Lights! Camera! Faction!

Hi, I’m MaNishtana. Ever feel like your life is just one long academic paper with footnotes that keep referring back to things?

Just bear with me here…

Hey kids!

Remember a couple of weeks ago (like, oh, July 14th) when I put out the call for lil JOCs on video to combat the rather monochromatic “What Will The Jewish Future Look Like? “ video from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles?

Well there I was with all these videos, getting ready to compile the response video when I received a Facebook email from Jared Jackson, founder of Jews In ALL Hues, saying:

“My friend, we NEED to talk. It has spread to Philly.” Included was a link to a video by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia entitled “What’s YOUR Ish?”

Wow. Really? Not even someone ambiguous like the maybe Asian looking kid in the first video?

Now, seeing this, I thought, “Well, this video is gonna have to be a little bit bigger then and include grown-up types”…until Jared said:

“It gets worse. They started calling jocs and dual heritage Jews “those interfaith people” on their Twitter feed.”

WHAT?! Aw, hellllllll nah.

So I booked it over to Twitter:

JewsinALLHues @JFedinPhilly “Sun, Sand and Shiksas!” What? Were any dual-heritage Jews consulted about this?

JFedinPhilly @jewsinallhues Dual heritage? You mean interfaith ppl? No, but tell us what you think on facebook.com/phillyjewISH! What is your #ish?

Um, what? And so the JOC Twitter League rose to action.

Jews in ALL Hues @JFedinPhilly “interfaith ppl” is not what we mean by dual-heritage Jews at all. DHJ’s are Jews. Feel free to visit our FB to learn.

Swirl Girl @JFedinPhilly not to mention, that while some of us “dual heritage” jews r from interfaith families, many rn’t.

Swirl Girl @JFedinPhilly + there r many single heritage J.O.C.s; doesn’t make ’em ne less Jewish + im sure there r some (kids) in philly

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly “interfaith”? do i look “interfaith” to you? no wait, dont answer that. dont want your head to explode.

Rivka13 @JFedinPhilly – again! it would be appropriate if the jfed would acknowledge that there are jews that r not ashkenaz!

Rivka13 @JFedinPhilly – we r black, brown, sephardi, etc. some even born not made! need to model inclusiveness!!!

Jews in ALL Hues @MaNishtana @Swirl_Girl SO glad that we’re on the same page! 😀 All of our experiences are unique and should be honored as such.

Jews in ALL Hues @MaNishtana @Swirl_Girl @Rivka13 @mochajuden Thank you for the support! Let’s keep it up!

Personal Wallaby @JFedinPhilly “Dual heritage” does NOT mean “interfaith”. Plenty of 100% halachically Jewish people identify as @jewsinallhues #Annoyedish

So we’ve got a great momentum going right? You think the JFed is gonna apologize or something soon right? Then Jared tweets from his private account:

JaredEJackson @JFedinPhilly that was truly offensive. I’m sure that a lot of my friends who have converted as well as others would agree with me.

…To which JFed replies:

JFedinPhilly @JaredEJackson Offensive? Really? Why don’t you start the debate – join our conversation at http://on.fb.me/olBOu4 & tell ALL your friends!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. “Debate”? Did you really just say join the “debate” if you exist or not? WTF?

Swirl Girl @JFedinPhilly i don’t understand y it needs to be a *debate* that we exist and should be featured as a part of the future?

JaredEJackson @JFedinPhilly you know @Swirl_Girl is absolutely right. I won’t have my authenitcity challenged. There isn’t a debate to be had.

Swirl Girl @JFedinPhilly However, if you would like to ask us (well, me but i think us) questions because you actually care, i’m open

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this is when JFed says “Oops, we f*cked up. Our bad.” Well let’s see:

JFedinPhilly @personalwallaby @JewsinALLhues website says, “a safe space for people from interfaith families” so how is that not interfaith?

Umm…Since when does coming from an interfaith family make YOU interfaith? Additionally, why are you unable to make the connection that a group called “Jews In ALL Hues” mentioning “dual-heritage” is probably talking about, y’know, HUES?

JewsinALLHues @JFedinPhilly Either way. Having one non-jewish parent does NOT make you an “Interfaith” person. We do offer trainings…

And here is where I jumped back into the fray. Because I personally know that while Jews In ALL Hues does work with interfaith families, it works a lot with just JOCS in general (y’know, that whole “Hues” thing). So I was completely baffled why JFed was confused, because I knew that “a safe space for people from interfaith families” couldn’t have POSSIBLY been the sole group descriptor. So I headed over to the website.

On the front page–dab smack in the middle–is the welcome blurb which reads:

“Jews in ALL Hues is a grassroots organization whose purpose is to create diverse, welcoming communities for dual (or multiple) heritage Jews through dynamic workshops and events; creating inclusive educational, social and professional initiatives approaching many topics that face the Jewish community today.”

Hrm. Nothing about interfaith there. On the blurb to the left there’s another synopsis:

“Jews in ALL Hues is a grassroots organization whose purpose is to create diverse, welcoming communities for dual (or multiple) heritage Jews”

Hmph. Still no mention of interfaith. But JFed couldn’t have been pulling this from thin air, right? So I head to the “Ground Rules” and find this:

“www.jewsinallhues.org is a safe place to explore the GIFTS and challenges of growing up with Dual (or multiple/Jewish/ Non-Jewish/interfaith/conversion) Heritages in today’s world.”

Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. JFed, PLEASE don’t tell me that what you did, is IGNORE both mission statements on the front page obviously advocating racial diversity, pore over the site, and blatantly IGNORE the “multiple/Jewish/Non-Jewish/conversion” portions of the sentence that you RE-EDITED to prove your myopic point. Tell me that’s not what you did.

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly the website says @JewsInALLHues “is a grassroots organization whose purpose is to create diverse, welcoming communities…”

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly “for dual (or multiple) heritage Jews through dynamic workshops and events; creating inclusive educational…”

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly “…social and professional initiatives approaching many topics that face the Jewish community today.”

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly and did u miss the REST of the sentence you quoted and selectively edited??

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly “is a safe place to explore challenges of Dual (or multiple/Jewish/Non-Jewish/interfaith/conversion) Heritage?”

MaNishtana @JFedinPhilly so #confused or #readingcomprehensionfail

Oddly enough, they didn’t tweet back at me. They DID tweet back at personalwallaby, tho:

PersonalWallaby @JFedinPhilly A JOC is a non-white Jew. Like white Jews, many are 100% Jewish, some are interfaith. Capiche?

JFedinPhilly @personalwallaby @JewsinALLhues Capiche! Thank you!

So yes, kids. There is a vid coming, a little later than I’d anticipated, but a LOT bigger. So keep sending those vids of your kids. Send in vids of YOU. No age, denomination, color restrictions apply. Just send. There’s a ball we need to get rolling.

By the way, that “Black and Jewish” video everyone was talking about a couple weeks ago? The one that i said was funny but a double-edged sword? The one about which the Huffington Post says: “Mark your calendars, because July 2011 is the official point in human history that the black Jewish community got their long-awaited anthem.”?

Last I heard JFed was gonna put it up to see on their website as a “good depiction” of Black Jews.

Still funny now?