Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Are Jews white?
Position1 of 3›: No, Jews are not white

This position holds that Jews are not white. It argues that 'whiteness' carries social and historical dimensions Jews stand apart from, that labelling all Jews white erases Jews of colour and can enable antisemitism, and that Jewish identity traces to the Levant, not European whiteness.

Supporting arguments · 9

White identity is predicated on historical anti-Semitic white privilege
When "white" is used as a political term, it assumes exploitative relationships in which white people are the beneficiaries. Within these structures, Jews have historically been excluded and subordinated. To call Jews white is to paint over the many centuries of anti-Semitic discrimination faced by Jews.
Jews are legally distinct from white people
In America, Jews are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, brought in to put an end to white violence against minorities. This categorises them alongside blacks, hispanics and Native Americans, rather than "white people" of European origin.
Judaism originated in the Southern Levant
From an ethnocultural perspective, Judaism and its traditions originated with the Israelites. The ancestors of many Jews today were therefore olive-skinned from the Middle East. Groups that even today would not be classified as "white".
It is offensive to Jews of colour to describe all Jews as white
Jews, like many groups bound by their religious convictions, count millions of people of colour amongst their number. For centuries, large parts of Goa, Ethiopia, Egypt and the Middle East have had thriving non-white Jewish populations. Any argument that claims all Jews are white is therefore reductive, offensive and patently untrue.
White non-Jews do not see Jews as white
White people do not consider Jews to be "one of them". From anti-Semitic depictions of the "beady eyed" Jew to the European pogroms that plagued much of the twentieth century, Jews have been violently othered throughout white history.
Calling Jews "white" legitimizes anti-Semitism
As Jay Rosenbaum writes in The Jerusalem Post, "The term white as it is used today often has more to do with socioeconomic status than skin tone. To question whether Jews are “white”... is to question whether the term “white” describes any Jew, especially when it is used as a political tool to deny us the status of a persecuted people."
White nationalism is anti-Semitic
Groups that define themselves by their whiteness see Jews as a distinct and inferior race. Much evidence suggests that anti-Semitism originates in white supremacy.
White identity is Christian Identity
Historically, "white" as a category has been used as a shorthand for Christian Identity. That is an anti-Semitic perspective of race that claims only those of Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Nordic, and Aryan origin are white.
Race is a misleading construction
Whiteness does not exist outside of the public imagination. Race is a cultural context used to help explain subjective differences between populations. Increasingly, it is seen as an outdated method for understanding superficial differences.