Ashkenazi Jewish Archives - The Race Card Project

I’m not White, I’m Ashkenazi Jewish

May 27, 2021 Alexandria, Ashkenazi Jewish, Edna Jan Jacobs, National Geographic, VA

Edna Jan Jacobs,
Alexandria, VA

There are only 14 million Jewish people in the whole world. Is it a religion? Is it ethnicity? I am ethnically 91% Ashkenazi Jewish but because my skin lacks the pigmentation of my ancestors, I am categorized as white and I dislike it.

Red hair? You must be Irish.

May 10, 2021 Ashkenazi Jewish, blue eyes, ct, define, Eastern Europe, green, irish, Poland, Red Hair, Romania, Russia, Saint Patrick's Day, Ukraine, Vered W

Vered W,
CT

I have bright red hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. Everybody thinks that I am Irish. I am Ashkenazi Jewish from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Romania, and other parts of Eastern Europe. I am not one drop Irish, despite how much I have been asked. Whenever people see me they say something about my red hair: “Where do you get it from?”, “Are you Irish?”, on Saint Patrick’s Day I have even been asked why I am not wearing green. Sometimes I just want to get into a conversation about genetics and how red hair works – “I get it from both sides, it is a recessive gene” – and other times I just say that my dad has red hair. For these people that are convinced I am Irish, I hope encountering someone with red hair who is not Irish will teach them that they have it wrong and one characteristic about someone does not define who they are.