My introduction to Judaism was through a Yemeni Jewish friend from Israel. She was dark skinned like me and had dark, curly hair like me. I cannot understand Jews who identify as White. It makes no sense to me considering the history of Jews being indigenous to the Middle East. Perhaps it is because I understand identity through a Lakota lens, such that as long as someone has one drop of Lakota blood, they are considered Lakota and people adopted into a Lakota family are treated like a genuine family member. I am not sure if liberal Jews are taking on an identity of White guilt, but certainly hearing Jews identify as White has always perplexed me. Calling Jews colonists in Israel when there are bona fide sacred sites to which they have retained a connection is like calling Lakotas colonists when we leave the reservation and buy property in the Black Hills, when we, too, have retained the Black Hills as a sacred site. ----------------------------------------- What Jews do not seem to realize however, is that this “white-passing” they have achieved is not only a false perception of who we are and a betrayal of our identity, but it also actually hinders our ability to defend the State of Israel or even the very existence of a Jewish people. By identifying as white people of the Mosaic faith we by definition reject our Semitic heritage. This rejection necessarily implies that Israel is a settler colonialist state with no right to exist in the Middle East. If American Jews are white people of the Mosaic faith, then Israelis are by necessity foreign occupiers in Palestine. Thankfully, we are actually neither of those things. But by losing a true sense of who and what we are in an effort to maintain a level of comfort and success in American society, we perpetuate this myth of colonialism, thereby destroying our chances to win the fight for Israel on campus and in the political arena. Read more: Rediscovering Jewish Identity | Sharona Bat-Ephraim | The Blogs | The Times of Israel blogs.timesofisrael/rediscovering-jewish-identity/#ixzz3Pi1F61bg Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 04:23:47 +0000
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