A Part and Apart: Inclusion and Exclusion in Our Jewish Communities

About This Lesson

This is the third lesson in a three-lesson series highlighting the historical and contemporary experiences of Jews of Color, Sephardic Jews, and Mizrahi Jews while also considering the impact of exclusion, antisemitism, and racism on people who share these Jewish identities. This two-day lesson begins by using the story of Passover to examine how students define their own identities within the context of the Four Children. This exercise frames an exploration of how identity labels can be both beneficial and harmful, and provide a sense of belonging or a sense of exclusion. The lesson then narrows in focus to examine the Jewish identity label “Jews of Color.” Through survey data, personal testimonies, and artistic expressions, students learn about the experiences of Jews of Color, both within and outside of their Jewish communities, and consider how well their own communities strive to be inclusive spaces where diversity of Jewish identity is welcomed and represented.   

This lesson was created in partnership with the Jewish Education Project in conjunction with the Shine A Light Initiative.

Essential Questions

• What tensions can arise when we are asked to classify our identities?
• How can antisemitism and racism contribute to a feeling of being both a part of one’s larger Jewish community and separate from one’s Jewish community? 
• How can we expand the Jewish narrative to include a variety of Jewish identities, rather than focusing solely on the Ashkenazi Jewish identity that has become the prominent story we tell about who Jews are?
• How can we dispel assumptions, both within and outside of Jewish communities, about Jewish identity?

Guiding Questions

• What are some ways multiple identities can coexist?
• What does it mean to expand the dominant Jewish narratives about who is Jewish and what Judaism looks like?
• How might antisemitism and racism impact an individual’s sense of safety in sharing their Jewish identity?
• What does the story of Passover suggest about inclusion for all “children” of the Jewish community?

Learning Objectives

• Reflect on our own multiple identities.
• Explore the complexity of identity and factors that lead to feeling a part of or apart from the Jewish community. 
• Celebrate and validate different lived Jewish experiences and traditions.
• Examine the effects of antisemitism and racism on the expression of Jewish identity. 
• Consider the impacts of upholding a single Jewish narrative.
• Draw connections between themes of Passover and contemporary Jewish identity.

Lesson Plan

Day 1: Labels That Help and Labels That Hurt

Pre-Work: Begin with the story of the Four Children

If students are unfamiliar with the Four Children (traditionally the Four Sons) featured in the Maggid, the storytelling section of a Passover Seder, begin with a short text study using the Maggid, The Four Children reading or a Haggadah of your choice. After reading the section on the Four Children together, ask students to annotate the text to find answers to the following three questions:

1. Who are each of these four children?
2. What is the question for each of the four? 
3. What is the answer to each question?

Activity 1: My Personal Passover Identity

The Haggadah gives us a general frame for the four children, or four personalities. The original labels, questions, and answers may feel antiquated and limiting because they reflect what rabbis during the time of the Mishnah and Talmud (200 CE-500 CE) knew about human behavior and development. Modern commentary on the Haggadah offers a variety of interpretations as to whom these personalities are today and how we might respond accordingly.

The handout Four Children In All of Us imagines that each of us have all four of these personalities within us. Distribute the handout, go over the directions together, then ask students to complete the instructions at the top of the handout.  

As a whole group, ask students the following questions. If they aren’t familiar with stereotypes, you may wish to use activities from this Identities and Labels lesson first.

• What are the benefits of giving a label to each personality listed in the Haggadah? 
• How can thinking about four aspects within each of us help us think about what identities we bring with us to our Seder table?
• What are the drawbacks to labeling? How might labels narrow how we think about others and create distance between us?
• How do we differentiate between labels and stereotypes (a widely held and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing)?

Activity 2: Exploring the Label and Identity “Jews of Color”

Now that we’ve broadly considered the benefits and drawbacks of labels, we’re going to narrow our focus to the specific Jewish identity label “Jews of Color” or “JoC.” In this activity, we’ll explore the variety of ways Jews whose ethnic and racial identities fall outside of one mainstream American perception of Jewish identity (as white and Ashkanazi) do and do not identify themselves. After each testimony, ask students to jot down responses to the following questions in their journals:

• What identity labels do you hear the speaker mention in this piece?
• How does the speaker feel about the identity labels they share?
• Does the speaker express how a label expands the Jewish story about who is a Jew or does the speaker feel limited or flattened by the label mentioned?

Begin by showing students clip 18:22-20:46 of this Interview with Educator and Jewish Diversity Advocate Shahanna McKinney-Baldin, Executive Director of the Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity and Racial Justice Collaborative. 

Next, watch these three clips (1:47-1:58, 7:07-7:38, and 13:44-15:23) from the short film on multiethnic Jewish identity Periphery by Canadian multidisciplinary artist and educator Sara Yacobi-Harris.

Now ask students to read the excerpt below from NYU PhD student Kylie Unell’s essay:

My mother is white and my father is black. I have lived as a proud Jew in a variety of Jewish communities, including Kansas, Israel, North Carolina and New York City. Aside from those few standout moments, I have always felt at home in the Jewish world. It is the only world I know and, more than that, it is an expression of all that I am. . . . 

The very term Jews of Color designates a portion of the Jewish population as different from the rest. It is a catchall for those in the Jewish world who look different, whose stories are worn on their bodies.

The idea behind it is not a bad one. It is a term that people can use to feel seen in a world where they can feel unseen—and we know that many people have had the experience of feeling unseen in Jewish settings.

But that hasn’t been my experience—and still, no matter how much I want people to consider me a Jew, when people see me, they label me a Jew of Color. They will do so more now than ever. I want to tell you that calling me a Jew of Color means defining me by negative moments in my life—the moments when my Judaism, and in turn my humanity, is brought into question.

I choose not to define myself by those moments because doing so would mean belittling the far more numerous moments in my life when I have felt a part of the Jewish world at large.

I choose not to walk into a room and call myself a Jew of Color because I refuse to see myself as different from any other Jew. I choose not to overanalyze the fact that my skin is slightly darker than parts of my family or the people in my community. That does not matter. I have no unique traditions because of my skin color. I was born and raised an Ashkenazi Jew, and I plan to do the same thing for my children that my mother did for me—teach them that we are more than any label cast onto us by others or any label we put on ourselves.

Use the Connect, Extend, Challenge teaching strategy to respond to the various testimonies above. Students should first do this activity in their journals, then share their insights in small groups or pairs.

• Connect: How do the ideas and information in these different accounts of Jewish identity connect to your responses earlier in the lesson on the benefits and drawbacks of labeling people?
• Extend: How do these accounts add to what you previously thought about identity labels and being Jewish?
• Challenge: How do these accounts challenge or complicate your understanding of the label “Jews of Color” and who gets to tell a person’s identity story? What new questions do they raise for you?

Closure: Reflecting on Who Is Made to Feel Like a Stranger

One of the Haggadah’s most-referenced lines about why we reenact a Passover Seder every year is from Exodus 23:9: “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” This precept both labels us as “the stranger” and identifies potential people in our midst as strangers in order to encourage empathy. Labels can both create inclusive spaces of compassionate understanding and also create separation and distance between people.

Ask students to respond to at least one of the following questions in their journal:

• When have I felt like a stranger in one of my Jewish communities? What factors led to that feeling?
• When have I made others feel like a stranger in one of my Jewish communities?
• When have I witnessed one of my Jewish communities making some members feel like strangers?
• When have I helped someone feel less like a stranger in one of my Jewish communities?

Day 2: A Part and Apart

Activity 1: Thinking About Representation of Jews of Color in Our Jewish Communities

On the second day of this lesson, we will examine the testimonies of Jews whose ethnic or racial identities exist outside the American mainstream perception of Jewishness, consider how antisemitism and racism manifest for Jews of Color, and think about how our own Jewish communities can successfully represent all our community members.

As a launching off point for today’s lesson, begin by watching two short clips (0:00-0:52 and 7:49-8:41) from Unpacked’s The Untold Origins of Black Jews in America, from their video series on the history of Black Jews. Note that the video’s narrator is the author of the essay “Don’t Call Me a Jew of Color” excerpted in the Day One lesson. After viewing, pose the question below to students, give them a few minutes to think about or record their answers, then ask them to share their responses in small groups.

To what extent do we see representation of Jews of Color in our own Jewish communities’ traditions, practices, celebrations, and gatherings?

As a whole class, allow groups to share out their responses.

Activity 2: Examining the Dynamics Jews of Color Navigate in Jewish Communities

Next, we will examine some of the issues around the sense of belonging for some Jews of Color (JoC) by examining the conclusions of Beyond the Count, a 2021 study commissioned by the Jews of Color Initiative. Survey data was taken from 1,118 respondents with 61 in-depth interviews. Those who self-identified as JoC in this study used the term in many different ways: 

• As a racial grouping (e.g., Black, Asian, and multiracial Jews) 
• To indicate national heritage (e.g., Egyptian, Iranian, and Ethiopian Jews)
• To describe regional and geographic connections (Latina/o/x, Mizrahi, Sephardic Jews)
• To specify sub-categories (e.g., transracially adopted Jews and Jewish Women of Color) ¹

Below are summaries of the study’s findings. Ask students to read the summaries to themselves and annotate what they find surprising, interesting, and troubling. If you think your students will struggle to understand the findings on their own, go through each one together as a class and check for comprehension.

Double Consciousness: Respondents described being hyperaware of how they are seen by others. They feel judged because of their skin color in some settings and because of their Jewishness in others. Many respondents shared how they set aside one part of their identity or another to decrease feeling judged and the problematic comments that often occur around their multiple identities. For example, some respondents told stories in which mentioning they are Jewish in non-Jewish BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) spaces brought unwelcome comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, microaggressions ² , overt antisemitism, and statements about the consequences of not accepting Jesus. 

The Label “Jews of Color”: Respondents feel a variety of ways about the term “Jews of Color.” Some think the term creates a barrier to their sense of belonging in Jewish communities, while others admit the term is flawed but find it useful for identifying and describing people who have been underrepresented or overlooked in conversations about Jewish identity. Some state that the term “Jews of Color” doesn’t really capture the diversity and particularities among the people who are often labeled this way.

Israel: Participants have a wide range of opinions on how their relationship with Israel is connected to their identities as Jews of Color. Some feel more comfortable in Israel, far away from the racial politics of the US, while others feel that living in Israel offers them a better understanding of their identity experience in the US. However, some shared painful personal stories of racism they experienced while visiting or living in Israel. 

Racism and Discrimination: Respondents reported personally experiencing or witnessing racism and discrimination in Jewish organizations in the form of microaggressions and the questioning of their Jewishness. Some shared assumptions made about them in such spaces, like being mistaken for security guards, nannies, or the non-Jewish partner or guest of a white-presenting Jewish person. Other respondents described either being ignored or showered with unwanted attention in communal Jewish settings. Some described being “taught” about Jewish rituals and practices without asking for such explanations, and others shared being asked intrusive questions about how they became Jewish. 

JoC Spaces: While acknowledging the difficulty in creating a sense of belonging among Jews of Color, a label that groups together a wide diversity of people, respondents emphasized how events specifically for Jews of Color can feel validating and supportive and provide a sense of belonging. Some described such gatherings and the relationships created from them as very healing. 

Using the Big Paper format, have students apply their S-I-T responses to the “Beyond the Count” conclusions on sticky notes or by writing directly on each of the three big pieces of paper (one titled “Surprising,” a second titled “Interesting,” and a third titled “Troubling”). Once they are finished posting or writing their own responses, ask students to circulate among the “big papers” to read their peers’ responses.

As a whole group, ask students to share their final thoughts after reading the Big Paper responses.

Activity 3: Testimonies from Jews of Color

In this final activity, students will read or listen to people who identify as Jews of Color and use the Jigsaw strategy to relay their experiences of their Jewish identity and how others respond to their identities. Group 3-5 students together around each of the readings below. These small groups are their “expert” groups.

1. Kimchee on the Seder Plate
2. "A Black History Month poem: i think a lot about color" by Tova Ricardo
3. “Payos for Cornrows” by Aaron Samuels (The performance can be viewed here)
4. Excerpt from “What to the Black Jew Is Passover?” by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (Note: This article is longer than the other materials in this jigsaw, so you may wish to use excerpts for this activity.)

While students explore their assignment in their expert groups, together they can use the 3-2-1 teaching strategy to organize their thoughts:

• 3 - What are three things the speaker thinks is important to understand?
• 2 - What are two questions you have for the speaker?
• 1 - What is one insight you have about this speaker’s experience of belonging? In other words, when does the speaker feel a part of their Jewish community? When does the speaker feel apart from their Jewish community?

After the “expert” groups have a solid understanding of the material they will be presenting, assign students to “teaching” groups. Teaching groups are typically composed of one or two members from each expert group. Experts take turns summarizing and distilling the information they studied in their expert group. As the experts present, have students write down words they hear about belonging, inclusion, representation, and exclusion. 

After students finish the group work, ask them as a whole class to fill in the blank in the following sentence (you may create one sentence or a list). Use the wraparound strategy to have students individually share out one response.

“To create more inclusive Jewish spaces, we can ______________________."

Closure: Four Children Artifact Activity

Ask each student to have the following materials available to review:

• Their 3-2-1 jigsaw response from today’s Activity 3 
• Their completed handout The Four Children In All of Us from Day One
• Their journal response to the Day One Closure activity

Distribute the handout Closure: The Four Children In All of Us (note: this handout is a variation of the first handout from Day One) and explain to students that this new version of the handout will become an artifact to present at their Seder or a regular family meal during Passover. Remind students that the four children are imagined personalities for who might be in attendance. In modern commentary, they can often help us think about all the different identities both we and our Seder guests inhabit.

First, ask students to review their responses in the materials they’ve gathered before them and pick 6-10 words or phrases that stick out to them that sum up their learning about the benefits and drawbacks (“a part of and apart from”) of labeling. 

Students may then add their words or phrases to the blank handout wherever they choose (e.g., as an outline around each of the four figures or within the outlines of the four figures). They may consider using different font sizes for different words or phrases. 

If there is time, ask students to present their new Four Children handout to a partner and share their learning. Encourage them to present their document to their families or caregivers during the Passover holiday.

• 1Tobin Belzer, et al., “Beyond the Final Count: Perspectives and Lived Experiences of Jews of Color”   Jews of Color Initiative (August 12, 2021).
• 2subtle, intentional, or unintentional interactions, comments, or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups