“Race” is a historically contingent and subjective category that is used to justify violence against minority groups. I specifically wrote about American Jews because their experiences—which are incredibly diverse and varied—show the hypocrisies and limits of these racial categories. Looking at the historical experiences of this one particular group, and the present-day tensions its faces, is a means of critiquing the way “whiteness” is used to delineate who is and isn’t considered powerful and valuable in society. [...]
Here’s what I’d say to these objections: Racial categories exist in American society. Everyone—including and especially Jews, a group that is arguably constructed not just around religious identity, but also ethnicity—has to grapple with their relationship to those racial categories. As I argue in the piece, racial categories are flawed, socially constructed, and ultimately premised on control and power. But ignoring questions about race is not a way of bringing about racial justice or overturning white supremacy. It’s a way of stifling understanding, debate, and awareness. [...]
Asking, “Are Jews white?,” is a way of questioning the lack of racial awareness among some American Jews. It’s meant to highlight all of the things that challenge the notion that Jews are un-complicatedly white—including the experiences of Jews of color. It’s a point made memorably by the scholarship of Lewis R. Gordon, the former founder of Temple University’s Center for Afro-Jewish Studies and current professor at the University of Connecticut, who’s prominently featured in the piece, and who is himself a Jew of color.
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