Judaism is not a race. But Jewish people can be targeted for racism.

That may seem like a contradiction. But a recent ruling by U.S. Magistrate Mark Hornsby of Louisiana updated anti-discrimination laws in the state. In doing so, Hornsby has potentially helped to clarify the distinction between race and racism at a time when white supremacy is expanding its reach — and finding new groups to single out for hate.

Hornsby ruled July 16 in a civil case brought by Joshua Bonadona. Bonadona's mother is Jewish, but Bonadona converted to Christianity while attending Louisiana College. After graduating, he applied for a coaching job at his alma mater, but he says school president Rick Brewer turned him down because of his "Jewish blood." Bonadona sued under civil rights law, alleging that Brewer had discriminated against him by denying him a coaching position because his mother was Jewish, even though he himself had converted.

Hornsby has potentially helped to clarify the distinction between race and racism at a time when white supremacy is expanding its reach — and finding new groups to single out for hate.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination in hiring on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." In this case, Bonadona wasn't being discriminated against for religion, since he was not actually Jewish. So was he then being discriminated against on racial grounds, based on his heritage?

Hornsby concluded that he was, and that racial discrimination can include Jewish people. "Jewish citizens have been excluded from certain clubs or neighborhoods," Hornsby writes, "and they have been denied jobs and other opportunities based on the fact that they were Jewish, with no particular concern as to a given individual’s religious leanings. Thus, they have been treated like a racial or ethnic group that Title VII was designed to protect from employment discrimination based on membership in that group.”

Some Jewish commentators have been (understandably) concerned that the ruling may backfire. David Barkey, the senior counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, for example, told Ha'aretz that he was worried that the decision might be taken to mean that Jewish people are a distinct race, which is a common claim of neo-Nazi groups. "The only concern that I would have is if it was being taken out of context to legitimize extremist views."