"Every once in a while a book comes along and smacks you in the face with its wisdom, intelligence, and compassionate politics. The Colors of Jews is such a book. . . an amazing tool for teachers and scholars in feminist, anti-racist, postcolonial and American studies, and for social justice workers everywhere.A book . . . by a comrade and sister who understands and respects difference, dissent, and solidarity at a deep level."
--Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Syracuse University
This is a big and important book, wonderfully free of the hyperbole, calcified rhetoric and self- aggrandisement that mars so much politicalwriting, and hence a real pleasure to read. In her calm, reasonable, assured voice, with formidable intellectual clarity, a wealth of reading, a fine ear for balancing argument, statistic and anecdote, Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz throws open to questioning every assumption about the meaning of race, identity and justice BB about the meaning of history as these pertain to Jews and Jewishness and the immensely complicated issue of Jewish relatedness. The tidy conventions of tribalism and nationalism, with their carefully patrolled borders, are overturned, revealed as both defensive and aggressive fantasies beneath which a marvelously detailed, rich, dynamic complexity is roiling. Kaye/Kantrowitz is a courageous activist and thinker and her invigorating, illuminating book does what all great political writing should do BB it refreshes your mind and spirit by effectively discombobulating habitual complacencies, and re-acquaints you with the
world.
--Tony Kushner
The activist intellectual Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz has written a mind-stretching, moving and pragmatic book, based on extensive research, including many interviews, and on her experiences as an organizer with and among diverse communities. , .she draws on specific experiences from a spectrum of lively accounts by workers for change who have, like herself, been changed through activism.
-- Adrienne Rich
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz has long been an astute interpreter of Jewish culture and politics. Her new study The Colors of Jews is fascinating and provocative, filled with original insights. It will both inspire and challenge its readers to think more deeply and act more forcefully.
-- Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
Feminist critic Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz has already produced a substantial body of progressive scholarship under the rubric of Jewish Studies. The Colors of Jews captures the diversity, complexity, and richness of Jewish experience, around the globe (including Africa) and in the U.S. (including Jews of color). In the aftermath of 9/11 and the volatile politics of the Middle East, this carefully researched and compelling study is timely and sure to provoke debate. . . an important contribution to our understanding of the Jewish diaspora and contemporary race relations writ large.
-- Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Spelman College
I approached this many-layered, richly textured book as part of my quest to learn what enabled Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, an American Jew, to co-organize with me, a Palestinian Arab, a public demonstration on the steps of the New York Public Library one bitterly cold November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. In this timely book, Kaye/Kantrowitz crosses cultures and centuries and draws on people's stories to trace the diverse multi-racial strands that make up the diversity of Jewishness.". . .
-- Nadia Hijab, Author and Human Rights Advocate
Melanie Kaye/
Kantrowitz is among our most creative, provocative and courageous thinkers and writers. She stands at that dangerous intersection where race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and class cross and clash, offering us tools to proceed with wisdom. In The Colors of Jews, she once again upsets our applecart of easy assumptions and expectations, challenging us to go beyond the usual lines that limit and divide us. Her work helps us--Jews and non-Jews alike– be better at understanding just who and what we are; it leaves us, whatever our self-perceived and real inadequacies, grateful to be human.
-- Si Kahn, , Grassroots Leadership
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