I get it. Nearly 75% of American Jews have white skin and, for all appearances, seem to be making it just fine in America. At least as a group. There are plenty of Jews who aren’t rich, my parents definitely included, but it’s not because of systems stopping Jews from achieving.
I’m guessing that’s why most Americans don’t even acknowledge Jewish American Heritage Month, which is in May each year. Jews, to many, are just a subgroup of whites.
Why highlight and celebrate a group that seemingly doesn’t need society’s help?
As we should, we proudly celebrate Asian American Heritage Month, also in May each year, despite the same appearances that Asians as a group have made it in America (false, at any rate, since Asians come from several countries, and many struggle.). I saw no fewer than 20 companies celebrating and appreciating our Asian brothers and sisters on LinkedIn this month.
I applaud those celebrations.
But Asians aren’t white. So it’s different, right?
Because in America, most (but not all) Jews look white, albeit many with curlier hair.
We’ll set aside that 60% of Jews in Israel aren’t white. And that there are huge swaths of the worldwide Jewish community that have roots in places like Morocco, Iraq, Yemen, Spain, Uzbekistan, Portugal, India and Iran.
We can also set aside that European Jews weren’t quite white enough for Hitler and other monsters throughout history.
Nor were Jews white enough when then arrived on America’s shores to escape the horrors of Europe in the 1900s.
I can even set aside my own DNA results showing Jewish heritage from Russia, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Morocco and Kazakhstan. No relation to Borat.
Groundbreaking Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardoza was himself a Sephardic (Hispanic from Spain or Portugal) Jew. Turns out, as wonderful as she is, Justice Sotomayer isn’t the first Hispanic justice.
Still, despite their white skin, success for Jews in America didn’t come easy. Colleges, numerous professions, and most industries originally went to great lengths to exclude Jews. Many first-generation American Jews came with nothing and had nothing.
It’s the reason many Jews went into the fashion-garment and entertainment industries, where there were lower barriers to entry.
When Jews were denied access to clubs, they made their own. When they were denied access to college, they created their own, including the prestigious Brandeis University. When they weren’t allowed to join fraternities and sororities, they established Jewish ones. When they weren’t welcome in many businesses, they created their own and supported their own.
Eventually, Jews as a whole prevailed against the unjust American systems initially put in place to exclude them.
Even with this success, despite Jews being pegged, along with Asians, as a “model” minority, Jews sadly remain the №1 targeted religion for hate crimes in America.
In 2022 alone, there were over 3,697 anti-Jewish incidents throughout the United States, a 36% rise from the year before and more than any time since statistics were kept in 1979.
It was only a few years ago when The Tree of Life Synagogue massacre took place in Pittsburgh. On October 27, 2018, a Nazi-inspired gunman killed 11 people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors.
Online hate and harassment, as well as Nazi-like marches, have steadily increased for the past six years. I myself was the recipient of a very ugly “Hitler should have burned all you Jews” email in 2021 after one of my essays.
No, this isn’t a comparison to what people of color suffer in America. There’s no close comparison, but there’s also no hate competition. And we shouldn’t be stymied from discussing it just because others suffer more.
Still, anti-Jewish behavior ought not be the main reason to observe Jewish American Heritage Month or any other cultural month. It should be a time we celebrate the diversity Jews have brought to the table.
Here are ten American Jews who contributed to bettering our world.
1. Louis Brandeis. Supreme Court justice who was instrumental in shaping American jurisprudence.
2. Bella Abzug. She was one of the most influential women’s rights activists in the 1970s and 80s, and the reason Women’s Equality Day was created.
3. Gloria Steinem. A trailblazing feminist and one of the most effective leaders of the women’s rights movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
4. Stan Lee. Comic book writer, editor and publisher and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. Lee created the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and the X-Men, as well as Marvel’s most-successful superhero, Spiderman.
5. Gertrude Elion. A Nobel Prize recipient, biochemist and pharmacologist who developed life-changing treatment for leukemia, malaria, AIDS and kidney transplant rejection.
6. Albert Einstein. The world’s most influential scientist provided the foundation of modern physics, which has led to countless advancements and inventions.
7. Irving Berlin. One of the most famous and prodigious songwriters in history. Ironically wrote the popular classic, “White Christmas.”
8. Emma Lazarus. She was a prolific author and poet. Her words are displayed on the Statute of Liberty. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.”
9. Joseph Nakash. Creator of Jordache jeans, which transformed fashion, and jeans in particular.
10. Barbara Walters. Iconic and groundbreaking broadcast journalist.
It’s simply not right for our nation to ignore Jewish American Heritage Month.
It’s misguided to pretend the Jewish experience is just the same as the white experience. Jews have their own unique walk through life and ideas they bring, even if a majority of American Jews pass for white.
I waited until we were nine days into May to publish this essay to see if any companies or people decided to post their celebration of the month like they do for every other designated month.
Nada.
So let’s use the rest of the month to acknowledge and celebrate the Jewish American community. They, like the other groups we commemorate, have made their beautiful mark as well.
You have three weeks left.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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