So… you're White, or Jewish, or… what? What are we talking, here?
In our race to assimilate into American culture, it could be argued that we have fallen for a fundamental conceit: That we are ‘White’. Long a point of contention as the term is not defined by actual nationality or ethnic boundaries, ‘Whiteness’ tends to be a title of privilege; the ultimate pass to life in America without ceiling. It’s a reasonably amorphous identity. The Irish didn’t get to be ‘White’ for the first hundred years or so, and then really only by contrast to the next wave of Southern European and Jewish immigrants – who were clearly more alien to the Ango-Protestant elite of time.
But I could go on and on about THAT sh*t.
Us.
Jews.
Are we privy to life without restriction in this, arguably the free-est nation in the world? Is ‘free-est’ even a word? Will our beloved leader be using it in a speech soon? Monk Eastman IS an international trendsetter and man of mystery, so you never know. But are we? Are Jews White in the American sense of the word?
Well, maybe yes, maybe no, maybe a little of both.
For Ashkenazim, we have the option to pass. I went to high school with some African American Jews. These days, I pray in The Bronx with Puerto Rican Jews, African-American Jews, East Asian Jews, and good ol’ Yankee Mutt Jews, which is something I take for granted. But a very interesting statement by Rabbi Riggoberto Vinas of Lincoln Park Synagogue in Yonkers, NY made me consider this in depth. Swiped from The Journal News, a Westchester County Gannett rag:
“Unfortunately in the United States, because of the politics of race and power, a lot of Jews have attempted to become part of the white middle class and upper class,” said Viñas, noting that his synagogue’s emerging complexion rejects that 20th-century trend.
“There is much more to the Jewish nation than this.”
This is a subject that The Jewish Museum is exploring a little more in depth as well with the Jewish Identity Project exhibit they have going on until April 2nd here in New York.
We occupy a wide color spectrum – as wide as the Diaspora permits.
But what does that mean here in the States, where ‘race’ is such a powerful, fickle, superficial thing?
I’m sure the opinions vary, but as for your old boy, Monk, I tell the unschooled that anyone who ever wondered if we were ‘White’ only has to go to Stormfront.org or a Klansman rally to get their answer.
Nu?
I’m glad to see you writing about this – it’s been an obsession of mine for a good while. I had a slam poem (I’m a theater director/actor/writer/teacher/solo performer) from some years back called “Whitey” that arose from a horrible diversity workshop where you or your ancestors only had license to have experienced oppression if you were Jewish. Now I’m creating a solo show on Jewish identity in America, and create characters out of people I interview… it’s quite interesting to see who this question of whiteness vs. being Jewish resonates with, or not – some people really have no idea of the importance of it, while others are acutely aware. Annnnywayyy – keep this conversation going!!
http://tinyurl.com/7vurc
Check out “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race In America” by Karen Brodkin.
Race is a pretty stupid concept, anyway.
Someone who’s ancestors have been living for the last few thousand years in (what is now) Nigeria is obviously gonna look quite different from someone who’s ancestors have been living for the last few thousand years in (what is now) Norway.
Assume that you were to travel by land (and eventually by boat, to get across the mediterranean) between the southernmost point of Nigeria to the northernmost point of Norway. There would be no exact geographic point from which the majority of the people to the north would be “white” and the people to the south would be “black”.
When Italians and other southern Europeans started immigrating to the United States, they were not considered white. There were debates and conferences trying to determine who was white, or not.
I doubt most people here, in the US, would think of an olive-skinned North African person as white, even though there are people of basically the same complexion across the Mediterranean, who are considered white.
In all, we should appreciate the diversity instead of saying some varieties are better or worse than others.
For Ashkenazim, we have the option to pass. Not all Ashkenazim look the same, natch…
“Whiteness” as well as “race” are notions born of the time when people from various European countries sailed to explore the world and conquer it. Jews existed long before that, and will exist long after such notions are long forgotten.
Zac –
I understand your author’s thoughts on multi-generational racial definition, but my point is that ‘Whiteness’ as a mark of assimilation and privilege; is not really a new issue in our communities. Throughout history, we have abided by the laws of our Diasporic homelands and essentially snuggled up to whoever was in charge and tried to make good under our conditions. Assimilation has always been a fast track to this goal – ask Benjamin Disraeli (or… well, if you could ask him, as he has been dead for centuries.) Some refer to this as ‘Hellenization’, but I prefer to think of it as forcing oneself to get lost in the tide… until you can’t distinguish yourself from the rest of the water… and hopefully can’t be distinguished BY the rest of the water as being particularly different.
I suppose an auxiliary question is: does it work?
As a student of history, I’m inclined to say ‘no’… if only because wherever Jews go out of our way to prove that we are ‘down’ – members of the national majority, whoever is in prominence – we get rapped sharply across the knuckles and sent back to our respective corner. Examples that spring to mind are Iran, Russia, Austria, Germany, France, and the good ol’ USA.
But this debate is important.
Because while there may never be THE ANSWER that ends the dialogue, our roles in this country as both Inside- and Outsider is one that continues to define our lives and communities.
Whenever I see “Race” or “Ethnicity” classifications (even though I will argue that they are two very different concepts) on applications I very seldomly see “Other” where I can write “Jewish”. Where I can’t do that, I have to classify myself as “White”, where I can do that, I write “Jewish” under “Other”. “White” doesn’t say much aside from the colour of my skin (which is a little tan if you ask me, hehe).
My 100% Jewish-Eastern-European aunt has a story about how she applied for a job in Philadelphia in the middle of the last cenutry and, when she saw the form completed by her interviewer noticed they had written in “race indeterminate- probably negro.”
I’ve always wondered what that means. It’s interesting on so many levels, beginning with the importance of race to the interviewer that they noted it. Does my aunt look African-American? Was the interviewer that unfamiliar that he or she saw all “others” as the same?
I think that was the first time I contemplated whether Jews are “white.” In college I read “Blood in the Face” and learned that some consider one to be “white” if they are able to blush. Some in my family do, some don’t.
This seems like as appropriate a place as any to plug this journal:
“Abolish the White Race”
from: Race Traitor: Journal of the new Abolitionism
I grew up in Quebec. You could be any colour there and you still would not become Quebecois no matter how good your french was or how much you fgooled yourself into thinking you were integrated. I’m sure that it’s part of the reason why Quebec Jews less assimilated and diluted themselves like the rest of North American Jews are proud of.
Monk,
Thanks for putting this up. A great read. Where do you daven in the BX? I remember the first lesson I got on this was from my dad, who was horrified when he heard that I was telling people where my family had lived before we came here. You’re a Jew, the Polish didn’t consider us Polish, and we shouldn’t consider ourselves that either.
It is an interesting question, because if the dominant paradigm is defined as white/christian, it’s true that we will never full assimilate. But as an activist/organizer, it does frustrate me to see that as we get further from arrival in this country, and go two generations away from major involvement in the civil rights movement, that we certainly seem to be getting more politically conservative as a whole.
Jonathan,
I’m a current spoken word performer/slam poet in nyc and would love to see your piece (especially since, and I’m sure you’re surprised to hear this) i have a few pieces that go into Jewishness and how we need to remember we have more in common with peoples in struggle than we realize, or (in some cases) admit.
Ruby.
I daven at (if that html works, i will be amazed)
It’s an emergent unaffiliated group in the west Bronx. Our membership is distributed between Yonkers, Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Mt Hope, and Fordham. A lot of B’nei Jeshrun expats, as well. Our rabbi is the first woman rabbi in the Bronx, apparently. Who new?
is it a problem to claim; we are the whitest of whites in america? in israel it isn’t! – all of us, from ethiopia to svalbard and further! and dont validate the antisemites by debating with’em. its only for us to decide where we belong.
There is something incurably medieval about those who rely on the essential pseudo-science of race for their identity.
As long as it is necessary for humanity to economically divvy up natural resources like land, food and fuel, one of the most valuable lasting contributions of modernity to the process of civilization is the emphasis on national constructs of socio-political identity. From there ethnic competition has a legal basis for economic intercourse from which civization may outgrow a retrograde pseudo-biological social stratification like race.
And with the success of Zionism, not only by politically establishing the state of Israel but by conceptually establishing a Jewish national culture, it is fortunate that a seat at the table of the family of nations is available to the Jewish people.
“There is something incurably medieval about those who rely on the essential pseudo-science of race for their identity.”
The notion that race is purely a social construct has been dispelled by the scientific cummunty quite a number of years ago. In fact, there are many prominent geneitisits who devote most of their work to the studying the genetic differences between races. There was a major breakthrough a few years ago at cambridge where it was discovered that different races react differently to certian medical treatments.
But should Judaism be considered as a race, or completely independent of race? Can you be white *and* a Jew? No one has problems saying there are Asian Christians or Black Muslims. This whole debate is really contingent on the view of the Jews as a nation more than a religion, which may well be the best model. But, if it comes down to it, why can’t the Jewish nation be multi-ethnic? Isn’t it already? And, if Jewish is an ethnic identity, where does that leave converts and children of converts? At least the nation model leaves the possibility of naturalization, but races and ethnic groups are pretty closed by nature.
’m sure the opinions vary, but as for your old boy, Monk, I tell the unschooled that anyone who ever wondered if we were ‘White’ only has to go to Stormfront.org or a Klansman rally to get their answer.
Nu?
I don’t think that reasoning would hold up anywhere. Theres tons of scholarship on Jews and Race, and its quite a hip field. Theres a dope new book out by Roediger. I’ll post about itsometime tho.
This article is based on an interesting idea: that Judaism is more nation than religion, or that it is an ethnicity. No one finds it weird to talk about Black Muslims, Asian Christians, or White Buddhists, for example. What is it about Judaism that makes it so fundamentally different? Also, where does that leave converts to Judaism? If we take the nation model of Judaism, there is at least the possibility of naturalization, but races and ethnic groups are by nature relatively closed. If the Jews are a nation, why can’t we be a multi-ethnic one? Can’t I be White and Jewish? It seems like no more of a stretch than being Jewish and American.
Sorry about the double post. i thought the first one got erased.
eli di geto zinger –
The logic is that if Whites say we’re not members of their group… then we’re NOT. Anymore than Jews for Jesus are Jewish – because WE say so.
As for KenM’s post, I am the FIRST to say the Jews are a nation – NOT a race, which has very superficial, fickle undertones. But to be honest, race doesn’t extend strictly to phenotype. As a societal construct, it is open to interpretation – and often IS.
But then… this is the point of this thread, yes?
This article is based on an interesting idea: that Judaism is more nation than religion, or that it is an ethnicity. No one finds it weird to talk about Black Muslims, Asian Christians, or White Buddhists, for example. What is it about Judaism that makes it so fundamentally different?
Uh, it is that Judaism is more nation than religion, or that it is an ethnicity. See your local Hagadah for details. This is sort of a core tenet of Judaism. (The Reform movement’s 100-year Euro-happy temporary repudiation of same notwithstanding.)
If we take the nation model of Judaism, there is at least the possibility of naturalization, but races and ethnic groups are by nature relatively closed.
No, they’re not; naturalization is, in fact, very much the model here.
The Jewish diaspora has been running for a while now. It’s developed structures for maintaining its continuity. Naturalization into a non-geographic community — I suppose the opposite of that is what you mean by “nation”, as in “country”, although the word is really quite ambiguous — is one of those structures. It’s devilishly clever!
(There are those who fall ill when they hear words like “continuity”, because they smell a whiff of The Ugly Suburban Big-Nosed Too-Pushy Institutions Who are the Enemy. Or or at any hint of a Jewish “people” as opposed to Judaism as an uplifting spiritual activity for Slavs ‘n folks from terribly homogeneous countries, beause they smell a whiff of This Leads to Zionism Which Is Ugly and Lefties Won’t Like me Anymore. Can’t be helped, I suppose.)
My kids are Jews, but no one would think they’re white, since my wife is a Japanese geyoret (or a “Jewpanese” if you prefer).
I, on the other hand, am white as a sheet. But my kids could pass in Tokyo without getting a glance from anyone. But they’re quite Jewish.
So for them at any rate “whiteness” is simply not an operative concept. For a lot of Ashkenazim, perhaps, but not for them. But I also know Jews from Morocco who do not fit the usual “swarthy Sephardi” stereotype, either.
The reason for the persistence of this question is that in spite of the wide racial diversity in the US, we are still locked into the “white vs. black” dichotomy. It is an interesting topic, especially if you view whiteness as a social construct, by which standard the Jews, as a group, could be considered “white” regardless of their complexions. But ultimately this is really a pretty barren and rather pointless debate, after a point. We’re Jews, and we get to decide who we are. I don’t care what anybody else thinks we are or are not. Waste of time worrying about it.
Regarding the “race indeterminate, possibly negro” thing, I know a Jewish woman whose forbears are all from Russia. When she was in college, she was often approached to join various black student groups and always bewildered her interlocutors when she told them that she was 100% Jewish. In the black students’ defense, I should point out that this woman, while having fairly pale skin, does have the standard-issue Jewfro and some features that some might consider “Negroid”, which I guess is what made people think she was black.
I’m a “white western european mongrel Jew” definitely not a “purebred” (if there is such a thing – the Kohanim may come the closest).
I can’t trace ancestors any earlier than 5350. My last ancestor to arrive in North America arrived 150+ years ago (can you say assimilation?) My mother’s maternal origins were by legend Sephardic and Spanish until the inquisition until they ended up in eventually England. My mother’s paternal grandparents were apparently English. My father’s ancestry was allegedly Portugese-French-German-Dutch (in that order) Jews with one Levite great-grandfather and another great-grandfather whose obituary said “he never went to any church” :-). Under the Nuremburg laws every member of my family would have joined the descendents of my great-grandmother’s French cousin.
My mother looks mediterranean (semitic?) When I had chemo last year I looked like a WASP skinhead with no tattoos. I haven’t shaved in 3 months and a Russian Ashkenaz purple gang descendent friend told me all I need is a black hat, but why is looking like an “18th century ce Russian” some how considered authentic Jewish? If they identified Jews by DNA, then most of us aren’t – the diaspora and the raw desire to survive have totally diluted a Jewish race.
Dare i say, the decendents of Hagar probably resemble Abraham more than the decendents of Sarah?
I don’t know when to shut up but.. taking a quote from the article ““Unfortunately in the United States, because of the politics of race and power, a lot of Jews have attempted to become part of the white middle class and upper class,â€. A lot of Jews have been part of the american ‘white’ middle and upper class for over 300 years.
Ummm…..there’s a problem with being part of the middle or upper class?
And having power is one hell of a lot better than being powerless.
Ephraim Said:
>Ummm…..there’s a problem with being part of the middle or upper class?
>And having power is one hell of a lot better than being powerless.
Exactly – it was much easier (and safer) being hated because I was a Jew and member of the richest family in town instead of being hated only because I was a Jew… 🙂
I used to discuss this issue all the time with a friend of mine in college. There is definitely a Jewish version of the Oreo thing in America. Too many of us want to hide our Jewishness behind our (usually) white skin, with all of the privilege that entails in American society.
On another note, I’d say that in Europe, it’s the opposite. We were never considered white until we had a state of our own. Now, the Europeans think we are the whitest people around and call us colonizers and the like. Ironic to say the least.
I recommend reading Vanessa Hidary’s poem – The Hebrew Mamita. She expresses some fascinating thoughts on the subject.
http://lasttrumpet.blogspot.com/2006/01/poem-featured-in-tribe.html
Nice read. I am always looking for articles that discuss Jews and the issue of race. I am not white and definitely very Jewish.
To quote The Genetics of the Jews by A. E. Mourant:
“Nearly all Jewish communities show a substantial proportion of African Negroid marker genes, such as to imply a total admixture of the order of 5 to 10 per cent.”
Maybe that’s why my father, who is of Russian Jewish descent on both sides, is the exact image of South African Bishop Desmond Tutu (minus the pigmentation, of course).
Just watched Europa, Europa (Hitlerjunge Salamon) – it reminded me.
The drop your pants test.
In American almost all males are “Jewish”. Not in Europe. 🙂
My late grandfather was a Yekke (German Jew) on both sides. There is a Yemenite guy in our shul who, except for the darker skin, is a spitting image of him. When I first saw the Yemenite guy, I thought I was seeing a ghost. Freaked me right out.
And my mother looks like an Azerbaijani or a Turk or some sort of Central Asian steppe-dweller: black hair, high cheekbones and brown almond-shaped eyes.
In the Mishna, in masekhet Nega‘im, it says explicitly that “the House of Israel are neither black nor white, but medium-colored.”
I, although easily passing for ‘white’ (as far as i can tell), always check off “other” on forms when it asks for ‘race’. Depending on how customizable, i’ll put in “Jewish” or “Middle-Eastern”. On medical forms, where it’s important to be as specific, ethnically, as possible, due to the different genetics of different groups, i put down “Ashkenazic Jew”