For Young Jews of Color Community Helps Build Identity

Change is coming, and there is real energy being invested in that change. It is a redefining of our Jewish community and it is a journey that will require us to rethink how we show up.

Tani Prell wrote this reflection on the theme of bravery.

Robin Washington discusses the complexity of the term Jews of Color and what that means for whiteness in the American Jewish community.

As someone who is half-Filipino and half-Hispanic and grew up in a diverse Dallas, TX, neighborhood, I never gave much thought to the politics of skin color and how that affected me – at least not until I entered the Jewish community.

Let us introduce you to a band of sisters with the last name Haim. No, not the ones you’re thinking of. Tair, Liron, and Tagel Haim are sisters from southern Israel, and together they form a band called A-WA (Arabic for “Yes,” pronounced AY-wah).

For a person of color in America, the term person of color can be both useful and divisive, at once a form of solidarity and a badge of alienation. There’s a flattening effect, too: A multitude of ethnicities and cultures, with their own color-coded nuances, get crammed into the initials P.O.C. Among its many virtues, Mira Jacob’s graphic memoir, GOOD TALK (One World, $30), helps us think through this term with grace and disarming wit.

Tatiana Wechsler will likely go down as the only actress to belt out a showstopper in a Yiddish musical, and then — less than a month later — play a member of the Nation of Islam in a theatrical production.

The conceptual artist’s life and work push against the boundaries of race and identity in America.