http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/first-african-american-female-rabbi-to-take-nc-pulpit/ Last May the JTA interviewed Alysa Stanton, a Hebrew Union College rabbinical student who insisted she never set out to be the world’s first African-American female rabbi. But that’s what she’ll become after her June 6 ordination at the Reform seminary’s Cincinnati campus. en-us sfishkoff@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-05-17T;18:37:01-05:00 ira@ihug.com.au Congratulations Rabbi Stanton. Congratulations Rabbi Stanton.

]]> 2009-11-19T;22:58:01-05:00 rebecca.ennen@gmail.com “About 20 percent of American Jews are racially or ethnically diverse” ...this makes sense neither grammatically nor politically. “diverse” means “of a different kind” or “of varied kinds.” to say what percentage of a whole (the jewish community) is “varied” is semantically ridiculous--the whole group is varied, consisting of individuals with differences among them. it’s not that there are “regular” jews and “different” jews, with the different ones being “diverse,” but rather white jews and jews with non-white ethnic or racial backgrounds, non-white jews, jews of color, however you want to put it. that white jews are the majority is obvious; that jews of color bring racial diversity to an otherwise racially homogeneous group is true. you could also say that white jews bring diversity to groups consisting only of jews of color, but this doesn’t often happen due to numbers and cultural rifts between the mainstream white-majority Jewish world and historically black synagogues. maybe this seems like harping over a small thing, but it really bothers me to see “diverse” turned into a euphemism for “not white.” that just reinforces the idea that white is normal and others are aberrations. otherwise, i am thrilled at the chiddush that Rabbi Stanton represents and wish her and her community great joy and connection. “About 20 percent of American Jews are racially or ethnically diverse”
...this makes sense neither grammatically nor politically.
“diverse” means “of a different kind” or “of varied kinds.” to say what percentage of a whole (the jewish community) is “varied” is semantically ridiculous--the whole group is varied, consisting of individuals with differences among them. it’s not that there are “regular” jews and “different” jews, with the different ones being “diverse,” but rather white jews and jews with non-white ethnic or racial backgrounds, non-white jews, jews of color, however you want to put it. that white jews are the majority is obvious; that jews of color bring racial diversity to an otherwise racially homogeneous group is true. you could also say that white jews bring diversity to groups consisting only of jews of color, but this doesn’t often happen due to numbers and cultural rifts between the mainstream white-majority Jewish world and historically black synagogues.
maybe this seems like harping over a small thing, but it really bothers me to see “diverse” turned into a euphemism for “not white.” that just reinforces the idea that white is normal and others are aberrations.
otherwise, i am thrilled at the chiddush that Rabbi Stanton represents and wish her and her community great joy and connection.

]]> 2009-11-19T;22:58:01-05:00 jbrandow@bizminer.com An interesting (and welcome) article. But did you not run another article last month on an (unaffiliated) African American congregation in Philadelphia that is led by a demale rabbi? Or didn’t that count as a “first” because of the lack of affiliation. An interesting (and welcome) article. But did you not run another article last month on an (unaffiliated) African American congregation in Philadelphia that is led by a demale rabbi? Or didn’t that count as a “first” because of the lack of affiliation.

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