Month: 8 Elul 5785 (September 2025)

Sure. This'll take multiple replies. I'll start with the simpler parts. Ashkenazi refers to Jews from Eastern Europe and German-speaking regions, and who tend to make up most of what later became American Jews and Jews from southern Canada. Sephardic refers to Jews from Portugal and Spain, and later Central and South America along with the southwestern US and Mexico. Mizrahi refers to Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, most of whom now live in Israel. Beta Yisrael refers to Ethiopian Jews, most of whom live in Israel. Religious streams: In the US, the four denominations: Orthodox which is most traditional, Conservative which still has some traditional parts but counts as one of the liberal denominations, and then Reform and Reconstructionist, which are the other two liberal denominations. This is liberal in a religious sense, not political sense, although there tends to be a lot of overlap. The concept of denominations hasn't really taken outside the US +

possibly English-speaking Canada. So why this is all relevant is because, in politically leftwing circles, there's an attempt to categorize Jews as "white" for purposes of applying all the critical theory related stuff attached to whiteness, and we are essentially arguing against this. Let me know if I've left something out.

No I don't think so. The whole thing has come up because, in leftwing circles, it's become fashionable to categorize Jews as "white" in order to exempt Jews from fitting anywhere in their system of categorizing oppression and, more importantly, who is entitled to the considerations they demand be granted to oppressed minorities. Continuing the rest of this via DM. Hang on.