Half Chinese, Half White, Fully Jewish

NEIL ORLOWSKY watches his children’s struggle to belong as Jews in a world which assumes all Jews look European

My parents were Jewish immigrants to Canada. They ingrained in me the tenets of equality, community, and faith common in many multicultural countries.

I went to public school, had friends from different cultures, and, while growing up conscious of difference, was taught to celebrate the inclusivity that made Canada a cultural mosaic.

But at times this celebration was at odds with my Jewish identity. I repeatedly heard from those within the Jewish community that I should stick with my own.

Then, 20 years ago, I met Christine, the child of immigrants who had moved from China to Canada in the 1960s. She is my rock and my drive, my wife and mother of my children.

Following years of dating, one Christmas, as a gag gift, I bought her Vikki Weiss’ book What to do when you’re dating a Jew, which sparked deeper conversations about marriage, faith, and children.

She converted to Judaism, and we are raising our two children as Jews. We tell them they are half Chinese, half white but fully Jewish.

Raising children in an inter-cultural marriage is difficult, and so too is dismantling social constructs within the Jewish community which define an Ashkenazi appearance as the norm.

In many communities, Jewish and white are synonymous. While education moves to de-colonise curriculum and amplifies students' representation, images and texts still depict racialised bodies as different.

Often in Hebrew school and religious picture books, Abraham looks white; the Maccabees look white; David, Mordecai and King Solomon look white. The Jews we learned about were not black, brown, or Asian, they were constructed to fit a Eurocentric lens that creates a perceived white “us” and racialised or schvartz “other”. This is unconsciously ingrained through exposure.