The Spectacle of the Invisible: Sephardic Jewish Identity in Multicultural Education

Abstract

This study assesses from a North American Sephardic (Span­ ish-Jewish) per spective, the ambiguous relationships among Jews, "people of color," and definitions of "whiteness" in order to re-evaluate multicultural education in the United States. My intent is not to polarize multiple cultural identities but to illumi­ nate and clarify differences in Jewish histories, identities, and cultures. The assumption that all Jews are and can pass as white, and therefore "have privilege," denies the complexities of racism, anti-Semitism, whiteness, assimilation, and multiculturalism. I n a world where hierarchical divisions nar­ rowly define our perceptions, our relations to power, and our multiple identities, Sephardic non-white Jews are often simul­ taneously defined and excluded by "whites," "people of color," and by those who are themselves stereotyped as the "mono­ lithic Je w" (i.e., the German or Eastern European Jew). By examining historical and social constructions of "whiteness," I hope to compel Jews to politicize the construction of our iden­ tities within the context of the diaspora and cultural workers to strengthen the vitality, complexity, and legitimacy of a multicultural curriculum. As a Sephardic female who is conscious of having been conditioned American I daily ambiguous This study assesses, from a North American Sephardic (Spanish­ Jewish) the complex relationships among Jews, "people of definitions of "whiteness" order to examine the intersec­ tions of multicultural education and the politics of the Explorations Studies