Jews and Race
Author: Mitchell Bryan Hart
Publisher: UPNE
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 323
ISBN-13: 1584657170
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn anthology of writings by Jewish thinkers on Jews as a race
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The Price of Whiteness
Author: Eric L. Goldstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2019-12-31
Total Pages: 319
ISBN-13: 0691207283
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat has it meant to be Jewish in a nation preoccupied with the categories of black and white? The Price of Whiteness documents the uneasy place Jews have held in America's racial culture since the late nineteenth century. The book traces Jews' often tumultuous encounter with race from the 1870s through World War II, when they became vested as part of America's white mainstream and abandoned the practice of describing themselves in racial terms. American Jewish history is often told as a story of quick and successful adaptation, but Goldstein demonstrates how the process of identifying as white Americans was an ambivalent one, filled with hard choices and conflicting emotions for Jewish immigrants and their children. Jews enjoyed a much greater level of social inclusion than African Americans, but their membership in white America was frequently made contingent on their conformity to prevailing racial mores and on the eradication of their perceived racial distinctiveness. While Jews consistently sought acceptance as whites, their tendency to express their own group bonds through the language of "race" led to deep misgivings about what was required of them. Today, despite the great success Jews enjoy in the United States, they still struggle with the constraints of America's black-white dichotomy. The Price of Whiteness concludes that while Jews' status as white has opened many doors for them, it has also placed limits on their ability to assert themselves as a group apart.
How Jews Became White Folks and what that Says about Race in America
Author: Karen Brodkin
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780813525907
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRecounts how Jews assimilated into, and became accepted by, mainstream white society in the later twentieth century, as they lost their working-class orientation.
Judaism, Race, and Ethics
Author: Jonathan K. Crane
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2020-03-30
Total Pages: 186
ISBN-13: 0271086696
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRecent political and social developments in the United States reveal a deep misunderstanding of race and religion. From the highest echelons of power to the most obscure corners of society, color and conviction are continually twisted, often deliberately for nefarious reasons, or misconstrued to stymie meaningful conversation. This timely book wrestles with the contentious, dynamic, and ethically complicated relationship between race and religion through the lens of Judaism. Featuring essays by lifelong participants in discussions about race, religion, and society— including Susannah Heschel, Sander L. Gilman, and George Yancy—this vibrant book aims to generate a compelling conversation vitally relevant to both the academy and the community. Starting from the premise that understanding prejudice and oppression requires multifaceted critical reflection and a willingness to acknowledge one’s own bias, the contributors to this volume present surprising arguments that disentangle fictions, factions, and facts. The topics they explore include the role of Jews and Jewish ethics in the civil rights movement, race and the construction of American Jewish identity, rituals of commemoration celebrating Jewish and black American resilience, the “Yiddish gaze” on lynchings of black bodies, and the portrayal of racism as a mental illness from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century Charlottesville. Each essay is linked to a classic Jewish source and accompanied by guiding questions that help the reader identify salient themes connecting ancient and contemporary concerns. In addition to the editor, the contributors include Sander L. Gilman, Annalise E. Glauz-Todrank, Aaron S. Gross, Susannah Heschel, Sarah Imhoff, Willa M. Johnson, Judith W. Kay, Jessica Kirzane, Nichole Renée Phillips, and George Yancy.
We the Black Jews
Author: Yosef Ben-Jochannan
Publisher: Black Classic Press
Published: 1993
Total Pages: 518
ISBN-13: 9780933121409
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDr. Ben destroys the myth of a "white Jewish race" and the bigotry that has denied the existence of an African Jewish culture. He establishes the legitimacy of contemporary Black Jewish culture in Africa and the diaspora and predates its origin before ancient Nile Valley civilizations.
The Soul of Judaism
Author: Bruce D Haynes
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2018-08-14
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 1479800635
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA glimpse into the diverse stories of Black Jews in the United States What makes a Jew? This book traces the history of Jews of African descent in America and the counter-narratives they have put forward as they stake their claims to Jewishness. The Soul of Judaism offers the first exploration of the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent. Blending historical analysis and oral history, Haynes showcases the lives of Black Jews within the Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstruction and Reform movements, as well as the religious approaches that push the boundaries of the common forms of Judaism we know today. He illuminates how in the quest to claim whiteness, American Jews of European descent gained the freedom to express their identity fluidly while African Americans have continued to be seen as a fixed racial group. This book demonstrates that racial ascription has been shaping Jewish selfhood for centuries. Pushing us to reassess the boundaries between race and ethnicity, it offers insight into how Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their respective communities. Putting to rest the simplistic notion that Jews are white and that Black Jews are therefore a contradiction, the volume argues that we can no longer pigeonhole Black Hebrews and Israelites as exotic, militant, and nationalistic sects outside the boundaries of mainstream Jewish thought and community life. The volume spurs us to consider the significance of the growing population of self-identified Black Jews and its implications for the future of American Jewry.
Religion Or Ethnicity?
Author: Zvi Y. Gitelman
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 344
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCan someone be considered Jewish if he or she never goes to synagogue, doesn't keep kosher, and for whom the only connection to his or her ancestral past is attending an annual Passover seder? In Religion or Ethnicity? fifteen leading scholars trace the evolution of Jewish identity. The book examines Judaism from the Greco-Roman age, through medieval times, modern western and eastern Europe, to today. Jewish identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, and even a race. Religion or Ethnicity? questions what it means to be Jewish. The contributors show how the Jewish people have evolved over time in different ethnic, religious, and political movements. In his closing essay, Gitelman questions the viability of secular Jewishness outside Israel but suggests that the continued interest in exploring the relationship between Judaism's secular and religious forms will keep the heritage alive for generations to come.
The Jews
Author: Maurice Fishberg
Publisher: London : W. Scott Publishing Company, Limited
Published: 1911
Total Pages: 628
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKJews, Race, and Environment
Author: Maurice Fishberg
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-05
Total Pages: 609
ISBN-13: 1351510703
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOriginally published in 1911, Jews, Race, and Environment presents the resultsof anthropological, demographic, pathological, and sociological investigationsof people who identify themselves as Jews. At the time Fishberg wrote thisbook, there was widespread interest in the idea of Jews as a race and in theethnic relationship of Jews to each other. The early twentieth century was aperiod of heavy Eastern European immigration to the United States. Manyquestioned if it were possible for Jews to assimilate into American culture,particularly into what was termed the body politic of Anglo-Saxoncommunities. Fishberg addresses these questions in this classic study.
In the Shadow of Race
Author: Victoria Hattam
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2007-09-15
Total Pages: 290
ISBN-13: 0226319237
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRace in the United States has long been associated with heredity and inequality while ethnicity has been linked to language and culture. In the Shadow of Race recovers the history of this entrenched distinction and the divisive politics it engenders. Victoria Hattam locates the origins of ethnicity in the New York Zionist movement of the early 1900s. In a major revision of widely held assumptions, she argues that Jewish activists identified as ethnics not as a means of assimilating and becoming white, but rather as a way of defending immigrant difference as distinct from race—rooted in culture rather than body and blood. Eventually, Hattam shows, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Census Bureau institutionalized this distinction by classifying Latinos as an ethnic group and not a race. But immigration and the resulting population shifts of the last half century have created a political opening for reimagining the relationship between immigration and race. How to do so is the question at hand. In the Shadow of Race concludes by examining the recent New York and Los Angeles elections and the 2006 immigrant rallies across the country to assess the possibilities of forging a more robust alliance between immigrants and African Americans. Such an alliance is needed, Hattam argues, to more effectively redress the persistent inequalities in American life.
