Jews of Color: An American Dilemma

This chapter addresses the tensions and discrimination against individuals and groups that persist in the US on grounds of race and color. It is unfortunate that there still is a long road ahead before racial and color-based prejudice, abuse, inequality and indignity are no longer normative in the US. Growing incorporation of Jews in US society and culture brought about the adoption in Jewish social research of concepts and categories routinely used in the classification and analysis of the general population. I take issue with the uncritical use of categories such as race or color in Jewish social scientific research. The study of population diversity is essential for both cognitive and policy-making purposes. However, I maintain that some frequently used classification criteria, along with evident conceptual weaknesses, are plagued by a conscious or unconscious racist component. The use of race and color categories – no matter how well-meaning – is not congruent with a fair and thoughtful approach to social research in general, and to Jewish social research in particular. Instead, it appears that poorly understood, intentionally offensive or irrelevant concepts are increasingly applied in the definition and study of Jewish minorities. This raises substantial questions regarding the contributions of such analyses to the resilience of racism in America.