The Jewpanese Project, led by Carmel Tanaka, is a community initiative exploring the intersection of Jewish and Japanese identities. Born from the need to connect with each other and share experiences of this unique Asian Jewish identity, this project has grown and evolved over the last four years.
During the early days of the pandemic, a group of Jewish and Japanese individuals, couples, and families came together over Zoom to share their unique experiences and connect. “It was a very beautiful and life-affirming monthly Zoom call,” Tanaka recalls. “Just seeing all the Zoom boxes full of Jewpanese families and faces was so exciting.” One of the first activities was sharing their full names—first, middle, Japanese, Hebrew, and last names—and the meanings behind them. Tanaka noted, “There was a comforting familiarity, even if we didn’t all speak [Japanese and Hebrew] languages.”
This recurring virtual gathering served a communal purpose, becoming a safe space where participants could check in with one another on navigating life and family as Jewpanese people. Some wanted to share stories about raising children or seek advice from older generations. Many were eager to learn about the shared and differing experiences of the complexities of being Jewpanese over the decades in various countries. Tanaka highlighted the importance of intergenerational engagement on these calls: “Many older generations [of Jewpanese people] encouraged language and cultural familiarity with both/all [identities].”
Starting in May 2022, the project transitioned from solely Zoom gatherings to collecting oral histories of Jewpanese people. Tanaka’s original project proposal, started as a Collaborative for Change fellow with the Anti-Defamation League, envisioned 20 interviews, five each from Canada, the U.S., Israel, and Japan. However, the project became far more expansive. “I thought I’d be lucky if I could get 5 people in each location,” Tanaka recalled. “Today, I’m at over 230 Jewpanese contacts, with approximately 80 interviews submitted.”
While the Jews of Color Initiative’s support is directed at the 35 U.S.-based oral histories, the project’s global reach is impressive. Interest grew through word of mouth, social media exposure, and press coverage. Sign-ups for interviews came from all over the world. Tanaka was surprised to see that the majority of interviewees were not part of the original Zoom gatherings but rather new contacts eager to share their stories.
Like many of her North American participants, Tanaka’s family was deeply impacted by World War II. Her mother is an Ashkenazi Jew from Israel with some Sephardic ancestry, and her father identifies as a sansei, a third-generation Japanese Canadian. Both of her maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors and her paternal grandparents endured Japanese Canadian internment coinciding with the incarceration of Japanese American citizens during the war.
Tanaka is proud to say she is finally utilizing her undergraduate academic background in Asian Studies. Though in a very different field, her Master’s in emergency and disaster management also informed her sensitivity to the trauma many interviewees and their families experienced, which often came to the forefront during interviews. “I really enjoy the format of storytelling and I have conducted another project with similar methods, so the Jewpanese Project became my second foray into the world of oral history,” Tanaka said.
The interviews themselves speak to the complexity of identity categorization as impacted by time and place. “The struggle is real when checking off boxes on a census or just trying to explain to people in conversation… it’s important to have a term [like Jewpanese] to more fully represent who we are, but no one term is fully encompassing of everything that we are.”
For many of the North American participants, Tanaka was the first Jewpanese person they had ever met outside of their own families. “They would share extensive details about their life stories with me and were just so excited that someone else exists who understands the complexity of this particular identity.”
Eager to support belonging among Jewpanese community members who were newly connecting with others of shared identity, Tanaka would often share a poignant quote by Yumi Tomsha, a Jewpanese American in the Bay Area: “I am not half Japanese and half Lithuanian-Jewish. When I’m singing a Japanese folk song, I don’t sing with half my voice but my whole voice. I am complete, and I embody layers of identities that belong together. I am made of layers, not fractions.”
Through archiving oral histories, Tanaka has noted some national trends, including shifts in intermarriage, reasons and dates of immigration to the U.S., intergenerational trauma, and relationships to whiteness and assimilation. “There’s so much to unpack, but everyone has a story rooted in political history,” Tanaka said, particularly noting the shared experiences of those whose families were impacted by WWII—whether through the Holocaust, Imperial Japan, Japanese incarceration in North America, or family-building among people who served on opposing sides of the war.
One of the unique aspects of the Jewpanese Project is its focus on the diverse lived experiences within the Jewpanese community. “There’s no one way to be Jewpanese; there’s a whole spectrum,” Tanaka shared. Through conducting oral histories, Tanaka also uncovered a participant’s personal family records that affirm the existence of Jewish-Japanese individuals dating back to the 1920s (though this participant’s family member had already passed and whose direct testimony is not included in the archives).
The journey of identity exploration reflected in the project isn’t just about the past. “I cannot wait for my community to be able to access these interviews,” she shared with JoCI just days before the public release of the archives. “I believe it will be life-affirming for many of them. And they’ll probably find a lot of similarities and common histories within the Jewpanese community. It’ll be a beautiful experience.”
As the project continues, Tanaka advocates for further opportunities for Jewpanese people to explore their heritage and family history, including through ancestral roots trips—something Tanaka herself has found to be a powerfully grounding experience. “It was life-changing for me [to go to Japan], and I hope it will be for others too.” Throughout the project, she has inspired other Jewpanese individuals to go on ancestral journeys to Japan. Tanaka is currently in Europe retracing the steps of her Jewish ancestors.
The Jewpanese Project has become more than just a series of interviews—it’s a living archive of history, identity, community, and cultural preservation. Earlier this month, the Jewpanese Project Archives went live, making these rich stories publicly accessible. Tanaka’s work has opened a new window into the complex and beautiful intersections of Jewish and Japanese identities, a part of the broader Asian Jewish community.
We encourage you to explore the Jewpanese Project Archives, where you can learn about these rich oral histories through individual profiles, interview highlights, photos, community acknowledgements, and more. Learn more in the Jewpanese Project Archives today.