(Jewish Group) There's a growing awareness that not all U.S. Jews are white
Rabbi Joseph Berman’s sermon for the Jewish High Holidays, which begin Sunday at sunset, highlights a core ethos of this new synagogue in Northwest Washington — Jews aren’t just white people from Europe.
“I’m going to talk about how we are and always have been an ‘Erev Rav,’?” Berman said this week, using a term from Exodus defined as the “mixed multitude” of people who fled biblical Egypt with the Israelites.
The message will resonate with members of his New Synagogue Project, which is one of an increasing number of U.S. Jewish organizations that are challenging the modern American image of Jews as Jerry Seinfeld-ian (or Sarah Silverman-ish) and bringing much more visibility and voice to Jews whose roots are African American, Middle Eastern, Asian and everything in between. The trend has opened conversations on racism, equity of power in the Jewish community, conversion and what it means to be “really Jewish.”
“There’s this problematic narrative, that Jews of color are new to the community because they’re converts or part of mixed marriages, and that’s not true,” Berman said. “For some Jews of color, that’s part of their story, but there have always been Jews of color. It’s where Judaism started.”
Groups and projects have been popping up increasingly around the country in the last couple years. Community leaders say the rising national conversation about racism has prompted a more intense confronting of how it plays out among white Jews. Jews of color in 2019 are also more comfortable challenging racism and institutional underrepresentation.
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