Jews in the Shadow of Whiteness: Jews and the Racialization of Whiteness Around 1800

• In Event: The Jewish Palette: New Perspectives on Color Symbolism in Jewish History

Abstract

The past few decades have seen an increasing interest in the historical and cultural construction of whiteness. Scholars such as Toni Morrison and Richard Dyer have turned our attention to the fact, that far from functioning as a mere colour, whiteness is a powerful cultural signifier that is regularly attained, monitored, and performed. At times, the seeming invisibility of whiteness in a society traditionally characterized by white privilege makes it difficult to trace the contours of its meanings. In light of these difficulties, scholars have come to suggest that perhaps the best way of approaching whiteness is from its margins—from precisely those places in which whiteness is most actively assumed, almost consciously performed, and constantly contested.
This paper examines the construction of whiteness in European-Jewish thought during a crucial period in the history of racial concepts—that is the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The positivistic trends which began to dominate scientific thought towards the end of the eighteenth century, and the increasing professionalization of the natural sciences, resulted in a growing dissatisfaction with the ambiguous notions of difference which had dominated early modern anthropological thought. Difference was slowly beginning to be described in binary terms, and cultural, religious or national identities, previously described in complex and fluid terms, were now homogenized, and reduced to the rigid categories of black and white. Within just over a century, whiteness was to become one of the most fundamental markers of western identity. It was in this new world of Manichean identities that late eighteenth-century Jews were required to locate themselves. These Jews, whose whiteness had always been something of a grey area were now required to align themselves with the one or the other group. This paper reviews the ways in which Jewish thinkers of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth centuries rose to the challenge. Drawing on a variety of sources, including travel literature, scientific texts, rabbinical works, and children’s books, the paper offers a review of European-Jewish writers’ attempts to grapple with their own racial ambiguity as it is reflected in their treatment of whiteness.

Author

• Iris Idelson-Shein, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main