בס"ד
Breaking down the myth that racism is more prevelant
in the Jewish community than in any other community,
and the myth that Israel is an inherently racist state...:
Pictured: Habesha (Ethiopian Jewish) Family, Traditional Habesha Embroidery (as featured by Almaz and the National Council on Ethiopian Jewry), Artist Unknown
Photo: National Council on Ethiopian Jewry /
Photographer Unknown
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Is there is any more or less racism in the Jewish community than there is in the larger world? I do not believe so, by any means, but I do believe that Jews of color face challenges that Ashkenazi Jews do not face, both within and outside of the Jewish community...
I see this dynamic manifesting itself in several ways:
Jews of color are encouraged by non-Jews not to live their Jewishness openly. One of the arguments I often see used by non-Jews against Jews of color is by painting Jews as disproportionately racist...and here, I think, is a myth that we must reexamine carefully as Jews of color...: Is racism really more prevalent among Ashkenazi Jews, and disproportionately so, than among white non-Jews, or are non-Jews painting the Jewish community as disproportionately racist in order to encourage Jews of color to abandon Judaism?
I personally believe that the latter, and not the former is the reality of the situation...
In terms of support for the state of Israel, I believe that the same dynamic comes into play...The anti-Israeli, anti-semitic PR machine is all too willing to paint Israel as a "racist state". Racism exists all over the world (in every country I have visited, at least), but should we, as Jews of color, fall into the trap of believing that racism is disproportionately prominent in Israel, than in any other place in the world? I think not...
The understanding of Jews as a "race", rather than a nation of people - Bnai Israel, the children of Israel - grows from the dynamic of race within the larger world, and particularly, in the American context, was exacerbated by the institutionalization of slavery during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the use of Christian theology by some at that time to justify racism as an institution and to dehumanize and to oppress people of African descent, people of color, generally, and non-Christians, generally, which includes us, as Jews, as well...Christian abolitionists and activists within the Jewish community who did not support the institution of slavery actively fought against this misuse and abuse of Christian theology.
Today, I see so many Jews of color abandoning Judaism primarily because of the pressures which are placed upon them from OUTSIDE of the Jewish community, and much less as a result of the pressures placed upon them from inside of the Jewish community (and this is intimately tied to the history of Anusim and Crypto-Jews, and particularly where this history concerns Jews of color...). One of the primary arguments being set forth primarily by certain non-Jews, that is encouraging Jews of color to leave the Jewish community, is this argument that Jews are disproportionately racist, more racist than non-Jews...and such arguments are particularly encouraging young Jewish men of color not to marry within the Jewish community...
In terms of understanding assimilation within the Jewish community, an understanding of the dynamic of race and anti-semitism could also explain why the number of Ashkenazi Jewish men marrying non-Jewish women, including non-Jewish women of color, has also increased significantly...
In a sense, convincing Jewish men that simply being Jewish and wanting to marry a Jewish woman is also to be racist (as if Jewish people and women of color did not exist) or discriminatory against non-Jews (as if there are not non-Jews who are committed to marrying within their own religious communities, as well...), encourages Jewish men to leave Judaism...
It is a myth that we, as Jews of color, and particularly as Jewish women of color, must actively work to deconstruct...
This dynamic also negatively impacts Ashkenazi Jews (and the Jewish community, generally), who are being pressured and encouraged to identify with "whiteness" before Jewishness, rather than to identify themselves primarily as Jews who are part of a larger, more diverse Jewish community, in terms of the social construct of race (which is a fallacy, by any means), and the larger diaspora. I once had a very long and interesting conversation with a rabbi from the American South, where I grew up, about how this dynamic particularly impacted Jewish communities across the American South, and how, in some ways, standing up for the Civil Rights Movement, was also a true act of resistence within the Ashkenazi Jewish community, as well, to reclaim their desire to resist this pressure to identify with whiteness, rather than Jewishness...
For those among us who are Orthodox Jews, the labeling of matrilineal descent as "racist" is also without foundation...The upholding of descendance from a Jewish mother does not require that the Jewish mother possess any particular physical attributes...be of a particular "race", which is a social construct, in any case...
Finally, another way in which the dynamic of race and anti-semitism impacts Jews of color, is that Jews of color are often pressured to meet some stereotype or preconceived notion of what it is to be a person of color...for both young Jewish men and women of color, this pressure to fulfill some stereotype or preconceived notion of what it is to be a person of color, rather than to simply be themselves, also encourages them not to love themselves as Jews...
As Jews (not matter what color we are), we are commanded to stand up for justice, and we must stand up to racism and discrimination within our own community which has a negative impact both inside and outside of our own community when such rears its ugly head, but we must also be aware of the ways in which the painting of the Jewish community as disproportionately racist, is also an argument being used by non-Jews in order to encourage us to abandon Judaism, to create rifts within and divide the Jewish community...we must also choose Judaism over "blackness", over our layers of racial and ethnic identity, even as we express ourselves as Jews whose culture and tradition is tied to our experience of diaspora.
No matter our place in the diaspora, we are Jews - intimately connected to Hashem and one another.
Racism exists within every community, and we must fight against such discrimination and inequality both within and outside of our community as Jews, while, at the same time, being very aware of the way in which such arguments are being used by non-Jews in order to encourage us to abandon Judaism and to divide the community of which we are a part...
The painting the Jewish community as disproportionately racist by non-Jews can also be a form of anti-semitism, can also exist as a tool which is purposefully used against us, in order to separate and divide us, as Jews...and to delegitimize the state of Israel by painting it as a disproportionately racist state...
Judaism has no color...as Jews, we are the reflection of no color or all colors, reflections of the love of Hashem here on this earth...may we work together to realize this reflection of Hashem, despite the challenges and obstacles before us in the secular world...
~ Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham, ISRAELRealNATION,
14 June 2009, 22 Sivan 5769
© 2009
ISRAELrealNATION / Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham
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NOTE:
The above article speaks directly to a video entitled "Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem", released on YouTube.com just after United States President Barack Obama's unprecedented Speech at Cairo University on 4 June 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
(The original video was later censored by YouTube, but may still be found here.)
The video consists of a series of interviews of several young Israelis and Americans at a Jerusalem bar following the Speech, making incredibly hateful, racist statements not founded on reason, logic, or any serious reflection or consideration of what is happening in the world today. It is purposefully biased, serving an anti-semitic, anti-Israel agenda, and certainly neither represents Israel in the entirety, nor all Israelis.
Although the title is, perhaps, inaccurate (as every country has "people who hate" within its borders; a malaise from which no country is immune, as demonstrated by the recent terrorist attack on the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in the United States on 10 June 2009), the following video is much more representative of Israel:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
The realities of racism and anti-semitism cannot be denied. However, fair analysis, constructive criticism, and freedom of opinion and expression, within the limitations of Halakha and the Law of the Land, are part of what it means to live in a democracy.
Nevertheless, simply because President Obama is the first President of the United States with African heritage, the historic importance of which is manifest, does not mean that one must agree with him or his views. "Give him a chance?"; he gets the same chance as any other President. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Yes, racism and, quite frankly, (self-imposed) anti-semitism also exist within the Jewish community, just as they do within all other religious and ethnic communities, but not in a manner which is decidedly statistically disproportionate to any other community.
