JoCI Thought Leadership

Colleagues have shared with me that with the passage of more than two years and the opportunity for reflection, many wish for a post-Oct. 7 “do-over” regarding some leadership decisions. Even in organizations led by the most intentional and compassionate leaders, the workplace is never a completely “safe space” because it is always infused with power dynamics. It is an enormous risk to ask colleagues what they really think and feel about issues most close to our souls, just as it is an enormous risk sometimes to answer those questions honestly.

The term Jews of Color, like Bnai Israel, Beta Israel, Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi Jews, is a communal technology which enables Jewish communal cohesion, camaraderie and awareness of our distinctive cultural adaptations in a diasporic context. While impermanent and imperfect, the term helps Jews who also identify as People of Color to find ourselves and each other.

Over the past 16 months, I have traveled throughout the country in my role leading the Jews of Color Initiative. I’ve visited rural communities in Nevada, Upstate New York, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, as well as metro regions like Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC and New York City. In hundreds and hundreds of deeply human interactions in transit, in hotels, in front of diverse audiences across dozens of regions and thousands of miles, I’ve listened to stories of being misunderstood and marginalized–because of who we are, and so often who we are perceived to be. I’ve also been moved by the antidotal power of what happens when identity, community, spiritual connection, and wholeness are actively cultivated–especially in young people.

While as leaders we have raised our collective consciousness about diversity, and by extension can comfortably point to the few people of color added to our boards and public facing roles of institutional influence, we have inadequately committed to multi-year initiatives focusing on the personal, organizational and systemic rigors of Inclusion — those spaces where natural conflicts of values, beliefs, cultures and ways of being, emerge and must be navigated.

In her latest op-ed, JoCI’s CEO Ilana Kaufman delves into the profound influence of research in advancing our understanding of the intersectional identities of Jews of Color in the United States. Ilana explores how research enhances our comprehension of the multifaceted identities within the Jews of Color community. This op-ed sheds light on the work of our 2023 research grantees and the compelling issues–and timeless questions– they invite us to consider.