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SANDI MANN We consider ourselves as white British – but are we? |
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ARE Jews white? Obviously black Jews aren’t, but increasingly — as a light-skinned Ashkenazi — when confronted by those ethnicity questions on forms, I find myself uncertain.
For a while now, my middle offspring has declared being definitely not white, which always struck me as odd given that I saw myself and my husband as very much white British (how did we manage to birth a non-white child?). But I have begun to see things from the perspective of my non-white offspring. This volte face has come about partly from reading David Baddiel’s ground-breaking book Jews Don’t Count, in which he argues that identification as white is not about skin colour per se. Jews come in all shades, but ethnicity isn’t just about skin colour. Are Sephardim white? Mizrachim? To read more on this story, subscribe to our new e-edition. Go to E-edition.jewishtelegraph.com.
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