Collection
Jews of Color: The Nature, Boundaries, and Politics of Categorical Thinking about Diversity and Inclusion
The understanding of Jewish identity and debates about “who is a Jew” are characterized by a rich diversity of perspectives. These understandings have benefitted from passionate presentations about how Jewish identity can be conceptualized, defined, operationalized, and measured. Keenly aware of the synergy emanating from rigorous scholarly debate, we invite scholars of Jewry to turn their gaze to the subject of diversity among Jews, particularly as regards “Jews of Color.”
Topics being covered include
How do analytical categories and self-identification differ or converge? How much do the personal beliefs of people labelled as “Jews of color” really matter? Do analytical categories shape the lived reality or reflect lived experiences?
How do the categories of ethnicity, race, and racialized ethnicity carry different meanings to social actors in different contexts?
How do we build concepts and categories to explain, understand and measure processes of inclusion and exclusion?
How do the different ways that we define “Jews of color” affect how we count Jews? Is that important?
Given the global nature of the Jewish people, is it important that the conceptualization of “Jews of color” translates beyond the borders of the United States? Do comparative perspectives carry weight for this topic?
Does the concept of “Jews of color” vary by the specific context, group or sub-ethnicity? For example, do Latinx/Latin American Jewish immigrants to the United States see themselves as Hispanic? Do Ashkenazim and Sephardim fit into the concept of “Jews of color”?
Is there a gendered perspective on this issue? A social-legal perspective? A halachic perspective? Are there other perspectives?
Editors
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Bruce Haynes
Bruce Haynes received his B.A. in Sociology from Manhattanville College, after which he conducted applied research, under sociologist and jury expert Jay Schulman, selecting juries for trials throughout New York State. From there he received his doctorate in sociology from the City University of New York (1995) and was appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Yale University in 1995. In 2001, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis, where he now serves as Professor of Sociology. In addition, he is a Senior Fellow in the Urban Ethnography Project at Yale University. bdhaynes@ucdavis.edu
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Harriet Hartman
Harriet Hartman is Professor Emerita at Rowan University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and part-time faculty at Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem, Israel. She is Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Jewry. Prof. Hartman received the 2019 Marshall Sklare Award from the ASSJ (Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry), the 2019 College of Humanities and Social Sciences Senior Faculty Research Excellence Award from Rowan University, and the 2020 Flying First Award from Rowan University for her research on first-generation college students. Hartman@Rowan.edu
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Adina Bankier-Karp
Adina Bankier-Karp, PhD is a Research Associate at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and Research Affiliate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University. She earned her PhD in Jewish education at Monash University, Australia, where she examined the socialization experience of young Australian Jews and its effects on identity formation, Jewish identification and engagement. She has published research on Jewish identity formation, demography and engagement. adina.bankier-karp1@monash.edu
