Big Ideas

1. The system of white supremacy:

• White supremacy is a powerful yet often obscured system of exploitation and oppression of people of color by white people for the purpose of maintaining a system of wealth, power and privilege. White supremacy operates on ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels 1

2. The social construction of whiteness:

• Whiteness is a constantly shifting boundary separating those who are entitled to certain privileges from those whose exploitation and vulnerability to violence is justified by their not being white 2
• The construct of whiteness has had an important and unique influence on Jewish communities and their access to power and resources
• Jewish assimilation is one response to an evolving definition of whiteness

3. The diversity of American Jewry:

• American Jewry is a multiracial and multiethnic group
• White supremacy creates divisions within American Jewry, leading to experiences of racism, erasure and invisibility for Jews of Color, Sephardim and Mizrahim

4. Antisemitism:

• Antisemitism functions to uphold white supremacy and protect the almost exclusively white Christian ruling class by diverting blame for hardship onto Jews. 3
• Antisemitism is real and also is unique: it is both similar to and different from other forms of oppression, and continues to persist
• Jewish assimilation into white Christian culture has been one reaction to antisemitism

5. Solidarity:

• Authentic solidarity requires acting alongside oppressed people resisting their own oppression