Jews of color

Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent are classified as "white" by the United States census.

[6] Due to antisemitic persecution, many Jewish people throughout history have tried to be perceived as non-Jewish members of the dominant culture of their diaspora homeland while privately performing their traditions, and may often assimilate or intermarry, in order to assure their safety.

[citation needed] In a post-Holocaust context where in living memory the census was used to round up Jews, it became unfavourable to highlight this if they were able to pass as non-Jews.

She introduced a 2001 issue by Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends titled “Writing and Art by and for Jewish Women of Color”: “Using the term Jews of color can be a way to give people a chance to tell their stories, to have conversations about things like the personal and political significance of labeling oneself and being labeled, and to think critically with other people about white identity among Jews in the United States and in other places.

[13] In this paper, Jews of color expressed multiple ways that their identities overlap with, intersect with, and infuse each other.

Moment Mag argues the term is evolving, "reflecting the Jewish community’s reckoning with race and its own racial blind spots".

[16] Responses from 1,100 people in the Jews of color Initiative study revealed a deep engagement with Jewish identity that has often come with experiences of discrimination in communal settings.

[17] Jewish News UK wrote "Jews of colour are made to feel unwelcome in an Ashkenormative community’".

Jews of color in majority-white Jewish spaces may be assumed to be janitorial staff or experience harassment from security.

[23][24][25] In June 2020, the Board of Deputies of British Jews established a Commission on Racial Inclusivity in light of the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom.