This Week in The Jews of Color (6/7)
David Shasha
The Jews of Color are Ashkenazim
Just to make the point crystal clear, the following JTA article on the Jews of Color shows us how the construct is Ashkenazi:
Indeed, we have seen how quickly the White Jewish Supremacist media and institutions have responded to the George Floyd matter.
Sephardim are still not being represented.
But when you look at the following list of participants from the JTA article you will see how the Jews of Color identify as Ashkenazim:
April Baskin is a diversity consultant and racial justice director of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable.
Ginna Green works in the Jewish community and the progressive movement, and sits on the boards of the Jews of Color Initiative, the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, and Political Research Associates.
Yitz Jordan is the founder of TribeHerald, a publication for Jews of color, and a hip hop artist also known as Y-Love.
Gulienne Rishon is a diversity expert and chief revenue officer for TribeHerald Media.
Isaiah Rothstein is a multiracial rabbi who serves as the rabbi-in-residence at Hazon.
Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell is a musician who blends traditional Yiddish and African-American music.
Tema Smith is a writer and the director of professional development at 18Doors, an organization for interfaith families.
Enzi Tanner is a social worker in Minneapolis and works with LGBT families experiencing homelessness.
Evan Traylor is an educator, activist and soon-to-be rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion.
There are of course varying levels of participation and different ideological colorations, but the list is a fairly good barometer of where the White Jewish Supremacy world is right now.
White Jewish Supremacy Jewish Book Council is all about “The Jews of Color”
On Monday the JBC posted the following two items:
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/if-not-now-when-marra-b-gad-on-writing-her-story
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/books/reading-lists/civil-rights-and-race
The first item is from Jew of Color Marra Gad, who affirms the White Jewish Supremacy:
But society is also not all that different. I am still gawked at and whispered about. I was denied service at a restaurant just last week. And much like it was in the 1970s and 1980s, on Rosh Hashanah morning this year, a woman sitting near me in synagogue could not contain herself at the sight of me. She stared, craned her neck to watch me pray and interrupted me to ask me what I was doing there. For me, it often feels like it is still 1979, where I am still the only brown Jew in a sea of white faces.
Indeed, though the word “Ashkenazi” is never used here, the context of the remarks is of a monolithic White Jewish community where the idea of Arab Jews is not operative.
To put a fine point on it, the second post provides a handy reading list on “Civil Rights” that is all about the Ashkenazim.
With the exception of two books, almost all the works are written by and about Ashkenazim and their relation to Black people. It is a deeply ethnocentric list that ignores books not about Ashkenazim.
Here is the one book that actually mentions Sephardim and the problem of Ashkenazi racism against us:
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-colors-of-jews-racial-politics-and-radical-diasporism
And there is a book by Ayelet Tsabari who we have encountered before in this same context:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/Davidshasha/tsabari/davidshasha/v6bSDaP39rk/c7KdIH_23NwJ
The Ashkenazim are very keen on letting the world know that they are “down” with Black people.
David Shasha