Indira
Favorite traditional Jewish food: Latkes
Favorite Jewish holiday: Hannukah. Everybody loves Hannukah. How would you describe your identity? Being black, being Hispanic, those are things I live with every day. Especially in Evanston, I feel like my appearance and the way that I look as a person of color really affects who I am in the community. My religion is definitely important, I am an Orthodox Jew, which is different. A lot of people will recognize that I am Jewish, but don’t think that I am necessarily observant because of the way that I look. |
Do you feel like your looks and experiences are included in the general picture of what a Jewish woman is?
Yes, I do think so. In my community, we care a lot about where things come from. In my family, we observe that Judaism and Jewish culture came from Israel, and they were people of color. My looks do reflect that in that sense. Do you feel like your looks and experiences are included in the ‘American’ Jewish picture? I would say no. In my family, the Jewish traditions began with my grandfather. Right then and there, he realized he could never be part of the white Jewish community. He went to several synagogues and went to several people who he tried to work with, and they weren’t allowed to be there. The closest he ever got to being part of a white Jewish synagogue was one Rabbi whom he studied with telling him that him and his family could come to the congregation, but no other black people could. He literally said that to him. Then, it happened to my father. He was called a n****r several times by them. He tried to observe with them, but they would question him. They would literally give him tests to see if he actually was part of the faith and if he was really Orthodox. Then with me in Chicago, I have experienced several people telling me that I can’t be Jewish. They have said to me, “Oh, I hate black people, you can’t be Jewish!” People my age have asked me what laws were in the Torah. It is pretty blatant that I wasn’t ever going to be a part of those communities, and that is okay with me. I don’t have to get along with everybody. |
"In my family, we observe that Judaism and Jewish culture came from Israel, and they were people of color." |
"[Judaism is] not about how you look, it is about the content, what you are learning from the religion, and how it is influencing you to become a better person." |
How does this affect your feelings about Judaism?
I think that it reflects that we are missing the bigger picture of what [Judaism] is about. It’s not about how you look, it is about the content, what you are learning from the religion, and how it is influencing you to become a better person. If you are looking at it in such a strict way, you are not going to get the bigger picture. Do you feel like you have been generally welcomed in Judaism? Why or why not? No, I’m just going to be honest. A lot of this is through my father’s experiences. My dad, he actually tried to get in contact with different kinds of Jews also. For example, in New York, they have a temple of Black Ethiopan Jews. He tried to talk to them because he was really interested and noticed that there were very few people observing like that in Chicago. He emailed them saying that he was looking for a black experience in the Jewish religion. They said “You’re racist! You’re viewing white people in a negative aspect. You are not welcome here”, that is basically what they said. Even when people do reflect our identity based on the color of our skin, they are still divided and exclusive. Have you been able to find a community that has been accepting of your identity? I have been able to find people to talk to. With my family, it is not just my family that is Jewish. We have a couple other people who come and reflect our identities. We meet every Saturday for Shabbat and we’ll talk. There is a decent amount of people I can talk to that are not too far apart from my age. I have people that I can talk to about [my experiences] with there. I also meet people in school that are nice and that I can relate to, it’s not impossible, but it is a little harder for me. |
Are there times where you have felt excluded because of your various identities?
Yeah. I’ve had several people of color who were my friends and stopped being friends with me after I mentioned to them that I was Jewish. The same thing will happen with a white person too, they will distance themselves from me. That’s kind of generalizing, but I’ve had specific experiences where that has happened. For example, in Chicago, I went to a school without any white people there. I told the kids in my class that I was Jewish, and they would sing racist songs to me in Hebrew. There was a little German mixed boy, he was half black, and they would say things like “He’s going to kill you because he’s a Nazi.” Does identifying as Jewish play an important role in your life? Yeah. Especially when I was little, there were times where I’d like to flaunt it. I would say, “I’m Hispanic, I know Spanish, and I’m black, I have curly hair and all that, and I’m also Jewish!” I felt a lot of pride when I was really small. As I grew up, I learned to shut up because it is not something I should really have to explain to people. If it comes up, it comes up. It does play an important role in my life if I tell people, but it is something I do like to keep private because I still do take a lot of pride in it and I don’t want it to be something that is exploited. |
"I’ve had several people of color who were my friends and stopped being friends with me after I mentioned to them that I was Jewish." |
What is your favorite part about being Jewish?
Besides the presents and Hannukah, Saturdays are the best part of being Jewish. We don’t do any work. We don’t turn off electricity or anything, but my dad doesn’t let us watch TV for a good part of the day. It’s nice because we’ll sit, drink tea, eat breakfast, and have really good conversations about our week and how we are feeling. It is nice to do that because any other day of the week, we don’t have that chance.
Besides the presents and Hannukah, Saturdays are the best part of being Jewish. We don’t do any work. We don’t turn off electricity or anything, but my dad doesn’t let us watch TV for a good part of the day. It’s nice because we’ll sit, drink tea, eat breakfast, and have really good conversations about our week and how we are feeling. It is nice to do that because any other day of the week, we don’t have that chance.