Growth
For all 2008 In the News, please visit the new Be’chol Lashon website.
Far-flung communities seek place in the Jewish world
The Jerusalem Post
By Sue Fishkoff/ JTA
May 26, 2008
Miguel Segura Aguilo’s ancestors were executed as Jews five centuries ago in Spain, but he is not welcome in his local synagogue today.
Gershom Sizomu, who will be ordained this month in Los Angeles as a Conservative rabbi, dreams of setting up the first yeshiva for African Jews in his Abayudayan village in East Uganda. ....more
Black Jew illuminates diversity of Judaism
The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Dianna Marder
April 5, 2007
Much of the study of African Americans and Jews relates to relationships between the two groups.
But Lewis Ricardo Gordon, a Jamaica-born, Yale-educated author and Temple University professor, is studying African-Americans who are Jews. ....more
Intermarriage Studies May Be Right; Community's Fearful Response Isn't
JTA
by Gary Tobin
February 15, 2007
We keep producing studies that prove that children of intermarried families are less likely to be Jewish than children from two born Jews.
There's nothing wrong with the research; my studies show the same thing. However, our responses to the findings, which come from fear and suspicion, are troubling. ....
more
Deconstructing the Asian Jewish Experience
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
by Joshua Brandt
December 8, 2006
A recent forum on Asian Jewish identities emphasized commonalties while shattering stereotypes. But before debunking the prevailing paradigm of the Ashkenazi Jew, the panel had to come to grips with an equally important question: What constitutes "Asian?"....more
Have a feliz Chanukah at multicultural holiday fiesta
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
by Dan Pine
December 8, 2006
Dreidels won't be the only thing spinning at this year's Be'chol Lashon Chanukah celebration. The menorah-minded are advised to watch out for Chinese Lion Dancers, Brazilian capoeira experts and an Afro-Cuban drum band.....more
“Awareness Growing, Local Rabbi Says”
South Bend Tribune
by Christine Cox
June 22, 2006
Every Friday at sunset, 6-year-old Livya Zeitler of Elkhart helps her mother, Melanie, light candles to welcome Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.
Together they pray over wine and the traditional chalah bread, covering their eyes to show God respect. Livya has been able to recite these prayers since she was 3 1/2....more
"South of Main" Takes Top Award
Spartanburg (SC) Herald-Journal / GoUpstate.com
Linda Conley, Staff Writer
May 14, 2006
A book that details life in one of Spartanburg's early black neighborhoods
and its demise, has received an award as one of the best books produced last
year.
"South of Main," published by the Hub City Writers Project, recently
received the top award for Multicultural Nonfiction titles for adults in the
Independent Publisher Book Awards competition. ... [Among the] finalists
receiving recognition in the category is "In Every Tongue: The Racial &
Ethnic Diversity of the Jewish People" published by the Institute for Jewish
& Community Research. ...more
New Study Ponders Key Question: How to Promote Active Converts?
JTA
Rachel Silverman
April 12, 2006
NEW YORK - Low conversion rates among intermarried Jewish families continue to plague those working to reverse the demographic downtrends in American Jewry....more
Thinking About Jewish Tolerance
Leslie Bunder
Jerusalem Post
February 21, 2006
A Jewish diversity conference held earlier this month in San Francisco brought together people from various backgrounds and regions - Europe, Israel, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Australia - for a gathering that pretty much resembled a United Nations of Jews. ...more
Funny, You Don't Look Jewish: Local Synagogue Explores the Changing Face of Judaism.
When Lisa Williamson Rosenberg explains to people that she is biracial – black and white – and Jewish, the reactions vary. Some people are accepting, some are surprised, others are incredulous. And some have told her point-blank that, no, it's not possible to be black and Jewish at the same time....more
Out of Egypt
Jerusalem Report
Ira Rifkin
January 23, 2006
As American demographics are shifting, so too are those of American Jews away from the white Ashkenazi
stereotype. Then again, Jews haven't been ethnically 'pure' since the time of the Pharaohs.
Lewis Gordon grew up in the Bronx, a center of Jewish life until the closing years of the last century. In that, Gordon's background is typical for an American Jew. Untypical is that his father was an Afro-Asian Jamaican and his mother
was a mixed black-white Jamaican Jew who traced her maternal bloodline to Jews from Scotland and her paternal
line to Jews from Jerusalem. Both sides emigrated to the Caribbean in the late-19th century and intermarried with
local blacks, and while some of the offspring assimilated into the larger Christian community, others, like his mother,
Patricia Solomon, remained Jews.....more
American Jews Grow in Diversity
American Jews are often stereotyped as a monolithic people of European origin. Jews are in fact as diverse as any demographic group in America -- and perhaps the most diverse demographic group. ...more
"In Every Tongue" Shows Changing Community
St. Louis Jewish Light
Robert A. Cohn, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
November 16, 2005
A newly published book, In Every Tongue, by Diane Tobin, Gary Tobin and Scott Rubin, proves conclusively, based on solid research, that today's Jewish community is absolutely NOT that of your Zayda and Bubbe from the Old Country - or even that of your Mom and Dad from l950s suburbia. The book, published by the prestigious Institute for Jewish and Community Research based in San Francisco, proves the surprising fact that at least 20 percent of Jewish America is ethnically and racially diverse. ...more
American Jews Embrace Demographic Diversity
Knight Ridder Newspapers
DuluthNewsTribune.com
Gary Tobin
September 30, 2005
On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Jews across America will pause to consider how to improve themselves and their communities in the year to come. No doubt, many will contemplate how the country reacted to the terrible destruction wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A disproportionate number of the victims were poor and black, rekindling a national dialogue on race and class. Yet Americans poured millions of dollars into the affected areas, moving beyond racial stereotypes and boundaries. ...more
Book: U.S. Jewish Community Is Far More Diverse Than Most Realize
JTA
Joe Eskenazi
September 18, 2005
Look at the Jew on your left. Look at the Jew on your right. OK, now look at
two more Jews. Odds are, one of you is "ethnically diverse."
That's the claim Gary Tobin makes in a new book exploring racial and ethnic
diversity within America's Jewish population, "In Every Tongue." The San
Francisco demographer maintains that perhaps 20 percent of the nation's Jews
are Sephardi, Mizrachi, racial minorities or of mixed race.
"It's a big deal when you start translating it into the number of human
beings," said Tobin, who co-wrote the book with his wife, Diane Tobin, and
Scott Rubin...more
New Research Finds 20% of Jewish America Is Ethnically and Racially Diverse
HispanicBusiness.com
PRNewswire
September 14, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- New research debunks the commonly held view that America's Jews are a monolithic people of exclusively white European ancestry. In their new book, In Every Tongue (Institute for Jewish & Community Research, $25, 251 pages) noted scholar Gary A. Tobin and co-authors and show that American Jews are a multiracial people -- perhaps the most diverse people in history. ...more
Study of Interfaith Kids Upends Ideas of Identity
Forward
Jennifer Siegel
July 8, 2005
Advocates of outreach to interfaith couples are touting a new survey that they say upends previous arguments against efforts to reach out to the children of mixed marriages. ...more
Rabbi extends a rare invitation
Orange County Register
Ann Pepper
May 22, 2005
Rabbi Nancy Myers is putting together bags stuffed with books on Judaism, little goodies from Israel and some music from the cantor at her synagogue, Temple Beth David in Westminster - because she's getting ready to step out of line a little bit...
more
Kosher Gospel Rocks the House at Seder Celebrating Jewish Diversity
JTA
Chanan Tigay
April 14, 2005
Fifty years ago, Joshua Nelson's grandmother would not have walked up to a synagogue in her New Jersey neighborhood, entered and prayed. "That's because she was black," Nelson says, "and black Jews didn't generally pray at shuls dominated by white, Eastern European Jews." ...
more
The Face of Jewish Uganda
JN, Detroit Jewish News ONLINE
Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Staff Writer
March 3, 2005
J .J. Keki looks very much like his Ugandan neighbors. He grows coffee, bananas and maize on his farm; travels on dirt roads by bicycle-taxi and pumps water from the ground several times a day to carry home to his family. But no matter what he is doing or where he goes J.J. always has a kippah on his head, eats only kosher foods and on Friday nights and Saturdays, he walks to synagogue for Shabbat. "That is because I am Jewish," J.J. explained...
more
The Color of Inclusion
The Jewish Week, Serving the Jewish Community of Greater New York
Debra Nussbaum Cohen, Staff Writer
February 25, 2005
San Francisco - Before a packed house of some 400 people at the Fairmont Hotel here, 45 voices from Temple Beth El's choir soared in songs melding Hebrew lyrics with the passionate energy and rhythmic lilt of gospel music, all backed by a rocking band...
more
A Tribe of Many Colors
S.F. conference brings together far-flung Jewish communities
j., The Jewish News Weekly of
Northern California
Dan Pine, Staff Writer
October 8, 2004
In the lobby of San Francisco's opulent Fairmont Hotel, Ephraim Isaac wasn't hard to spot. He was the one wearing the white djellaba (robe), natalah (fringed scarf) and gobah (wedding cake-shaped head covering)...
more
Bay Area
Jewish Parents Accept Joys, Struggles of Interracial Adoption
j., The Jewish News Weekly of
Northern California
Vicki Larson, Correspondent
October 8, 2004
It isn't too hard to pick out Ruthie Heller in her 12th-birthday photo, even if she weren't wearing colorful balloons fashioned into a hat atop her head.Among the four Orthodox Jewish girls, arms around each other and flashing wide grins, Ruthie's creamy bronze skin, dark brown eyes and facial features are a dead give-away...
more
Diversity Rules at One-of-a-Kind Shavuot Festival
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
Dan Pine, Staff Writer
May 28, 2004
There wasn’t a bagel in sight. Instead, the hundreds
of moms, dads and kids attending the multicultural Shavuot
festival at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center
had other fish to fry. It made sense to forgo the customary
Askenazic fare. Though just about everyone at the Sunday,
May 23, event was Jewish, most of the people were of African,
Asian and Latino descent. Most of the music rocked with a
Ugandan beat. And the cherished ideal of am Yisrael,
the people of Israel, on this day came in rainbow colors...more
Archives:
Feb. 18, 2003 - World Net Daily
Trouble
In The Holyland
Most Americans believe that Israel's Mideast neighbors reject the Jewish
state's right to exist, according to a national opinion poll...more
Feb. 12, 2003 - World Net Daily
Eye
On The Gulf
While Bush administration officials continue making their case against
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before members of Congress today, a new
poll shows their efforts to win over the American public may be working...more
Jan.12, 2003 - Ha’aretz Daily
Survey:
34% of Americans say Jews have too much influence
A nationwide survey released Tuesday shows anti-Semitism is growing in
the United States, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle...more
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