"This volume makes an important and welcome contribution by focusing on this particular community. Doing so allows the volume to both show and hint at a rich diversity within this one otherwise select group."—Marla Brettschneider, author of Revolutionary Legacies: Jewish Feminist Political Thinking with Jamaica Kincaid, Golda Meir, Hannah Arendt, Frida Kahlo, Gertrude Stein, and Emma Goldman
"The originality is in the variety of experiences in one volume – so that although each is idiosyncratic, while as a collection there is common theme of diversity within the individual stories. It is likely that those who choose to buy, borrow, and discuss Black, Jewish, and Beautiful will read with intentionality – that is read to find intersections with their own experiences."—Katya Gibel Mevorach, author of Black, Jewish, and Interracial: It's Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin, and Other Myths of Identity
"For too long, Black Jewish voices have been ignored, suppressed, and overlooked in scholarly and popular conversations about both Black and Jewish identity. Black, Jewish, and Beautiful is a triumph for Black Jewry because it bears witness to the profound relationship between these two diasporic communities through a unique combination of scholarly inquiry, personal narratives, and artistic exploration. Russell, Feldman, and Kaplan have produced an edited volume that will influence scholars, religious leaders, communities, and individuals for years to come."—LaNitra M. Berger, Associate Professor, History and Art History and Director, African and African American Studies Program, George Mason University
Description
Black, Jewish, and Beautifulbrings together powerful perspectives and showcases the vastly divergent ways people come to inhabit a shared Blewish, or Black Jewish identity. These voices demonstrate that Black Jewishness is just one dimension of their multifaceted lives as they explore how they feel, think, and make sense of who they are.
Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, Sara Feldman, and Brett Ashley Kaplan bring together an array of oral histories, essays, and interviews of Black Jews by birth, others who converted, and those who were raised one way only to discover later that their identity was not what they had thought. The result is a collection of myriad narratives, told through rocky, sometimes-frayed structures. Contributors are open and frank in their discussion of the good, the bad, and the ugly, the heart wrenching, and the beautiful in their experiences.
Black, Jewish, and Beautifulis an essential read for anyone interested in the exploration of belonging and the richness of nuanced identity in contemporary life.
About the Author
Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell is a vocalist, composer, and arranger specializing in music in the Yiddish language. His essays on music and culture have appeared in a number of publications, including Jewish Currents and Moment Magazine.
Sara Feldman is preceptor in Yiddish in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She is a co-organizer of Harvard’s Black and Jewish: A Talk Series and co-author of “Voices from Black Lives Matter Protests / Koyles fun blek layvs meter protestn” in In geveb. Her essays, translations, and scholarship appear in Slavic and East European Journal, Apikorsus, AJS Perspectives, and Baltic Worlds, among others.
Brett Ashley Kaplan directs the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies and is a professor of comparative and world literature at the University of Illinois. Her books include Unwanted Beauty: Aesthetic Pleasure in Holocaust Representation, Landscapes of Holocaust Postmemory, and Jewish Anxiety in the Novels of Philip Roth.
