Race, Color, Identity

Efraim Sicher is Professor of Comparative and English Literature at Ben- Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. He has published essays and books on modern Jewish culture, Holocaust memory, and anti-Semitism. His most recent books are The Holocaust Novel (2005), Babel in Context: A Study in Cultural Identity (2012), Rereading the City / Rereading Dickens (2nd edition 2012), and Under Postcolonial Eyes: Figuring the “Jew” in Contemporary British Writing (with Linda Weinhouse, 2012).

“If the reader, after closing this volume, remains uncertain or confused about the fundamental questions related to Jews and race (though not Jews and color), this is because fundamental questions appear to remain unresolved. Overall, the essays do a marvelous job in both illustrating and illuminating this confusion.” · Studies in Contemporary Jewry“An excellent text that will be a significant contribution to the study of Jews and race… The work approaches the topic from a variety of disciplines and geographic locations, and the breadth is in fact one of its greatest strengths.” · Rebecca Alpert, Temple University“This is a very fine book… It is a very eclectic collection of essays on a range of related texts and issues, yet the chapters cohere, producing a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, which is how a collection of essays should be. The subject of the volume is important; and many of the essays are first-rate. All of the chapters are trim and to the point.” · Emily Budick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• ForewordSander GilmanIntroduction: Rethinking Discourses about “Jews”Efraim SicherPART I: JEWS AND RACE IN AMERICAChapter 1. “I’m not White – I’m Jewish”: The Racial Politics of American JewsCheryl GreenbergChapter 2. Reflections on Black/Jewish Relations in the Age of ObamaIbrahim SundiataChapter 3. Stains, Plots, and the Neighbor Thing: Jews, Blacks and Philip Roth’s UtopiasAdam Zachary NewtonChapter 4. Spaces of Ambivalence: Blacks and Jews in New York CityCatherine RottenbergChapter 5. African-American Culture, Anthropological Practices and the Jewish “Race” in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and MenDalit AlperovichChapter 6. Jewish Characters in Weeds: Reinserting ‘Race’ into the Postmodern Discourse on American JewsHannah Adelman Komy Ofir and Shlomi DeloiaPART II: JEWS AS BLACKS / BLACK JEWSChapter 7. A Member of the Club? How Black Jews Negotiate Black Anti-Semitism and Jewish RacismBruce HaynesChapter 8.  Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel: The Discourses of Intrinsic and Extrinsic RacismSteven KaplanChapter 9. Black-Jews in Academic and Institutional DiscourseYonah ZiangaChapter 10. The “Descendants of David” of Madagascar: Crypto-Judaic identities in 21st century AfricaEdith BruderPART III: DISCOURSES OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITIESChapter 11. After the Fact: “Jews” in Post-1945 German Physical AnthropologyAmos Morris-ReichChapter 12. Genes as Jewish History?: Human Population Genetics in the Service of HistoriansNoa Sophie Kohler and Dan MishmarChapter 13. Sarrazin and the Myth of the “Jewish Gene"Klaus HödlChapter 14. Blood, Soul, Race, and Suffering: Full-Bodied Ethnography and Expressions of Jewish BelongingFran MarkowitzChapter 15. Jews, Muslims, European Identities: Multiculturalism and Anti-Semitism in BritainEfraim SicherChapter 16. Brothers in Misery: Re-connecting Sociologies of Racism and Anti-SemitismGlynis Cousin and Robert FineChapter 17. Race by the Grace of God: Race, Religion, and the Construction of “Jew” and “Arab"Ivan Davidson KalmarSelect BibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndex