Press

Teens of color are finding, and building, their own spaces in Jewish life

Despite 10 years of promises, Jewish leaders have failed to make space for Jews of color

Ten more years is too long for any Jew of color to further endure racism in our organizations, to not receive adequate and appropriate care from leaders, and to not see a reflection of ourselves on the bimah or in the C-Suite.

How the Jews of Color Initiative Is Funding Work for a More Inclusive Jewish Community

In recent years, Jewish communal leaders and philanthropists have come to recognize that the American Jewish community—widely presumed to be white-skinned and Ashkenazi (from Central and Eastern Europe)—is far more diverse than they imagined. With the help of philanthropic partners, the Jews of Color Initiative, a Berkeley, California-based fund led by Executive Director Ilana Kaufman, is raising consciousness about underserved Jews of color and working to create a more inclusive and welcoming ecosystem in the organized American Jewish community.

Work remains to build a more inclusive Jewish community

In a 1963 speech in Chicago attended by Martin Luther King Jr., theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously described racism as an “eye disease, a cancer of the soul … making us see the generality of race, but not the uniqueness of the human face.”

Researchers unveil massive study on Jews of color, boosting fight for racial justice with hard data

For the past few years, Jews of color in the United States have been counted and recounted. They’ve been argued over and used as props in ideological battles. Now their own voices have emerged as hard data with the release Thursday of the most comprehensive survey of Jews of color ever carried out. The movement fighting racism within the Jewish community is heralding the study as a watershed moment.