So, #JewishPrivilege has been trending for a few hours and I’d decided I just wasn’t going to participate. I write often enough on here about antisemitism and about being publicly Jewish. But I think one thing about which I’m not honest enough is the dread I push down every day.
I relish each opportunity to instill in my kids a positive Jewish identity. But I also know I’m going to get a sickening tweet directed at me or we’re going to see an antisemitic flyer on a lamppost in our neighborhood or the neighbor is going to make an Othering comment.
The fact that we have passports that we can’t really use to get us anywhere at the moment is horrifying. And the fact is we made damn sure our kids had passports from infancy even though we didn’t plan to travel anywhere. But to speak these feelings seems overly dramatic.
I’m an observant Jew in a place that doesn’t have very many. I’m noticeable. But in some very real sense I also choose to be. I can wear a baseball cap rather than a kippah and then I can blend right in, just another white Nebraskan. I don’t. But I could.
Basically I think there’s a delicate balancing act between wanting people to understand the pressure that comes from being part of a historically reviled minority group and also refusing to ignore one’s own actual privilege. That’s the hashtag: white Jews should feel both.
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