Jews of color (or Jews of colour) is a
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
, primarily used in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, that describes
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, whether biracial, adopted, Jews by choice, or part of other national or geographic populations (or a combination of these).
It is often used to identify Jews who are racially non-white, whose family origins are originally in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
n or
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n countries, and to acknowledge a common experience for Jews who belong to racial, national, or geographic groups beyond
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
and
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
.
The term has been used in discourse about
Ashkenormativity, white Jews, and by extension
white privilege
White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With roots ...
, as well as
racism in Jewish communities
Racism in Jewish communities is a source of concern for people of color, particularly for Jews of color. Black Jews, Indigenous Jews, and other Jews of color report that they experience racism from white Jews in many countries, including the Unit ...
, Jewish visibility,
Judaism as an ethnicity, and the question of
who is a Jew
"Who is a Jew?" ( he, מיהו יהודי ) is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political ...
. While there is consensus that this demographic group exists, there is debate over the exact definition or the use of this specific term.
Origin of term
Jews who are also
people of color
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
have existed for a long time, but the concept of a Jew of color as an identity came about in recent history. The term comes from a melding of the terms ''
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
'' and person of color, and refers to people who identify as both (sometimes in addition to other identities). The related term "JOCISM" is occasionally used, standing for Jews of Color,
Indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
,
Sephardi
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
, and
Mizrahi
''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' ( he, מזרחי) has two meanings.
In the literal Hebrew meaning ''Eastern'', it may refer to:
*Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East
* Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberian P ...
.
The Jewish diaspora contains Jews of a wide range of ethnicities, and branches out with groups like Sephardi and Mizrahi. However, according to ''Jews of Color: Experiences of Inclusion and Exclusion,'' "Jewish identity has largely been dominated and defined by Ashkenazi Jews and their heritage, whose lineage can be traced back to Eastern and Central Europe".
However, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews are not always considered Jews of color and may or may not self-identify as Jews of color. Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent are classified as "white" by the United States census.
Syrian-American Jews are classified as white by the US census and most self-identify as white, Middle Eastern, and/or otherwise non-white, but rarely identify as Jews of color. Hispanic and Latino American Jews, particularly Hispanic and Latino Ashkenazim, often identify as
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
rather than as Jews of color, and some Jews with roots in Latin America may not identify as "Hispanic" or "Latino" at all.
Sephardi Jews of European descent, such as the
Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the i ...
, are not considered Jews of color. Many Ashkenazi Jews in the United States are Jews of color. The majority of African-American Jews are Ashkenazi. Many Asian-American Jews are also Ashkenazi.
Due to antisemitic persecution, many Jewish people throughout history have tried to be perceived as non-Jewish members of the dominant culture of their diaspora homeland while privately performing their traditions, and may often assimilate or intermarry, in order to assure their safety. On census forms it was easier to write white than highlight an ethno-religious variation. In a
post-Holocaust context where in living memory the census was used to round up Jews, it became unfavourable to highlight this if they were able to
pass
Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to:
Places
* Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland
* Pass, Poland, a village in Poland
* Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits
* Mountain pass, a lower place in a moun ...
as
non-Jews
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jews, Jew". Other Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites, groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More ra ...
. ''
Peers Institute'' asserts "as some Jews became ‘white’ in the twentieth century, large groups of non-white Jews simply disappeared, or at least disappeared ''as Jews".''
Shahanna McKinney-Baldon is responsible for arguably the first time the term was used in print in a national publication. She introduced a 2001 issue by ''
Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends'' titled “Writing and Art by and for Jewish Women of Color”: “This collection of writings and artwork by Jewish women of color — Jewish women of African, Asian, Latin, and Native American heritages — offers readers a chance to think about racism within the Jewish community. How we name ourselves and our experiences is a place to begin
nd I argue for use of a new term'Jews of Color'".
JoC Identification
In recent years, journalists, scholars and Jewish community leaders have wondered about the percentage of U.S. Jews who are Jews of color. This term has not been included in Pew Research Center surveys so it is difficult to ascertain this data.
The Jews of Color Field Building Initiative reported, "Jews of color in the U.S. are a growing population but have been systematically undercounted in decades of American Jewish population studies". For many years, the majority of U.S. Jews have identified as white.
However, a 2020 estimate from Reformjudaism.org stated that 12% of American Jews are Jews of color.
In 2021, the Jews of Color Initiative underwent the most comprehensive survey of Jews of color ever carried out entitled
Beyond the Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews. In this paper, Jews of color expressed multiple ways that their identities overlap with, intersect with, and infuse each other. In ''The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism'', Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz writes that the voices of Jews of color, particularly Jews who have background or ancestry in places other than Europe "challenge common assumptions about Jewishness, whiteness, and the perennial question of who gets to decide who is Jewish".
Intra-community relations
The relationship between Jews of color and white/non-POC Jews has been mixed over history. ''Moment Mag'' argues the term is evolving, "reflecting the Jewish community’s reckoning with race and its own racial blind spots". Responses from 1,100 people in the Jews of color Initiative study revealed a deep engagement with Jewish identity that has often come with experiences of discrimination in communal settings. ''Jewish News UK'' wrote "Jews of colour are made to feel unwelcome in an Ashkenormative community’". The Associated Press wrote that skin colour sometimes elicits questioning glances, suspicions and hurtful assumptions. ''Jews of Color: Experiences of Inclusion and Exclusion'' suggests "the battle of recognition and representation between Jews of Color and the dominating assumption of Jewish whiteness in the United States often produces an environment of racism and exclusion for Jewish community members of color".
Of Juneteenth 2022, Josh Maxey, head of the Jews of color group at
Washington Hebrew Congregation
Washington Hebrew Congregation (WHC) is a Reform Jewish synagogue in Washington, D.C. Washington Hebrew Congregation is currently a member of the Union for Reform Judaism. It is one of the largest Reform congregations in the United States, with 2,7 ...
, said the festival was "a chance for other Jews of color to come together to celebrate each other and to be themselves and not feel like we have to hide aspects of our identity". A piece from
Jewish Community Relations Council
A Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is a locally based Jewish organization that carries out "action agendas on behalf of and in the name of the local Jewish communities." Councils may aim "to represent the consensus of the organized Jewish ...
on
intersectionality
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...
writes "for many Jews of color, Jewish LGBTQI and Jews who are of multiple identities (including diverse political perspectives)...without the Jewish community operating in intersectional ways there is no space for them to engage as whole people". ''White Jews: An Intersectional Approach'' argues "what Whiteness “does” to Jewishness is act as an accelerant for certain forms of antisemitic marginalization even as it ratifies a racialized hierarchy within the Jewish community".
White
converts to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. " ...
may experience white privilege that Jews of color, including converts of color, do not experience. Black converts and other converts of color may have their Jewishness questioned in majority-white Jewish spaces, while white converts are more likely to be accepted as Jewish without question. Despite the fact that the majority of Jews of color were born Jewish and have an ancestral connection to Jewishness, Jews of color, particularly Black Jews, are often automatically assumed or suspected to be converts. White Jews are often assumed to have been born Jewish with Jewish ancestry; this is true even of white converts, many of whom have no ancestral connection to Jewishness. In majority-white Jewish spaces, Jews of color may face intrusive questions asking them how they are Jewish or if they are really Jewish at all. Jews of color in majority-white Jewish spaces may be assumed to be janitorial staff or experience harassment from security.
In June 2020, the
Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, commonly referred to as the Board of Deputies, is the largest and second oldest Jewish communal organisation in the United Kingdom, after only the Initiation Society which was founded in 1745. Established ...
established a Commission on Racial Inclusivity in light of the
George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom
Protests were held across the United Kingdom following the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, by police officers while under arrest in the United States on 25 May 2020. Immediately following his murder, protests and r ...
. The Commission declared "a need for the Jewish community to become an unequivocally anti-racist environment that is more welcoming and inclusive to Black Jews, and non-Black Jews of color."
Criticism of term
In their article ''Navigating Nuance: Using the Term "Jews of Color"'', the Jews of Color Initiative notes that thought leaders and research participants who are Jews of color have expressed limitations for employing this term.
The research term behind the Beyond the Count paper described it as "an imperfect but useful umbrella term."
For instance, those who participated in the Beyond the Count research and self-identified as JoC used the term in a multiplicity of ways:
* As a racial grouping (e.g. Black, Asian, and multiracial Jews)
* To indicate national heritage (e.g. Egyptian, Iranian, and Ethiopian Jews)
* To describe regional and geographic connections (e.g. Latino, Mizrahi, Sephardic Jews)
* To specify sub-categories (e.g. transracially adopted Jews and Jewish women of color)
eJewish Philanthropy criticized the use of the term "Jews of color", arguing that it doesn’t accurately describe the people to whom it refers.
See also
*
Abayudaya
The Abayudaya (''Abayudaya'' is Luganda for "People of Judah") are a community in eastern Uganda, near the town of Mbale, who practice Judaism. They are devout in their practice, keeping kashrut and observing Shabbat. There are several differ ...
, a Jewish community that lives in Eastern Africa
*
African-American Jews
African-American Jews are people who are both African American and Jewish. African-American Jews may be either Jewish from birth or converts to Judaism. Many African-American Jews are of mixed heritage, having both African-American gentile and ...
*
Beta Israel
The Beta Israel ( he, בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Bēteʾ Yīsrāʾēl''; gez, ቤተ እስራኤል, , modern ''Bēte 'Isrā'ēl'', EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "House of Israel" or "Community of Israel"), also known as Ethiopian Jews ...
, also known as Ethiopian Jews
*
Cochin Jews
Cochin Jews (also known as Malabar Jews or Kochinim, from ) are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots that are claimed to date back to the time of King Solomon. The Cochin Jews settled in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now pa ...
or ''Malabar Jews'', a community of Indian Jews
*
Eastern Sephardim Eastern Sephardim are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardi Jews, mostly descended from families expelled and exiled from Iberia as Jews in the 15th century following the Alhambra Decree of 1492 in Spain and the decree of 1497 in Portugal. This branch ...
—see "Neo-Western Sephardim"
*
History of the Jews in Africa
African Jewish communities include:
*Sephardi Jews and Mizrahi Jews who primarily live in the Maghreb of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, as well as Sudan and Egypt. Some were established early in the diaspora; oth ...
*
House of Israel (Ghana)
The House of Israel is a Jewish community located in southwestern Ghana, in the towns of Sefwi Wiawso and Sefwi Sui. This group of people, of the Sefwi tribe, built a synagogue in 1998. Many of the men and children read English, but no one knows ...
, a Jewish community that lives in Ghana
*
Igbo Jews
Igbo Jews are members of the Igbo people of Nigeria who practice Judaism. Jewish life has been documented in parts of Nigeria since the precolonial period, but it is not known for the Igbo to have claimed Israelite descent or practiced Judaism ...
, a Jewish community that lives in Western Africa
*
Lemba people
The Lemba, Remba, or Mwenye are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group which is native to Zimbabwe and South Africa, with smaller branches in Mozambique and Malawi. According to Tudor Parfitt, when he first worked in the field among the Lemba in South ...
, a Jewish community that lives in Western and Southern Africa
References
Further reading
*
*
*{{cite journal, last=Gordon, first=Lewis R., title=Rarely Kosher: Studying Jews of Color in North America, journal=American Jewish History, year=2016, volume=100, issue=1, pages=105–116, doi=10.1353/ajh.2016.0006, s2cid=162495379
External links
Jews of Color InitiativeJews of Colour CanadaYoung JW3 Jews of Colour CommunityLGBTQIA+Jews Of Colour UK
Jews and Judaism in North America
Person of color
Religious identity
Religion and race