Stepping Into Zion
Hatzaad Harishon, Black Jews, and the Remaking of Jewish Identity
University of Alabama Press
Considers the question “Who is a Jew?”— a critical rhetorical issue with far-reaching consequences for Jews and non-Jews alike
Hatzaad Harishon ("The First Step") was a New York-based, multiracial Jewish organization that worked to increase recognition and legitimacy for Black Jews in the sixties and seventies. In Stepping into Zion, Janice W. Fernheimer examines the history and archives of Hatzaad Harishon to illuminate the shifting definitions and borders of Jewish identity, which have critical relevance to Jews of all traditions as well as to non-Jews.
Fernheimer focuses on a period when Jewish identity was in flux and deeply influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In 1964, white and Black Jews formed Hatzaad Harishon to foster interaction and unity between Black and white Jewish communities. They raised the question of who or what constitutes Jewishness or Jewish identity, and in searching for an answer succeeded—both historically and rhetorically—in gaining increased recognition for Black Jews. Fernheimer traces how, despite deep disagreement over definitions, members of Hatzaad Harishon were able to create common ground in a process she terms "interruptive invention": an incremental model for rhetorical success that allows different groups to begin and continue important but difficult discussions when they share little common ground or make unequal claims to institutional and discursive power, or when the nature of common ground is precisely what is at stake. Consequently, they provide a practical way out of the seemingly incommensurable stalemate incompatible worldviews present.
Through insightful interpretations of Hatzaad Harishon's archival materials, Fernheimer chronicles the group's successes and failures within the larger rhetorical history of conflicts that emerge when cultural identities shift or expand.
Hatzaad Harishon ("The First Step") was a New York-based, multiracial Jewish organization that worked to increase recognition and legitimacy for Black Jews in the sixties and seventies. In Stepping into Zion, Janice W. Fernheimer examines the history and archives of Hatzaad Harishon to illuminate the shifting definitions and borders of Jewish identity, which have critical relevance to Jews of all traditions as well as to non-Jews.
Fernheimer focuses on a period when Jewish identity was in flux and deeply influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In 1964, white and Black Jews formed Hatzaad Harishon to foster interaction and unity between Black and white Jewish communities. They raised the question of who or what constitutes Jewishness or Jewish identity, and in searching for an answer succeeded—both historically and rhetorically—in gaining increased recognition for Black Jews. Fernheimer traces how, despite deep disagreement over definitions, members of Hatzaad Harishon were able to create common ground in a process she terms "interruptive invention": an incremental model for rhetorical success that allows different groups to begin and continue important but difficult discussions when they share little common ground or make unequal claims to institutional and discursive power, or when the nature of common ground is precisely what is at stake. Consequently, they provide a practical way out of the seemingly incommensurable stalemate incompatible worldviews present.
Through insightful interpretations of Hatzaad Harishon's archival materials, Fernheimer chronicles the group's successes and failures within the larger rhetorical history of conflicts that emerge when cultural identities shift or expand.
Stepping into Zion is smart and sharp in all kinds of small ways; the analyses are timely and well considered, convincing and interesting and enlightening; and the archival research gives the book authority as well as originality. In short, I can’t wait to see this book.’
—Jack Selzer, author of Kenneth Burke in the 1930s and Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village: Conversing with the Moderns, 1915-1931
Fernheimer puts into play the histories of Israel, African Americans, Jewish culture, doing so with remarkable insight and precision. Scholars who study Israel, African Americans, Judaism, and identity will want this book on their shelves. Fernheimer adroitly moves between and among the issues, guiding the reader to novel and newsworthy insights.’
—David A. Frank, author of Frames of Evil: The Holocaust in American Film and Shared Land/Conflicting Identity: Trajectories of Israeli and Palestinian Symbol Use
Janice W. Fernheimer is an associate professor of writing, rhetoric, and digital studies and the director of Jewish Studies at the University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on questions of identity, invention, and cross-audience communication. Her scholarship has appeared in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, College English, Argumentation and Advocacy, Computers and Composition Online, Currents in Electronic Literacy, the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, and Technical Communication. Fernheimer is also a founding member and leader of Klal Rhetorica, an international scholarly organization that explores issues of Jewish discourse, identity, and culture.
Related Titles
