Dreamcoat Widens the Tent
An initiative to bring awareness to Jews of diverse backgrounds takes root in Seattle.
But First
Short one today…but check out my latest episode of While You Were Sleeping in Hebrew School, on the crazy history of Lag B’Omer!
“For all the Jewish groups there are, there aren’t really any actively trying to seek out individuals with a more diverse background.”
In 2020, Seattle residents Will Wright and Adam Engel launched the Dreamcoat Initiative in an effort to make Jewish spaces more inclusive of Jews with diverse backgrounds. Dreamcoat has been climbing out of pandemic-induced isolation; around Purim, they held a Nowruz (Persian New Year) event, and they partnered with Jconnect for Mimouna, a traditional Moroccan holiday that concludes Passover, with the intention of raising awareness of Jews from outside the mainstream narrative. “There are people who don’t know there are Jews in Iraq/Iran,” board member Sari Weinstein told me. “We’re trying to go out of the norm of the standard holidays. We do celebrate them, but we want to bring a twist.”
Below is a conversation with Will Wright on the complications of Jewish identity and why terms like “Jews of color” aren’t even quite right.
What’s the goal of the Dreamcoat Initiative?
The biggest thing at this point is just trying to find various ways of highlighting diversity and Jewish experiences, diversity, and Jewish background. A lot of times, if you tell someone you’re Jewish, these usually incorrect ideas come up in their mind. Even terms like Ashkenormativity, which I actually hate, erases a lot of Jews of color whose Jewish background is Ashkenazi.
Great point. Are you willing to talk about some of the things that happened that led you to be like, “I need to start a nonprofit to deal with this”?
It wasn’t so much needing to start one as much as looking for opportunities in our space. One of the biggest catalysts for even starting this project, was a combination of multiple things. First there was a Limmud discussion with Ilana Kaufman from the Jews of Color Initiative where we talked about how 12 to 15 percent, roughly, of our population in the US would most likely be considered an of-color group. Granted, that number does include Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews. Then there was a Moishe House Without Walls retreat, where we were trying to have discussions about Jewish history that extend beyond just the Holocaust and the shtetl. Essentially, no one was biting. The only people who actually wound up going to that little discussion was myself; Adam, the co-founder; an Ethiopian Jew, and an Asian Jew. And then finally it was the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s advanced leadership development program and recognizing that for all the Jewish groups there are, there aren’t really any that are actively trying to seek out individuals with, say, a more diverse background.
And so how do we understand who Jews of color are? I hate to talk about intersectionality, but Jews have so many factors in their identities, it makes it hard to determine who is a person of color.
That’s one of the reasons why even myself, I’ve been trying to move away from that Jews-of-color talking point. Because there are Jews who, just looking at them, you would just assume that they would not consider themselves to be white. For instance, I met Jews who are from Azerbaijan. Very tan. Could easily be Latino. They don’t consider themselves to be quote-unquote of color. Part of it is the connotations that go with it. I hate saying this as well, but it’s looking through some of the traditional lights that we do in the United States, where you look at power structures, and who feels within and who feels left out. A lot of it is just moving to maybe less mainstream practices and representation.
One area that I study is how Jews are talked about in mostly non-Jewish spaces, mostly in conversations around anti-racism and activism. Jews are often grouped as white, and I’ve been told that if a Jew of color wants to the come to the table, they’re welcome, but white Jews are not. How does that sound to you? How do you interpret that?
I’m personally not a fan of like sayings like that. I think at the end of the day, anyone should be welcome to the table. Non-person-of-color-identifying Jews have some of the same issues that Jews of color and non-Jews of color suffer from. It does get weird, because if you ask any anti-Semite or racist, a lot of them won’t consider Jews to be white until it’s convenient. But at the same time, there are some privileges that go with being white adjacent. It’s just kind of understanding, yes, by many definitions, we wouldn’t consider Jews to be white, but at the same time, until someone knows that someone is Jewish, there might be some privileges that go with it.
That’s a good way to put it. How do you hope that Jewish spaces will become more accommodating or more thoughtful about people who are outside whatever their norm is? How do you hope synagogues and Jewish organizations will become more inclusive?
My hope, at the end of the day, is that we don’t need organizations for, let’s say, out-group Jews. Someone’s going to be able to enter any Jewish space and feel welcomed and not have their presence there questioned or have their background misrepresented. For instance, I always joke with people the amount of times I’ve entered synagogues in the US, and I’ve either heard, “Oh, it’s great to have an Ethiopian Jew here.” I’m not Ethiopian. Or, “Hey, I remember when you were a little kid.” Nope. Never been here before.
I’ve been lucky in Seattle. There’s been quite a few synagogues I’m able to walk into and no one questions if I’m supposed to be there or if I’m converting or try to make me feel otherwise out of place. But I think at the end of the day, we all want representation, but we also want to just feel like we’re welcomed and belong.
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Community Announcements
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Shoutouts
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