The other day I was in my race and the media class. We were talking about different identities and ethnicities. For example if you are Asian but born in America then you would be considered Asian American or Italian American etc. But, if you were born in another country like Asia then you would just be Asian. Then my teacher said Jewish American. So is Jewish an ethnicity? I didn’t really understand that because I consider Jewish as my religion not ethnicity. If someone asked me my ethnicity I would say American not Jewish American, but if someone asked my religion I would tell them I was Jewish. Well, someone in my class asked my teacher why she kept saying Jewish American. My teacher replied with in the Jewish religion it is more than just a religion there is culture behind it which makes it ok to say that you are a Jewish American. So not I started thinking about different religions and began to understand why it made sense to be classified as a Jewish American. Jews are a group of people that have stuff like special foods as does Italians or Asians. Basically Jewish is so much more than a religion that I believe it can be considered an ethnicity or culture. Then I was also thinking what if you are Asian and Jewish, or Spanish and Jewish, do you take it as far as saying I am an Asian Jewish American, or are you just an Asian American or a Jewish American? I just feel as though I am not really sure how to classify this kind of thing. So, my question is to everyone else, what are you opinions on it?
posted by Amy at 5:00 PM
3 Comments:
I would start off the answers by asking why people (including your professor) tend to place such importance in these kinds of classification. [On a side note, it might well be worth your while to direct your professor to this blog entry.] And then, of course, the question of whether an identity that seems consistent and constant is actually a lot more flexible in practice. What, for example, do you do when you have to fill out a "race" question (does that question appear on the IU application)? And when you find a survey question asking about ethnicity, is Jewish always there?
Great thoughts for discussion.
This is a question that I have thought about since 7th grade when my first writing assignment in my social studies class in a Jewish day school was “are you a Jewish American or an American Jew?” thinking back on it its is quite an ambition topic for a young person to deal with considering almost ten years later I am still trying to understand the issue. Because being Jewish to many people including my self is more then just going to synagogue or praying, it is cultural things too such as the foods I eat, traveling to Israel just to vacation, and going to an unaffiliated Jewish camp. So much of my life with out even trying has a Jewish flavor to it, so I guess my answer is that I am Jewish American. And since my family and I do not really belong to a specific Jewish group I feel that I have the freedom to be both as Jewish and as American as I want. For example on Friday nights I have Shabbat dinner with my family, but after will go out with my friends. There is way to do both and I am comfortable with doing both. While this is a highly debated topic I feel I am a good example of a person who is happy being a Jewish American.
I found this to be really interesting because I have always responded to the question "What are you?"(as far as background is concerned) as "Jewish" and I tend to get the opposite response which is that Jewish is a religion and not a background, yet for me, I would see no other response as fitting who I am and where I come from. It is so unbelievable that Judaism can be seen in such different ways by different people, it is so unique in that while it is a religion, it does, in fact, have so many cultural traits, like "Jewish food" as you mentioned and truly can be referred to as many other ideas beyond religion.
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