The Jewish Struggle in the 21st Century: Conflict, Positionality, and Multiculturalism

143 Pages·2021·0.497 MB·English

by  Daniel Ian Rubin

The Jewish Struggle in the 21st Century
Personal/Public Scholarship
Series Editor
Patricia Leavy (USA)
Editorial Board
Carolyn Ellis (University of South Florida, USA)
Donna Y. Ford (Vanderbilt University, USA)
Henry Giroux (McMaster University, Canada)
Stacy Holman Jones (Monash University, Australia)
Sut Jhally (University of Massachusetts, USA)
Kip Jones (Bournemouth University, UK)
Jean Kilbourne (Wellesley Centers for Women, USA)
Peter McLaren (Chapman University, USA)
VOLUME 10
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/pepu
The Jewish Struggle in
the 21st Century
Conflict, Positionality, and Multiculturalism
By
Daniel Ian Rubin
(cid:3461)(cid:3454)(cid:3458)(cid:3453)(cid:3454)(cid:3463)(cid:95)(cid:3451)(cid:3464)(cid:3468)(cid:3469)(cid:3464)(cid:3463)
Cover illustration: Photograph by Daniel Ian Rubin
All chapters in this book have undergone peer review.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at
http://catalog.loc.gov
ISSN 2542-9671
ISBN 978-90-04-46406-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-90-04-46407-0 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-46408-7 (e-book)
Copyright 2021 by Daniel Ian Rubin. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,
The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf,
Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag
Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against
unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to
Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
THE JEWISH STRUGGLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
“Daniel Ian Rubin’s The Jewish Struggle in the 21st Century: Conflict, Posi-
tionality, and Multiculturalism reflects on the increasing sense of marginal-
ity among American ‘Jews’ (however defined) as part of renewed focus on
radical pedagogy in the schools and higher education. The social reality of
‘Jews’ in secular culture seems to have moved them from the historically
defined ‘perpetual victim’ to positions of power, at least within a radical
pedagogy that renders them ‘White.’ Rubin’s first-rate study illuminates both
the contentious function of ‘race’ as a fixed category as well as the ques-
tion of the attribution of ‘power’ to groups that have been traditionally (and
continue to be) marginalized. A solid and compelling study of the pitfalls of
identity politics in American society, and specifically in higher education.”
– Sander L. Gilman, Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and
Sciences/Professor of Psychiatry, Emory University, author of Jewish
Self-Hatred
“With inspiration from Warren Blumenfeld, I am moved by the author’s
activist intensity in addressing four questions: (1) What do you love about
being your racial identity? (2) What has been difficult for you growing up
this racial identity? (3) What do you never want to hear said again about or
seen done to people of your racial identity group? and (4) How can people of
other racial groups support you and be your allies? Daniel Rubin leads us all
expertly in learning to create and navigate racially-inclusive cultures.”
– Virginia Stead, Founding Book Series Editor, Equity in Higher
Education Theory, Policy, & Praxis
To my Jewish family –
the one that I have and the one I have lost
CONTENTS
Foreword xiii
Warren J. Blumenfeld
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Overview of Chapters 4
Chapter 2: Still Wandering: The Exclusion of Jews from
Issues of Social Justice and Multicultural Thought 7
Background 7
Jews as a Minority Group 9
Jewish Exclusion in Multiculturalism 12
Teaching Antisemitic Awareness in Education 13
Conclusion 16
Implications 17
Chapter 3: Jews and Blacks in the Time of COVID-19:
Solidarity and Conflict 19
Introduction 19
The Conflicted History of Black/Jewish Relations 20
Where Do We Go from Here? 24
Conclusion 26
Chapter 4: HebCrit: A New Dimension of Critical Race Theory 29
Introduction 29
HebCrit and Critical Race Theory 30
Jews Defined 32
Jews as a Persecuted Group 32
Jews and the Question of Race 34
Jews and the Tenuous “Space Between” 37
Jews and the Issue of Power 39
Critical Race Theory and Jewish Invisibility 40
HebCrit and Counternarratives 40
Conclusion 41
ix
CONTENTS
Chapter 5: Whiter Shade of Pale: Making the Case for Jewish
Presence in the Multicultural Classroom 43
Background 43
Introduction 43
Resurgent Antisemitism 45
The Notion of “Whiteness” and White Identity 46
Jewish Sense of Self 49
Exclusion from Multicultural and Social Justice Discourse 51
Conclusion 53
Chapter 6: Navigating the “Space Between” the Black/White
Binary: A Call for Jewish Multicultural Inclusion 55
Introduction 55
The Diversity and Multicultural Classroom 56
Racialization and the Jews 56
The Black/White Binary 57
The “Space Between” 59
The Negative Effects of Jewish Invisibility 62
Conclusion 63
Chapter 7: The Muddy Waters of Multicultural Acceptance:
A Qualitative Case Study on Antisemitism and the Israeli/
Palestinian Conflict 65
Introduction 65
Antisemitism and Multicultural Education 66
Research Questions 68
Methodology 68
Theoretical Lens 71
Zionism and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict 72
Results 73
Discussion 76
Conclusion 78
Implications 80
Chapter 8: Jewish Academics’ Experiences of Antisemitism
within the United States 81
Introduction 81
Perception of Antisemitism 81
x
CONTENTS
Hostility on U.S. Campuses 82
Methodology 83
Research Questions 84
Participant Information 84
Personal Experiences with Harassment 85
Professional Experiences of Harassment 88
Discussion 93
Conclusion 94
Future Research 95
Limitations 95
Chapter 9: The Stereotypical Portrayal of Jewish Masculinity on
The Big Bang Theory 97
Introduction 97
A Brief Depiction of the Jewish Male (and His Mother,
of Course) 98
The Jewish Mother 100
The Television Depiction of the Jewish Male 101
The Wolowitz Conundrum 102
Representation of Judaism 104
Television, Stereotypes, and Perception 106
Conclusion 108
Implications 109
Chapter 10: Conclusion 111
Reflection 112
Where Do We Go from Here? 113
References 115
About the Author 133
xi
FOREWORD
As Wladylaw Szpilman, the protagonist in director Roman Polanski’s film
adaption of The Pianist (2002) remarks, “Sometimes I don’t know which
side of the wall I’m on.” In The Jewish Struggle in the 21st Century: Conflict,
Positionality, and Multiculturalism, Daniel Ian Rubin captures the tensions,
the questions, the insecure and unsecured place of U.S. Jews – in particular,
European-heritage Ashkenazim – in multiple sectors of life.
Rubin skillfully interweaves historical representations with current lived
experiences of U.S. Jews, the bittersweet relationship between Jews and
African Americans, and the gendered stereotypical depictions of Jewish
males, while simultaneously confronting and expanding the continuum of
this social notion we call “race.” Throughout this examination, Rubin makes
a compelling case for why the dearth of inclusion within the multicultural
project regarding Jews and the oppressive condition of antisemitism must be
confronted and changed, for this current exclusion seriously affects Jewish
communities and scholars both within and outside academia. Depictions of
Ashkenazim as “White” on the racial scale provide cover for multicultural-
ists in their justification to avoid discussions of antisemitism.
As Rubin addresses in this text, I have, myself, questioned my position
along the racial spectrum. On numerous occasions, I have attended the
annual National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change” confer-
ence, bringing together grass-roots activists from throughout North America
as well as other countries around the world. At one of the conferences in the
early 1990s, I was a participant in a well-attended workshop titled “Activists
of Color/White Activists Dialogue” facilitated by two highly respected activ-
ists: a woman of color and a White Christian man.
When the workshop began, the woman outlined the agenda for the next
one-and-one-half hours: the workshop would concentrate on the concepts of
“race” and dialogue across racial divides, and it would include two separate
panels of participant volunteers: one composed of four people of color, the
other of four White people. Panel members were to each, in turn, answer four
questions put to them by the facilitators, first the people of color panelists
followed by the White people panelists.
The questions were: (1) “What do you love about being your racial iden-
tity?” (2) “What has been difficult for you growing up this racial identity?”
(3) “What do you never want to hear said again about or seen done to people
xiii