When Amy Goldberg’s son participated in a MIT study about babies’ ability to focus, his attention wandered when the researcher showed a photo of a white baby.
Even at 6 months old, Goldberg’s son, Aiden, didn’t feel represented, and thus lost interest, Goldberg said. That’s why she attends almost every “Jews of Color” affinity event at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center with Aiden, now 3 years old: “I want him to have racial mirrors.”
“What I have read as a transracial adoptive parent — a parent who adopted a child of a different race — is that racial mirrors are important for children in every aspect of their life, whether it’s school, jobs, cartoons,” Goldberg said, adding that her son had no interest in the popular children’s YouTube channel Cocomelon until one episode featured a Black child.
“He loved that episode,” Goldberg said. “It was the only time he ever watched it, really.”
Aiden also enjoys attending EDCJCC Jews of Color events and has made a friend that he spends time with outside the JOC holiday programming. The most recent event was a Sukkot celebration, held outside the EDCJCC building the evening of Oct. 23.
The event featured dinner in the sukkah, a fire pit with s’mores, face painting, an art project, games and, most importantly, a sense of community.
“It’s important for my son to not feel like the only Black person in a place of worship, so he can connect to his Jewish identity,” Goldberg said. “And, you know, no one ever wants to feel different as a kid.”
She spoke to the importance of keeping Jewish children of color engaged and interested in the community by having events specifically for non-white attendees, which she said the EDCJCC does well.
“I think it’s hard to go into a room with all white people to feel comfortable, but you want people to not fall away from Judaism because they have a negative association with it,” Goldberg said. “This is a great way to build a positive association, so they’re not like, ‘I’m the only Black Jewish person I know.’”
“I think it’s really important for people to know that they’re not the only one, like there’s people that look like them, and have that same experience of maybe feeling like they’re the only one, but they’re not,” Goldberg said. “There’s a whole community for them.”
Sonya Weisburd began this JOC affinity group program both as the EDCJCC’s director of social impact and as the mom of biracial children. The initiative was a joint effort between Weisburd and four Jews of color.
The group — Jews of color and their families — meet about five or six times a year at the EDCJCC to celebrate major Jewish holidays: “It’s just a really joyful space.”
Weisburd noted that the attendees are typically families with young children, though there are interfaith couples and single Jewish adults. She emphasized the importance of creating an intentional space for these families and adults to gather and bond.
“There are parts of the Jewish community or there are people with certain identities that have always been denied access or experienced oppressive environments, or experienced unwelcome at best, whether that be LGBTQ Jews or Jews of color or, in earlier times, … women in mostly male spaces,” Weisburd said. “The Jewish community is full of a huge range of identities, and not all of those folks have been welcomed and safe in standard organized Jewish life, so [EDCJCC programming] provides a space that is safe from the -isms of the world, especially racism and microaggressions.”
In 2020, when the EDCJCC launched their JOC affinity group, Washington, D.C., was home to just over 57,000 Jewish community members, 8.2% of the total population. Jews of color are estimated to make up 8 to 10% of the Jewish community, which varies based on age group, according to Beyond the Count in 2021.
The Leichtag Foundation found that the population of JOC is increasing in the United States, and may be undercounted in surveys and population studies. But JOC are still in the vast minority and may have trouble finding others who share their identities.
“Human psychology makes us want to group ourselves by people who have similar experiences and understand what it’s like to walk through the world as ourselves,” Weisburd said. “It’s also just a joyful space where you can really bring your whole self in a way you couldn’t necessarily, even if it was a completely ‘safe space,’ because people have a vastly different understanding of the world because of their differing identity.”
Weisburd helped launch the JOC affinity group in part to provide a space for her biracial children four years ago. During the time, the nation was in the midst of a racial reckoning, and Weisburd used this opportunity as a way to work toward her goal: “I’ve wanted that for a long time.”
“It’s a great program,” Goldberg said. “It’s really connected a lot of people. Every time we go, we make more connections to the community.”
