This summer, on a sticky night in Harlem, I devoured a plate of Ethiopian Doro Wat đĽâĄď¸đđż This dish was outstandingâand served in a historic setting. Years ago, the restaurant was a hub known as Jimmyâs Chicken Shack, where some of Harlemâs best thinkers and creativesâthink Redd Foxx, Charlie Parker, Malcolm X, Billie Holidayâwould refuel.
Donât you know Tsion Cafe, which I canât rave about enough, is owned by a black Jew?!
Chef Beejhy describes herself as âa proud Ethiopian, a proud Jew, and a proud black woman.â And why should she be anything else?
Of course you know why. Because when we think of Jewish people today, we seldom think in color. Even though some 12% of Jews in America are just like Chef Beejhy, people who celebrate multiple cultures and donât have a hard time squaring all that with their Jewish faith and culture.
Even though famously, ZipporahâMosesâ wifeâwas an African woman đ¸đ˝đđžđđžđđž
According to Hebrew text, Zipporah was a Cushite, referring to an ancient part of present day Ethiopia. But just as fascinating to me, is considering who would have been considered a âreal Jewâ in a tradition and faith that pre-dates white supremacy by a few thousand years and some change.
Think about it. Whiteness is only 500 years old. Judaism is some 5,000 years old.
This means across history people who knew themselves to be Jewish could easily have taken their very different skin shades for granted, especially in the Middle East, where colors and cultures have been mixing for eons.
So why todayâs conflation and presumption of whiteness as a precursor to ârealâ Jewishness?
Thatâs a really long and important conversation, which cannot be unraveled from the project of white supremacy itself. Itâs the story, in part, of how Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish folks went from being the bottom of Europeâs most oppressed other group, to becoming assimilated as white in Americaâwith black and brown folks below them. And just to keep things spicy, in the non-logic of racism, white supremacists still consider Jews enemies of whiteness, targeting Jewish people in violent anti-semetic crimes (see Pittsburgh) and ideas (see Tucker Carlson on replacement theory) that persist today. And you canât really talk about the non-whiteness of Jews without acknowledging not just the murders of the Holocaust, but centuries of state-sanctioned pogroms and Church-backed inquisitions.
And yet. Anyone white passing in a white supremacist societyâwhether Jewish or Dominicanâenjoys a subset of white privilege without asking for it.
See how this gets hairy?
Look. Hereâs all Iâm saying during this rich season of the Jewish high holidays: make room for more Zipporahs. Thatâs not just tongue in cheek from a black Tswana woman married to a Ashkenazi Jewish dude, itâs also an invitation to expand your expectation of whoâs Jewish.
If youâre lucky, the next Jew you meet has skin as deep as mine and cooks as deliciously as Chef Beejhy!
Happy holidays if youâre celebrating.
Big L,
p.s. If youâre in NYC, order Chef Beejhyâs Doro Wat now! Your stomach will thank me later đđ¤¤
