversity is difficult to quantify. The Chicago Jewish Population Study<\/a>, conducted every decade by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago<\/a>, first asked about race in 2010. It found that 4 percent (or 5,600 Jewish households) are multiracial, including black, Hispanic, Asian and biracial members…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>\u00a0or here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jewish tent widens as diversity grows The Chicago Tribune 2014-12-16 Bonnie Miller Rubin, Reporter Ellen Zemel (left) lends a hand for a symbolic lighting of a menorah for Hanukkah during a party for parents and children of Project Esther: The Chicago Jewish Adoption Network of the Jewish Child & Family Services, at the Elain Kersten […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,3601,8,820,20],"tags":[18791,18794,3027,2805,5488,18795,18793,11554,18792],"class_list":["post-38952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-census","category-judaism","category-media-archive","category-religion","category-usa","tag-bonnie-miller-rubin","tag-chava-shervington","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-tribune","tag-illinois","tag-jewish-multicultural-network","tag-meira-burnett","tag-the-chicago-tribune","tag-tyler-burnett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}