Even today, some of us remember being called anti-Semitic names, having pennies thrown at us or being beaten up because we are Jewish. But that young woman I spoke with this summer, and most of her young adult Jewish peers today, can hardly fathom being singled out, being treated as “other,” because of their Jewishness. And the main reason why anti-Semitism is no longer mainstream in our society is because sometime in the last half century, we convinced America that we, too, are white....



The brilliance of being Jewish, though, is that we stubbornly refuse to fit into any social construct of power or oppression. We are simply Ivri’im, people from “somewhere else,” people who struggle with God and justice, who demand that the rest of the world does, too, and see every human life as sacred because we are all in the image of God. And the truth is, we have never belonged to one race alone. The Torah tells us that we left Egypt with the “erev rav,” with a mixed multitude of peoples. Around the world there are Jews of color, Asian Jews, Jews of all kinds. The idea that Jews are white is not only ridiculous, it’s offensive to who we really are!

We are reliably informed by the Senior Rabbi at Adas Israel that Jews are not only not white, it isandto suggest that they are.So Jews are no longer white. Do try to keep up. It sounds as if Rabbi Steinlauf is attempting to prepare for the New America that is no longer a white country. That, or he is following the lead of the Learned Elders of Wye and is preparing to jump ship into a non-white nation as a successfully diversified America sinks into economic collapse and civil war.I wonder if it has ever occurred to Rabbi Steinlauf that it's not his business what the rest of the world elects to struggle with. And I can't help but note that the Jews appear to have done a brilliant job of fitting into a "social construct of power" in Israel. I guess it's a little easier to stop stubbornly refusing to fit into those social constructs when you finally get to the top.

Labels: Zion