{"id":12947,"date":"2009-12-15T15:31:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T15:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/jewminicana\/"},"modified":"2015-11-01T09:50:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T14:50:27","slug":"jewminicana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/jewminicana\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewminicana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

What\u2019s a Jewminicana? Well, for one, a Jewminicana is a Dominicana who converts to Judaism. But reverse that because I\u2019m a Jewish<\/i> Latina\u2026in that order. But just because I put my religion first doesn\u2019t mean I think my culture should be second.<\/p>\n

I often find myself in uncomfortable conversations because of my hyphenated identity. Like the one where the white Jewish guy explained that it\u2019s the inbreeding that makes us really quite superb. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have so many Nobel Prize winners,\u201d he offered cheerfully. The whole time, he knew I was a convert but he didn\u2019t stop to think if his comments might offend me. No, he was one of those<\/i> people.<\/p>\n

To those<\/i> people, converting means that I thought Judaism was better than being Latina. To some others, it means that I don\u2019t care about being a Latina at all. To still others, it means that I want to take my Latino heritage and bury it deep in the ground. I get it, you think Judaism rocks and though I don\u2019t disagree, my identity is a little bit more complicated than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen are you going to learn to cook Jewish food?\u201d I was asked at a recent Shabbos meal. It wasn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve heard it. I\u2019ve been told, never asked, to learn several Eastern European recipes since I converted. I\u2019ve been told that part of becoming a nice Jewish girl is learning to cook Jewish food. But when did gefilte fish win the battle against rice and beans for top choice of Jewish foods? I think my Sephardic (spiritual) ancestors would disagree with what some people think constitutes Jewish food. I converted for the religion, not the recipes.<\/p>\n

Too many people think that Eastern European culture IS Jewish culture. It troubles me that Ashkenazi Judaism still gets top billing in Jewish circles. That people still think most Jews don\u2019t look like me. That people think I\u2019m not really Jewish because I REFUSE to learn how to make potato kugel (yuck!). I won\u2019t force my plantains on someone and call them racist if they don\u2019t bite, if they don\u2019t insinuate that I\u2019m slightly anti-Semitic for finding potato kugel more than bland.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s true that I will choose plantains over herring any day. I\u2019m an ethnic Latina but not an \u201cethnic\u201d (read: Ashkenazi) Jew. I know that when my (for now) imaginary children grow up, they will know that Judaism is more about how you pray than the style of food you eat (as long as it\u2019s kosher). I won\u2019t tell them that just because Mordechai\u2019s Ima<\/i> believes in matzah brei<\/i> on Pesach and Mami<\/i> believes in yucca that either one of us is a better Jew because of it. I\u2019ll look my baby straight in the eye and say, \u201cKid, Jews come in all flavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s true, Jews DO come in all shapes and sizes and colors. But when you walk in a Jewish day school there doesn\u2019t seem to be too many people that look like me. Ladino and Spanish aren\u2019t always choices on the curriculum even when the kids are living in middle of Latino Los Angeles. I\u2019m worried that my kids will think they\u2019re a minority if I don\u2019t drag them once a week to Israel and the Dominican Republic where they will surely meet plenty of Latino Jews. I fear they\u2019ll be asked to represent every Jew of color everywhere on a day to day basis.<\/p>\n

Much like myself, my children will probably be fighting the same stereotypes. We won\u2019t want people to forget that Judaism is not<\/i> a race. It\u2019s a nation, it\u2019s a people, it\u2019s a culture (and that\u2019s a loose interpretation of the truth). It\u2019s big. Judaism doesn\u2019t fit into these tiny little boxes that people use to define themselves.<\/p>\n

Someday soon, I want people to think of me when they think \u201cJew.\u201d Look, there\u2019s a nice Jewish girl and she\u2019s got an afro! Isn\u2019t that nice? She loves merengue. She loves a good sukkah. She hates sour cream on latkes (or anything). And of course, she\u2019s a saucy girl who peppers her English with Spanish, Hebrew and sometimes, even Yiddish.<\/p>\n

And then perhaps, every Jew of color I meet won\u2019t tell me about the thousands upon thousands of times that they\u2019ve been asked if they were REALLY Jewish. Perhaps, every convert of color won\u2019t confess to being worried about not being accepted in the Jewish community because of the color of their skin. Perhaps, we\u2019ll really start showing everyone else that Jews are different, we\u2019ve moved past racist assumptions into a multicultural reality.<\/p>\n

So to recap, I\u2019m Jewish, I\u2019m Latina and I\u2019m staying that way.<\/p>\n

\n

Aliza Hausman<\/b> is a Latina Orthodox Jewish convert, freelance writer, blogger and speaker. Currently working on a memoir, she lives in New York with her husband.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s a Jewminicana? Well, for one, a Jewminicana is a Dominicana who converts to Judaism. But reverse that because I\u2019m a Jewish Latina\u2026in that order. But just because I put my religion first doesn\u2019t mean I think my culture should be second. I often find myself in uncomfortable conversations because of my hyphenated identity. Like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":46667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nJewminicana - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm Jewminicana - a Dominicana who converted to Judaism. 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