To Be a Black and Jewish Woman: The Many Branches of Jewish Identity

[HARMONIC SINGING]

My name is Sara. I'm a Black, Jewish woman. My Black and Jewish identity is harmony. I'm getting into my Ethiopian identity and exploring it a little bit more. My Jewish identity is optimistic, comforting, and love.

[HARMONIC CHORUS]

I have been coming to Camp Havaya for most of my life, and now I've been a counselor for the last three years. This place is home. It is comfort. It is joy. It's a place to dissect your Jewish identity and then digest it and form it in a way that really embraces who you are.

[CHANTING]

[UNISON SINGING]

As I evolve as a person in this world, I can incorporate my Judaism in the way that I want to shape it. A big value that resonates with me is tikkun olam. What I define it as is giving to the community, helping the community around us, giving to the Earth.

My birth mom is Jewish. It was important to her that I was adopted by Jewish parents. Both of my parents are Ashkenazi Jews. They are descended from Eastern Europe. A lot of my Jewish upbringing was just, me falling in love with music and dancing growing up. My father, a lot of times, would teach us about different prayers, and I'm very grateful to my parents, who constantly provide me a community of love and support so I can feel comfortable in both of my identities.

Judaism is like a tree to me. There's different branches and different sectors within Judaism itself. And with that, different cultures. And you have some people who love to observe it by focusing on the religion part, reading the Torah, going to services, and many embrace the cultural part in ways of food, music can overlap. There's so much in the Jewish community and Judaism that I love.

To be a Black and Jewish woman in America can be overwhelming. And there is sometimes a pull from different communities of-- you have to side with something. As a child, people outside the Jewish community will look at me and be like, you're wrong, you're not Jewish. That can't be true.

I was like seven. A girl came up to me and said, what do you mean that you're Jewish? I felt the need to explain, which is so sad looking back. I'd like to say ignorance can lead into hate. And hate doesn't just impact me. It impacts all of us, all identities, all minorities. Antisemitism and anti-Blackness-- hate targets both.

[GENTLE MELODY]

Antisemitism can stem from stereotypes. It can stem from misconceptions. When I talk to my Jewish friends a lot of times now, they don't want to wear their Star of David anymore because they don't feel comfortable in their classrooms, or they've gotten threats at their school like a bomb threat or whatever. They've gone locked down and now they don't want to go to Sunday school and stuff like that. I'm so grateful for the community that I have because, in most situations, it hasn't really gotten to me. And because I have this many identities, I'm also empowered by these identities.

There's a lot of stereotypes about Jewish people and what they should look like, which can be Ashkenazi and Sephardic and Mizrahi. I want people to know there are many Jews of color in the world. There's a few Jamaican Jews and Ugandans and Ethiopian Jewish community. The cultures can overlap, and that we have a history, at least in America, of coming together in times of need, embracing one another. There's harmony. There's struggle sometimes, but it's beautiful to be multiple identities. And I would love for people to educate themselves, to embrace the Jewish and Black community.

[STACCATO NOTES]

One of my identities is being Black, and a lot of times I cannot hide that. You see me, you can see my skin tone. And so one big thing that I've constantly told myself is that no matter what, I'm never going to shy away, or I'm never going to hide the fact that I'm Jewish. I have stood in front of somebody who does not like the thought of Jewish people, and I have told them that I am Jewish. And no matter what they thought, I do not care.

So I personally have never hid the fact that I'm Jewish. Once I take a deep breath and I look around, usually, I can just say that I'm Jewish, and that I'm proud, and I'm a Jew of color. And no matter what you're going to say, no matter hate that you spew, I'm me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]