Are Jews White?
When I was in middle school in Ohio decades ago, I knew that there were white kids, Black kids, and a group of us Jewish kids.
It hadn’t dawned on me until my first year of college, taking a Black studies course with a friend, that the tone of my skin looked strikingly similar to that of white students.
For most of my childhood, I not only learned about the centuries of hatred inflicted on Jews, from ancient Israel to Germany, England, France, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Libya, and Iraq, but I also knew that beyond being hated, we had a distinct culture, spirituality, and identity.
“Hey, this is Jeff. My favorite white boy,” my Black friend Ron laughed as he introduced me to a group of his friends in the class.
When I returned to my dorm room that fall day in 1987, I looked at myself in the mirror with a sense of disappointment. Not because all white people are bad. I just was confused about my identity.
“Oh my god! I have white skin,” I reacted to myself.
At that moment, I knew I had passed for and could reap the benefits of having light skin in America.
I finally understood that one of the many reasons Jews were able to excel in America was because the Jews here could pass for the white majority.
