Draft:Jewish critical race theory

• Comment: Random Substack blogs are not reliable sources. C F A 💬 01:45, 21 August 2024 (UTC)

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Jewish critical race theory, shortened to HebCrit, is an emerging framework analyzing the intersections of race, power, and Jewish identity. The theory combines critical race theory, education, and Jewish studies. Through recognizing Jews as a racialized group, the framework seeks to provide a lens for studying them more critically.

There are five major assertions of HebCrit:

1. Jews continue to be discriminated against and persecuted
2. Jews are a racialized group
3. Jews, and their perception as White people, creates invisibility and tension
4. Jews’ political and economic power is hyperbolic
5. Jewish personal stories have value

Daniel Ian Rubin

Rubin coined the term HebCrit and is the primary architect of the framework. He proposed the theory to address the lack of attention on Jews within multicultural and ethnic studies. He argues that because Jews face rising antisemitism, critical race theory should be extended to them in the struggle for Jewish liberation. Rubin argues that Jews should be understood and studied as a race. He stresses the lack of examination into Jewish positionality within education in the United States and globally.

Vernon Zatre

Zatre argues that Jews should be considered a negatively racialized and distinct race. He suggests that Jewish people, like other people of color, take on the racial-ethnic structure, a component of culture, intrinsic and extrinsic identity, and experiences with racism. Zatre argues racial vacillation proves that, because race changes over time, Jewish people can be considered a socially constructed race.

Cynthia Levine-Rasky

Levine-Rasky argues that Jews have been a race historically predating modern racial classifications. According to this author, Jews have always been distinct from Europeans and have faced discrimination and racialization by non-Jewish and especially white Europeans.