Black Jewish Identity Conflict: A Divided Universal Audience and the Impact of Dissociative Disruption

White Noise and Unnecessary Evil: Balancing Security and Community in Synagogues

“…(Synagogue 3) I haven’t seen it, but I feel like … there might be some low-key profiling that happens … of African Americans who are given the side-eye when they’re coming in, or asked extra questions that other people wouldn’t be asked. (Synagogue 5) Fernheimer ( 2009 ) demonstrates how various groups who may be termed “Black Jewish” are compelled to negotiate Ashkenazic hegemony, often being requested to “authenticate” their Jewishness due to having an alternative Jewish ancestry, and regularly seeing their claims to this identity denied or impugned. Fernheimer contextualizes this development by highlighting how the first significant growth in African Americans claiming Jewishness occurred at a time when “recognized Jews” were attempting to rapidly progress in American society, rendering the latter unwilling to admit Blackness as congruent with Jewishness lest it compromise their own, still inchoate, “white” American identity.…”