(RNS) — After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, some Black Jews noticed behavior from fellow Jews that made them feel like strangers in their own community. Whether receiving suspicious glances in a synagogue, having their “Shalom” greeting answered by a “thanks” or being asked what they considered intrusive questions on their views of the Israel-Hamas war, their fealty to the community seemed tested.
And outside Jewish spaces, exposure to antisemitism and remarks that conflated their Jewishness with support for Israeli government policies also felt alienating.
“Most people are not exposed to what it means to be Jewish and experience anti-Blackness and antisemitism,” said Ilana Kaufman, CEO of the Jews of Color Initiative, a nonprofit concerned with creating multiracial, anti-racist Jewish communities.
Though Jews of color have long struggled to have their concerns heard more broadly, the past two years have been even more difficult, she added.
Sensing a shift around these issues after Oct. 7, the Black Jewish Liberation Collective, a project of the left-leaning group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, began a survey. The report released this fall suggests that many Black Jews have felt increasingly marginalized in their Jewish communities yet tokenized outside of them.
Meanwhile, as much of the Jewish world focuses fundraising on Israel and Jewish safety amid rising antisemitic incidents, some funding for racial equity initiatives has dried up. Advocates worry these trends could unravel the past decade’s achievements in uplifting voices and experiences of Jews of color.
The survey, titled “Black Jews after 10/7,” circulated mostly in the United States from Oct. 1, 2024, to Jan. 31, 2025. Of 104 participants, it found that 62% reported feeling marginalized in their Jewish community after Oct. 7, and more than half (53%) felt marginalized in non-Jewish communities.
Moreover, 11% said they lost friends in Jewish spaces and 13% lost friends in non-Jewish spaces after Oct. 7.
BJLC Executive Director Autumn Leonard said many participants indicated they believed their identity was being both flattened and scrutinized. The pressure to live up to the “real Jew” standard felt daunting, she explained.
“A big thing that started happening is a feeling of just being pushed to the margins, of being told things like ‘You can be Black, or you can be Jewish, but you can’t be both,’” said Leonard, who is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Michael W. Twitty with his book “Koshersoul.” (Photo courtesy of Twitty)
Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian and the author of “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew,” which won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award. But since Oct. 7, 2023, he said he hasn’t found much space to talk about his experiences with antisemitism as a Black Jewish man.
Twitty has grown a beard and worn a yarmulke, a Jewish skullcap, since his conversion to Judaism decades ago. Now, he sometimes considers removing them in fear of antisemitic attacks, he told RNS.
“Those are the signifiers that I made a commitment to my people,” said Twitty, who is based in Fredericksburg, Virginia. “ … They’re the way I’m publicly Jewish to people.”
A longtime Hebrew school educator, Twitty also said he feels less welcome in synagogues, as few assume he is Jewish and may question his presence.
Issues regarding Israel have also put him in a tough spot. Since Oct. 7, mainstream Jewish institutions have often elevated Black Jews’ voices when they embrace pro-Israel views, he said. On the other hand, though he disapproves of the far-right Israeli government, Twitty said that outside of the Jewish community, his attachment to Israel has often been interpreted as support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
It became impossible for him to hold a nuanced position in this climate, he said. “I couldn’t go to anybody’s rally,” he said. “ … I don’t want to hear people say ‘Turn Gaza into a parking lot’ and I don’t want people shoving swastikas in my face talking about ‘Hitler should have finished the job.’”
About 1% of U.S. Jews identify as Black, according to 2020 Pew Research Center data, while 8% identify as Hispanic, Black or multiple race. However, the Jews of Color Initiative estimates Jews of color represent about 12% to 15% of American Jews, citing various population and local community studies, identifying ways population studies have historically undercounted Jews of color. And it found that younger American Jewish households are becoming increasingly multiracial.
FILE – An installation featuring a Shabbat table, with empty chairs representing hostages taken by Hamas, at the Lincoln Memorial, Oct. 27, 2023, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Participants’ views on Israel and Palestinian rights influenced whether they felt marginalized in Jewish spaces, the survey found, with progressive Black Jews feeling more alienated than those who are centrist. Survey takers tended to identify as left-wing in regard to the war — somewhat predictable, the organization pointed out, as a left-leaning group conducted the survey. A third said they felt more marginalized in Jewish communities that gave unquestioning support to Israeli government actions in Gaza.
But many respondents said their dual Black and Jewish identity was celebrated in progressive non-Jewish spaces when they unequivocally disapproved of Israel, Leonard said, but not necessarily otherwise.
About 19% reported feeling an increase in marginalization in non-Jewish spaces due to their own “pro-Israel beliefs or connections.” And about 15% said they felt marginalized in non-Jewish spaces “due to conflation of Jews with the Israeli government.”
One anonymous participant wrote that after Oct. 7, “Jewish ritual spaces felt more exclusionary, like they were only for ‘real Jews’ to protect the dwindling sanctity of Judaism.” Another said being Black and Jewish made them a “convenient diversity point” in non-Jewish spaces.
Post-Oct. 7, organizations for Jews of color saw a steep drop in funding, Leonard said, as mainstream Jewish institutions have realigned their priorities in the last couple years to increasingly fund Israel and Jewish safety.
Ilana Kaufman. (Courtesy photo)
The funding trend, which started around 2020 and worsened post-Oct. 7, was confirmed by a brief survey sent by the Jews of Color Initiative to grantees, Kaufman said. The Trump administration’s denunciation of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives over the last year has also deterred funders from investing in racial equity initiatives and led to some DEI professionals’ positions being cut. Jewish organizations that are critical of Israel have also had a harder time fundraising in the last couple years, she said.
The current situation contrasts with the level of commitment displayed a decade ago, spurred by the police killings of Black men and boys such as Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Trayvon Martin.
“I think the social winds have changed,” Kaufman said. “And I think that the organized Jewish community has not fully reckoned with itself being multiracial, multiethnic.”
Though Jewish safety was at the core of the community’s concern for shifting the funding tide, the focus on heavy policing around Jewish institutions also tends to exclude Black Jewish voices from discussions, Leonard said.
A sense of exclusion some Black Jews have felt within the queer community also captures complex dynamics among progressives, said Twitty, who is gay. Stuck between the progressive queer community, which tended to side with Palestinians, and the Jewish queer community, which often promoted LGBTQ rights in Israel, sometimes misleadingly, Twitty said he struggled to belong.
Nate Looney, the Jewish Federations’ director of community safety and belonging, said many queer communities systematically looped American Jews in with the actions of the Israeli government after the war began. After Oct. 7, Looney, who is Black and trans, said he considered whether he would continue to attend Pride parades. At the 2024 San Francisco Pride Parade, his Jewish Federations contingent had a liquor bottle thrown at them.
FILE – Nate Looney poses in front of a painting at the BAR Center at the Beach Thursday, June 16, 2022, in the Venice section of Los Angeles. Looney is a Black man who grew up in Los Angeles, a descendant of enslaved people from generations ago. He’s also an observant, kippah-wearing Jew. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
But while North American Jewish communities have focused much of their financial efforts on Israel and safety, discussions on racial equity are still happening, he said, adding that Jewish Federations has doubled down on its efforts to create leadership pipelines for Jews of color.
“It doesn’t detract from the fact that we have to continue to foster belonging for all Jews — and including marginalized Jews in particular,” he said. “We haven’t backed down on the work that we’re doing to support marginalized Jews.”
Twitty said convening with other Jews of color has offered a little respite from the challenges of the past couple years. Last year, he attended a Sukkot service organized by Harriette Wimms, a queer Black Jewish activist who founded the Jews of Color Mishpacha Project.
“We actually did have a chance to break down our feelings and what was going on with us,” he said, adding that others in the Jewish community should also tune into such conversations. “They need to hear how we feel and what we’re going through.”
