Diversity has been a hot topic in the U.S. for a while now — alleged abuses by police chiefs not withstanding. In business, education, the media, the arts — diversity is “in.”
American schools at all levels have been dedicated to exposing students to other ways of seeing the world for decades now. And businesses have found it advantageous to instruct employees in cultural sensitivity.
I admire our lofty American goals of multiculturalism, despite our notorious ignorance about the rest of the world. I love whatever it is in us that lets us see that our differences can give us strength and add rich complexity to our nation.
American Jews, too, seem to be tuning in to the amazing diversity within the Jewish world. Israel is a striking example of Jews gathered from every corner of the globe, and the Israeli government is finally starting to showcase this multiculturalism.
This Passover, as we think about Jewish history, survival and liberation, is the perfect time to pause and celebrate our Jewish diversity. One way I am planning to highlight this Jewish “rainbow coalition” is by adding to my seder readings from a book that arrived on my desk last week — “Under One Canopy: Readings in Jewish Diversity.”
This collection of essays, poems and autobiographical stories is edited by Karen Primack and published by Kulanu (“All of Us”) a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting lost and dispersed Jewish communities worldwide.
Reading something like a college literary magazine, “Under One Canopy” is divided into sections according to the origins of its authors: Sephardim/Anousim, Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, Jews of Africa, Jews of Asia, Jews by Choice, Modern Israel and, finally, “All of Us.”
In her introduction, Primack writes, “Contrary to the belief of some, the Jews are a multiracial, multi-ethnic group. But it should not be surprising that Judaism’s 4,000-year-old creed spans geography as well as time, or that its message appeals to members of all races, on all continents.”
In addition to exploring Jewish diversity, the stories in this collection tell about the Jews’ tremendous struggle to survive, now and throughout the ages.
After all, a major cause of the diversity displayed here is the repeated fragmenting of the Jewish people — the constant need to move and adapt just ahead of the latest band of persecutors.
Many of the stories refer to the salvaging of life and identity in the aftermath of brutal suppression. Depicted here are the grandfather who inexplicably (to his family) asks to be circumcised on his deathbed; the convert to Judaism who discovers that his father’s 16th century ancestor was buried in the “Field of the Jews”; or the Iraqi Jewish woman who transcended her fear of the intifada and moved from the U.S. to Israel in search of a community of Mizrachim, Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa.
Some of these stories give me the same sad and angry feeling I got when a Jewish Milwaukee acquaintance once told me that he is the fifth generation of his family to live on a different continent; in every generation, his family has had to flee to a freer land.
Something in me screams, “Why do Jewish people still have to deal with persecution and escape?”
As Primack writes, a happy reason to celebrate our diversity is that we can share our many traditions from around the world, and a sad reason is that we may need each other.
“History teaches us that a Jew never knows when he will need help, or where that help might come from.
“Another benefit we derive from being aware of our diverse cousins is that we are reminded of how valuable our religious heritage is. After all, why else would it have such global appeal — without forced conversions or even proselytizing?”
As I prepare our seder this year, I will incorporate some of the voices from this book in our evening. I want us all to think of the adopted Korean Jewish boy, the Beta Israel family that walked out of Ethiopia to get to Israel, the Dutch man who was a child in the Holocaust.
I hope their experiences will inspire us to treasure our freedom to be Jews in the U.S., to reach out to our brothers and sisters still suffering persecution and to celebrate our diversity this Passover.
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