Ashkenazi/White Jewish Privilege Checklist

“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.” — Peggy McIntosh

Donning tefillin. Copyright © 2008 Tamu Ngina

The Ashkenazi/White Jewish Privilege Checklist was developed by Corinne Lightweaver, Sasha King, and members of the Jewish Multiracial Network online discussion group, 2006–2009, to teach about the white privilege conferred upon Ashkenazi Jews by the Jewish community. It is an evolving document that builds on the work of Peggy McIntosh, the author of the widely-used Unpacking White Privilege Checklist. You are welcome to distribute the Ashkenazi/White Jewish Privilege Checklist, use it in workshops, and add to it.

Ashkenazi/White Jewish Privilege Checklist
The following statements are examples of ways in which white Ashkenazi Jews have privilege because they are white. The privileges listed below are ones that many white Ashkenazi Jews may take for granted today, but which are not available to most Jews of color in the United States.

Please check all the statements that apply to you. At the end, try to list at least two more ways you have privilege in the Jewish community based on your race or ethnicity.

___    I can walk into my temple and feel that others do not see me as outsider.
___    I can walk into my temple and feel that others do not see me as exotic.
___    I can walk into my temple and feel that my children are seen as Jews.
___    I can walk into temple with my family and not worry that they will be treated unkindly because of the color of their skin.
___    I can enjoy music at my temple that reflects the tunes, prayers, and cultural roots of my specific Jewish heritage.
___    No one at my synagogue will attempt to assign me to a ethnicity to which I  do not belong (e.g., assuming all Jews of African descent are Igbo or Ethiopian).
___    I can easily find greeting cards and books with images of Jews who look like me.
___    I can easily find Jewish books and toys for my children with images of Jews that look like them.
___    I am not singled out to speak about and as a representative of an “exotic” Jewish subgroup.
___    When I go to Jewish bookstores or restaurants, I am not seen as an outsider.
___    I find my experiences and images like mine in Jewish newspapers and magazines.
___    I do not worry about access to housing or apartments in predominately Jewish neighborhoods.
___    My rabbi never questions that I am Jewish.
___    When I tell other members of my synagogue that I feel marginalized, they are immediately and appropriately responsive.
___    There are other children at the religious school who look like my child.
___    My child’s authenticity as a Jew is never questioned by adults or children based on his/her skin color.
___    People never say to me, “But you don’t look Jewish,” either seriously or as though it was funny.
___    I do not worry about being seen or treated as a member of the janitorial staff at a synagogue or when attending a Jewish event.
___    I am never asked “how” I am Jewish at dating events or on Jewish dating websites.
___    I can arrange to be in the company of Jews of my heritage most of the time.
___    When attempting to join a synagogue or Jewish organization, I am confident that my ethnic background will not be held against me.
___    I can ask synagogues and Jewish organizations to include images and cultural traditions from my background without being seen as a nuisance.
___    I can enroll in a Jewish day school, yeshiva, and historically Jewish college and find Jewish students and professors with my racial or ethnic background.
___    People of color do not question why I am Jewish.
___    I know my racial or ethnic background will not be held against me if I  attempt to join a minyan in prayer.
___    I know my ethnic background will not be held against me in being called to read the Torah.
___    I am not discriminated against in the aliyah process as a Jew of my particular ethnicity.

Text not copyrighted. Developed for educational purposes by the Jewish Multiracial Network, 2006–2009. Please distribute and add to the checklist. For more information about the Jewish Multiracial Network, visit www.jewishmultiracialnetwork.org.

Bruce the Jewish Moose

This year's latest addition to Jewish children's literature is not to be missed!

What? A Hanukkah story involving antlers?

Bruce Bruce the Hanukkah Moose is not—despite what skeptics might speculate—a sanitized version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Jewish kids. Instead it is a delightful, contemporary Jewish parable about the wish to fit in and its gratification through self-confidence and self-acceptance.

Set in an entirely Jewish world “peopled” by critters, the book is a long-awaited and welcome addition to the libraries of all Jewish families, but particularly to the bookshelves of non-traditional families and families of color whose parents are constantly confronted by the dearth of books that depict anything but pale-skinned, European-descended Jews with large, intact families and heterosexual parents. Nothing wrong with those books and the large audience for them, of course, but many Jewish children’s experiences have been left out of what’s traditionally been available.

Written by Howard and Elaine Behnken for their son Reno, Bruce Bruce emerged in response to their young son’s challenge, “Why are there so few Hanukkah songs?” Howard and Elaine said they didn’t know the answer, but they “offered to write one to make him happy and to right this great injustice.” That’s a parable in itself for all of us desperate parents who are trying to secure the appeal of our own holiday traditions for our children!

Allison Reimold's whimsical illustrations make this a winter tale all children can enjoy.

Allison Reimold’s warm illustrations bring the Behnkens’ story to life. Not too silly and not too sappy, the accessible images provide both depth and whimsy.

On the accompanying CD, Howard sings and reads the stories, and then Reno—now a fifth-grader—does the same. Reno’s exuberant and heartfelt rendition is sure to capture the imagination of young listeners and the wanna-be rock stars among them. The CD is crowned by a karaoke version of the song, making it easy to stage your own family performance at home!

And if you’re looking for Hanukkah heroes besides warriors, Bruce is your man, er, moose. His heroics are one even the youngest child can emulate:

Some heroes’ power is strength.
Some heroes’ power is mental.
Some heroes don’t know why they are heroes.
Some are just accidental.

Available from Howard’s House, the hardback book includes a CD with an audio book and three versions of the hit song, $19.99. A portion of the proceeds will go toward planting trees in Israel.
Copyright © 2008 Corinne Lightweaver. Illustration by Allison Reimold and lyrics by Howard Behnken and Jayce Murphy excerpted by permission.

Raising a New Generation

Four-year-old Niko Vest Walton savors a slice of pizza at a Purim Carnival in Culver City, California. Credit: Corinne Lightweaver, 2008.

Something remarkable seems to be happening: Jewish philosophy is going mainstream! It is reflected in the public television character Bob the Builder™, a darling of the preschool set, and echoed in the speeches of our president elect. Those readers who are current or recent parents of three- to six-year olds may have already guessed what I’m talking about. The refrain is echoing on the lips of an increasing number of U.S. Americans. As Bob the Builder puts it, “Can we build it? Yes, we can.”

Hope is alive and growing in the United States today. Building a better future is not a new concept for Jews, nor a revival of a discarded way of life. For Jews, hope is an ever-present theme in the fabric of our daily lives and in the ancient commandment of tikkun olam, the repair of the world.

As Jews of color and allies, the work of tikkun olam is one to which we feel personally connected, particularly in the area of healing the artificial rifts among Jews. No matter what denomination of Judaism we identify with, we all worship the one Creator (or God or Shekhinah or Spirit of the Universe or Ha Shem). If we are secular Jews, we feel a bond— however tenuous—with some aspect of Jewish life, be it the land of Israel, the Jewish people (clal Yisrael), the music, the core emphasis on social justice, Jewish humor, couscous, babaghanouzh, baklava, savory cheese pies, or deli sandwiches on rye.

Nevertheless we are tired of generating that reparative energy outward, to justify our existence, our beliefs, our families, our heritages. But let us not allow the flame of hope to die out. We are in a time of great upheaval, stress, and conflict. And we are in a time of great possibility.

Though we may find ourselves living in Colorado, Iowa, Georgia, or Rhode Island—none known as great bastions of Jews of color or our allies—or though we may find ourselves the only Jews of color or allies living on our block in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C., we Jews of color and our allies are a huge contingent, a sizeable voting bloc, a vast wealth of spirit, a veritable fountain of culture and history, a community of wisdom and strength.

For now, let those of us who are wounded draw inward toward each other and the warmth of family. Some people fear this type of bonding as separatist (and thus “dangerous”). I see it as a necessary component of every civil rights movement—African American, gay and lesbian, people with disabilities, immigrants—that has made any progress in this country.

Just like there are times when we pull together with our immediate families, both biological and chosen, for support, strategy, and cheerleading before reentering the larger world, there are times when we need the camaraderie of those who share in the same obstacles, disappointments, cultural visions, and achievements as ourselves.

Undoubtedly, some people will scoff at the idea of a magazine for Jews of color and our allies. They will call it “separatist,” “unnecessary,” “unorthodox,” or maybe even “subversive.” But I believe the contingent of people who will rejoice in this magazine, find strength and entertainment in it, and use it as a springboard toward leadership in a broader community makes this venture overdue and invaluable.

Jews of color may be small in number as a community, compared to the larger Jewish community. But when has the larger Jewish community ever let its minority status keep it from excelling, discovering, creating, and leading? Living a Jewish life has never been a numbers game. Our agenda as Jews of color and allies has at its core the same essence as Judaism itself: we live our lives by striving to reach, create, and share the best of ourselves.
Copyright © 2008 Corinne Lightweaver.

The Birth of JewV’Nation (TM) (SM)

A year and a half ago, I envisioned a magazine that would fill an untouched niche. I had been researching stories of Jews of color for six years. In those articles I looked for the stories of my people and myself. I looked for accounts of those whose culture and circumstances were different than mine but just as, or more, interesting. And I looked at the world to come on Earth, the world that was already here but whose story was untold.

Opera singer and cantorial soloist Jason McKinney of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with his nephew Yosef. Credit: Stacey B. Peyer, 2007.

As I amassed a collection of names and characters, I became frustrated by the stilted framework given these stories in the mainstream and Jewish media, particularly the repetitive, “clever” headlines that lost their originality after the second or third use. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen variations on the headline, “Funny, You Don’t Look Jewish.” Or how many times I’ve read the same old story angles: a sole black Jew struggles alone against terrible odds; a multiracial Jew is treated as exotic and strange based on her physical characteristics; a Korean American Jew encounters rejection at her synagogue and misunderstanding elsewhere. Few stories dug below the surface of perceived difference.

As an avid reader, literature major, journalist, and editor, I saw the same disturbing pattern that I had seen in many other articles about—and sometimes by—the many groups in the United States who have struggled since the early 19th century against oppression and toward freedom, unity, and self-worth. The focus of today’s reporting about Jews of color has also been on oppression, suffering, and isolation. But contrary to the downtrodden tone of the articles, what I found beyond the editorial perspective was a joyous and rich tapestry: the stories of hundreds—no, thousands—of Jews of color who were raising families, celebrating milestones, and making a difference in their communities. Some had achieved a degree of celebrity, but most were people who didn’t fit into the neat, mainstream pigeonholes assigned to frame all stories of Jews of color.

In JewV’Nation (TM) (SM), an “online magazine for Jews of color and our allies,” I aim to tell the stories of scientists, artists, businesspeople, community leaders, and ordinary Jews of color living extraordinary lives. Their lives are not underground or below the radar, it’s only that few journalists are looking for them and even fewer are getting those stories published.

Twenty-five years ago, in a journalism graduate school application essay, I selected what I thought was a controversial topic: the subjectivity of journalism. I was still idealistic about unbiased journalism, and was just coming to the understanding that it was a goal toward which to strive, but not a reality that could ever be reached. At the same time, I found myself much more involved in advocacy journalism, a seductive outlet for a shy activist seeking to work toward a better world.

So, no, this magazine is not an objective news source. Instead it’s an entertainment, education, and enrichment vehicle, something I hope you will share with your family and friends. Until the rest of the world changes—and it will!—I intend it as a haven, a spot on the couch for friendly conversation among family and friends, and for those whose extended community—Jews of color and their allies—may be closer than they realize.

Today I’m ready—and I hope you are too—to launch into the world that we dream of. Our community of Jews of color and our allies may not yet be mainstream, but one day we will be. Our stories will no longer be isolated or framed by exoticism. Our colors will form an interesting quilt, but will no longer be the sole focus of our own stories. It’s not yet true in the mainstream media but at JewV’Nation, our time has come.
Copyright © 2008 Corinne Lightweaver.

Where is Waldo?

Readers familiar with children’s picture books in the last fifteen years will be well acquainted with a series of books about a character named Waldo. The books themselves accomplish their mission without any text. Each turn of the page reveals a double-spread filled with hundreds of tiny characters. The child’s challenge is to search among the assortment of infinitesimal characters to find the one with the red-and-white-striped t-shirt, eyeglasses, and silly hat: Waldo.

Sometimes when I, as a white ally of Jews of color, look for stories about U.S. Jews of color in mainstream media and Jewish media, I am transported to the world of Waldo. I am so busy sorting through the stories about Jews of color around the world—from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, China, Cuba, Jamaica, India, Yemen, Iran, Mexico, and Argentina—that I cannot find that highly recognizable, familiar character: the U.S. Jew of color.

It is natural for U.S. Jews of color to look outside the U.S. for confirmation of the long histories, cultures, and accomplishments of Jews of color. Like all people of color in the United States, Jews of color have had to deal with the suppression of their history, including culture, families, traditions, music, cuisine, significant holidays, and dates of remembrance. When what is directly in front of you is rendered invisible, you naturally seek farther afield to find what you are looking for.

But Jews with white privilege are starting from a completely different place. With financial, cultural, familial, and institutional resources at our fingertips, we need to direct our resources toward uncovering that which has been buried or rendered invisible: the long history and current presence of Jews of color in the United States.

The focus of white Jews on “helping” or writing about Jews of color in foreign countries with no concurrent equal or greater focus on the lives of Jews of color in the United States plays into our country’s long history of institutional racism. Am I calling individual white Jews racist for having a particular interest in, say, the Abudaya of Uganda or the Falasha of Ethiopia? No. But as a country, as clal Israel of the United States, we are responsible for the appreciation of and welfare of those within our own borders. When white allies such as myself don’t address the needs, we are guilty of participating in institutional racism.

When one exoticizes another person, one separates oneself from joining in the same humanity as those with different physical characteristics or nationalities. One objectifies another person in an ethnocentric manner. Xenophobia is the fear of foreign people. When white Jews focus on Jews of color outside the U.S., we may congratulate ourselves that we are not xenophobic. But this self-adulation can be used to shield ourselves from seeing that we are exoticizing our fellow Jews from other countries and that in doing so, we are creating a distraction to avoid dealing with the heritage of individual racism or mantle of institutional racism that is our legacy as white Americans.

I call on white Jews to join the movement toward embracing inclusive, integrated, and pluralistic Judaism and Jewish life in the United States. This is not simply a pipe dream or an unlikely vision. In fact, the community already exists; perhaps you know of it already, perhaps you are learning about it for the first time. In the online magazine JewV’Nation™ (SM), which debuts in 2009, readers will discover stories from the insider’s point of a view. JewV’Nation is a Jew-of-color-centric magazine, as opposed to Euro-centric. This magazine is not just for Jews of color. I invite white Jews as well to read this magazine, talk with your fellow Jews of all colors, listen to Jews of color, and learn. Our work is not to “help,” but to heal ourselves; our work is to get out of the way. Please join JewV’Nation and journey with us.
Copyright © 2008 Corinne Lightweaver.

Diversionary Tactics

Recently I attended a presentation about Jews of color and a screening of a film about Jews who live in Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana. Held at a progressive synagogue in Los Angeles, the event was led by the filmmakers Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks, Ph.D. At the very end of what had been a lively Q&A, a man thrust his hand up and let loose the oldest line in the book: “But we all know these people aren’t Jews!”

The comment engendered gasps and groans around the room. One audience member responded, “I am astounded that you would say such a thing in this space at BCC, a space expressly created to respond to the needs of those who also were told they don’t belong.”

The hosting organization Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) is known as the world’s oldest gay and lesbian synagogue. The congregation has actually redefined itself over several decades, now advertising itself as “an inclusive community of progressive lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and heterosexual individuals, our families and friends.” The inclusion of other groups was a result of hard-won battles by some BCC members who found the words “gay and lesbian” in the synagogue’s description to be just as limiting and exclusionary as the synagogues that had made them feel unwelcome for being gay or lesbian.

The two people least shocked by the man’s pronouncement were McKinney and Banks. The filmmakers hear this sort of theme—variations on who may or may not be declared Jewish—repeatedly in discussions of their film and most recently on the pages of New York’s The Jewish Week, which dismissed their innovative presentation “Belonging Everywhere” as irrelevant and labeled the workshop leaders themselves as angry. The article’s original subhead, which has since been deleted on The Jewish Week website, read in large type, “But if they’re angry, will anybody listen?” Lest I misrepresent McKinney and Banks in any way, let me state my disclaimer upfront: All the anger in this article is solely mine. None of it came from Banks and McKinney, who are—for the record—some of the warmest, kindest people I’ve ever met.

McKinney, 31, is a professional dancer who has performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and other leading companies. He is also a dialog facilitator who has used active listening and healing movement for the past ten years to counsel communities of color and young people.

Choreographer and theater director Banks, 42, serves on the faculty of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is director of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative. He has been facilitating weekly conversations about culture, ethnicity, color, class and identity for fifteen years, as well as co-founding with McKinney the arts service organization DNAworks, which promotes community and personal healing through dialog and art.

McKinney and Banks followed the same script in Los Angeles as they use in all their workshops, including the presentation in New York. With none of the vitriol attributed to them by The Jewish Week writer, the men gave an introduction peppered with anecdotes, then aired their film, “We Are All One: The Jews of Sefwi Wiawso,” sandwiched between commentary and anecdotes, and a post-film discussion. Among the anecdotes were some that ought to have engendered real anger but which were recounted matter-of-factly by McKinney and Banks in the context of a topically-appropriate discussion on race, racism, and Jewish lives.

Adam McKinney grew up in the midst of the Milwaukee Lubavitcher community where he and his family were treated with as much kindness and respect as any other Lubavitcher. His family belonged to a Reform temple and he attended Orthodox day school where many of his teachers were Lubavitchers.

He grew up studying Talmud and Mishnah, making Shabbat weekly, taking the requisite trip to Israel, acting in Purim schpiels, and making the occasional sweep for chametz required of his people. After he turned 13, he donned tefillin and prayed every morning at the school.

It was only when McKinney ventured outside into the larger Jewish world that he encountered Jews who considered him a stranger. Staring at his face, they would ask him, “How are you Jewish?” Eventually, he developed a thick skin and relied on wit: “I’m fine Jewish. How are you Jewish?”

As a white convert of Jewish patrilineal descent, I have only encountered this question once. At a highly respected conservative synagogue near my home, an elderly cantor making the rounds before services to welcome newcomers, upon hearing my last name, looked down his nose at me and deigned to utter, “Ohhh, aaah, you are not of our faith!” (Any anger noted in the previous sentence is mine.) But McKinney who grew up reciting Torah, rather than helping Mom set up the crêche (a household nativity scene, pronounced cresh) as I did, continues to hear this question hundreds of times a year.

When McKinney is out and about, he says, many a person—upon learning of his multiple heritages—inevitably asks, “Which part of your heritage—Black or Jewish—do you identify with?” The crowd at BCC, by now nearly all on board, titters in anticipation of McKinney’s next line.

McKinney gives the crowd a genuine, winning smile. He states pleasantly, “I come fully Black. I come fully Jewish. There is no part of me that can be divided.” The audience roars with applause.

When McKinney and Banks present together, notes Banks, their heritages are often erroneously assumed to be the same since they have similar skin tones. But while McKinney’s father identified as a black male and his mother as an Ashkenazi Jew, both of Banks’ parents identify as Ashkenazi Jews. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, Banks says he was given a strong Jewish upbringing and lived in an “idyllic Jewish bubble” until he left home at 17. As he grew older, Jewish strangers and people close to him seemed to feel entitled to make thoughtless comments about his physical characteristics and insinuations about his race, provoking in him a feeling of not belonging. Once, he was asked to come in the kitchen door at a suburban Jewish dinner party because he was assumed to be the hired help.

Banks has yet to find a New York synagogue where he is accepted as he is, with no questions asked. He reports that he has sometimes felt disappointed, hurt, and excluded by his experiences but not angry. In line with his work as a facilitator of dialog about privilege, identity, and class in academic, social and artistic situations, Banks seems to be oriented toward building bridges, not tearing them down.

The words and accusations thrown at McKinney and Banks in The Jewish Week sounded increasingly familiar to me as I read them. They are the same tactics used against women and feminists to belittle the individuals and distract from the message.

Even though McKinney and Banks do not sound a bit like Black Panthers, as the article might suggest, what’s wrong with anger anyway? Why would anger turn Jews off? My mother often recounted to me as a child, how she would listen to my father and his uncle deep in in a heated debate in the living room, each entrenched in his righteous passion—and then, the next time she passed through the room, she would hear that they had exchanged positions and were each arguing from the other’s position with just as much vehemence. As a matter-of-fact, isn’t righteous anger, particularly over injustice, highly valued in Jewish culture?

As I read the following statement in The Jewish Week article, “What emerges in talking to the two artists is not only a desire for more inclusiveness, but a certain bitterness toward Ashkenazi Jews,” I immediately thought of how the word “bitter” has been brandished to denigrate and discount women’s rightful feelings of anger. My hope is that people who read The Jewish Week’s account of the workshop, “Belonging Everywhere,” will surmise that the accusations of anger say more about the writer, than the workshop leaders.

McKinney and Banks will leave New York in May 2009 for a three-month stint in Israel. McKinney will work with Beta Dance Troupe, a company of Ethiopian Jews in Haifa. “I will be choreographing dances that will express their experiences as an African immigrant community and as African Jews in a post-Holocaust Israel,” says McKinney.

Banks will be working with Arab and Jewish Israeli youth in a cooperative venture that he says entails “using hip-hop theater as a tool for community empowerment and leadership.” Previously, Banks has used hip hop theater in working with South African youth in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

For more information about these projects, visit www.dnaworks.org.
Copyright © 2008 Corinne Lightweaver.