Multiculturalism in the United States has been tricky for Jews. Remaining outside of the dominant Christian culture yet often excluded from multicultural agendas, Jews walk a precarious line––a narrow bridge––between dominance and marginality. Many Jews, aware of the shaky identity of Jewishness, are deeply involved in all levels of the multiculturalism debate. But there still exists a need for careful, reflective analysis of the importance and dangers of multiculturalism to the Jewish community. What is multiculturalism? What can it be to the Jews? What can the Jewish community learn from and contribute to the current debate?
Through a collection of essays by scholars and activists whose writing ranges from the personal to the philosophical, The Narrow Bridge examines multiculturalism within and beyond the Jewish community. How does classism work within the Jewish community? How can synagogues reach out to gays and lesbians? How have tensions between Jews and Blacks developed historically and what can we learn from that history? How can we include Jewish studies in multicultural curricula? This timely collection of provocative articles makes fine use of these and other questions, offering us a look at where Jews have stood, where they now stand, and what they can hope for in the complex arena of multiculturalism.
Challenges of difference at Bridges / Clare Kinberg
Beyond the taboo : talking about class / Felice Yeskel
Klal Israel : lesbians and gays in the Jewish community / Bob Goldfarb
Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Quebecois : Jewish politics in multicultural Canada / Rebecca Posner
Toward a multicultural politics : a Jewish feminist perspective / Martha Ackelsberg
Stayed on freedom : Jew in the Civil Rights Movement and after / Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
Black, white, and red: Jewish and African Americans in the Communist Party / Gerald Horne
Pioneers in dialogue : Jews building bridges / Reena Bernards
Of Haiti and horseradish / Toba Spitzer
Jews and the multicultural university curriculum / Evelyn Torton Beck
Jews and African Americans as cotrainers in antiracism and antioppression education / Naomi Nim
Making room for Jews in multicultural public school education / Leora Saposnik, Ellen Osterhaus
The tree of knowledge and the tree of life / Jonathan Boyarin
Hearing the call : solidarity with Ethiopian Jews / Ephraim Isaac
Voices from the field : multiculturalism as experienced in Jewish social service agencies / Nora Gold
Facilitating multicultural progress : community economic development and the American Jewish community / Jeffrey Dekro
What does it mean to be an "American"? / Michael Walzer
