Race, Color, Identity : Rethinking Discourses About 'Jews' in the Twenty-First Century

Advances in genetics are renewing controversies over inherited characteristics, and the discourse around science and technological innovations has taken on racial overtones, such as attributing inherited physiological traits to certain ethnic groups or using DNA testing to determine biological links with ethnic ancestry. This book contributes to the discussion by opening up previously locked concepts of the relation between the terms color, race, and “Jews”, and by engaging with globalism, multiculturalism, hybridity, and diaspora. The contributors—leading scholars in anthropology, sociology, history, literature, and cultural studies—discuss how it is not merely a question of whether Jews are acknowledged to be interracial, but how to address academic and social discourses that continue to place Jews and others in a race/color category. Reviews: “If the reader, after closing this volume, remains uncertain or confused about the fundamental questions related to Jews and race (though not Jews and color), this is because fundamental questions appear to remain unresolved. Overall, the essays do a marvelous job in both illustrating and illuminating this confusion.” · Studies in Contemporary Jewry “An excellent text that will be a significant contribution to the study of Jews and race... The work approaches the topic from a variety of disciplines and geographic locations, and the breadth is in fact one of its greatest strengths.” · Rebecca Alpert, Temple University “This is a very fine book... It is a very eclectic collection of essays on a range of related texts and issues, yet the chapters cohere, producing a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, which is how a collection of essays should be. The subject of the volume is important; and many of the essays are first-rate. All of the chapters are trim and to the point.” · Emily Budick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Foreword Sander Gilman Introduction: Rethinking Discourses about “Jews” Efraim Sicher PART I: JEWS AND RACE IN AMERICA Chapter 1. “I’m not White – I’m Jewish”: The Racial Politics of American Jews Cheryl Greenberg Chapter 2. Reflections on Black/Jewish Relations in the Age of Obama Ibrahim Sundiata Chapter 3. Stains, Plots, and the Neighbor Thing: Jews, Blacks and Philip Roth’s Utopias Adam Zachary Newton Chapter 4. Spaces of Ambivalence: Blacks and Jews in New York City Catherine Rottenberg Chapter 5. African-American Culture, Anthropological Practices and the Jewish “Race” in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men Dalit Alperovich Chapter 6. Jewish Characters in Weeds: Reinserting ‘Race’ into the Postmodern Discourse on American Jews Hannah Adelman Komy Ofir and Shlomi Deloia PART II: JEWS AS BLACKS / BLACK JEWS Chapter 7. A Member of the Club? How Black Jews Negotiate Black Anti-Semitism and Jewish Racism Bruce Haynes Chapter 8. Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel: The Discourses of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Racism Steven Kaplan Chapter 9. Black-Jews in Academic and Institutional Discourse Yonah Zianga Chapter 10. The “Descendants of David” of Madagascar: Crypto-Judaic identities in 21st century Africa Edith Bruder PART III: DISCOURSES OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITIES Chapter 11. After the Fact: “Jews” in Post-1945 German Physical Anthropology Amos Morris-Reich Chapter 12. Genes as Jewish History?: Human Population Genetics in the Service of Historians Noa Sophie Kohler and Dan Mishmar Chapter 13. Sarrazin and the Myth of the “Jewish Gene" Klaus Hödl Chapter 14. Blood, Soul, Race, and Suffering: Full-Bodied Ethnography and Expressions of Jewish Belonging Fran Markowitz Chapter 15. Jews, Muslims, European Identities: Multiculturalism and Anti-Semitism in Britain Efraim Sicher Chapter 16. Brothers in Misery: Re-connecting Sociologies of Racism and Anti-Semitism Glynis Cousin and Robert Fine Chapter 17. Race by the Grace of God: Race, Religion, and the Construction of “Jew” and “Arab" Ivan Davidson Kalmar Select Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index Advances in genetics are renewing controversies overinherited characteristics, and the discourse around science and technological innovations has taken on racial overtones, such as attributing inherited physiological traits to certain ethnic groups or using DNA testing to determine biological links with ethnic groups or using DNA testing to determine biological links with ethnic ancestry. This book contributes to the discussion by opeining up previously locked concepts of the relation between the terms color, race, and "jews", and by engaging with globalism, multiculturalism, hybridity, and diaspora. The contributors--leading scholars in anthropology, sociology, history, literature, and cultural studies--discuss how it is not merely a question of whether Jews are achnowledged to be interracial, but how to address academic and social discourses that continue to place Jews and others in a race/color category