Critical Pedagogical Jewish Studies: Whiteness, Racism, and Jewish Ethno/National Fissures

Abstract:Critical pedagogy makes for an enriched approach to Jewish Studies because of shared principles and values also found in Jewish traditions and teachings. The first step of critical pedagogy is to pose the world as a problem. This article agrees with scholarship suggesting that whiteness and racism are fundamental problems of our time. After synthesizing Jewish Studies with a critical pedagogical approach that focuses on the problems of whiteness and racism, the next important step in critical pedagogy is reflection—in this instance, reflection on the relationship between Judaism, whiteness, and racism. This article uses critical whiteness studies as a theoretical framework for reflecting on these relationships. There are two overarching schools of thought in critical whiteness studies—one being that whiteness can be rearticulated to "antiracist white," and the other arguing that whiteness must be abolished. The following article builds upon the latter, making a proposal for one way that Judaism might contribute to liberation movements led by Black, Indigenous and People of Color toward the abolition of whiteness and racism. Finally, the article explores cultural action, the third step of critical pedagogy, at the ideological and material levels. Bringing critical whiteness studies to Jewish Studies reveals one of the many possible ways that Judaism can help to dismantle whiteness and racism.