For Jared Jackson, attending synagogue with his family had its awkward moments.
People would say, “Well, you don’t look Jewish,” recalled 27-year-old Jackson, whose mother is Jewish and father is African American. Some would ask, “Why is your father not Jewish?” To Jackson, the implication was that “my mother had made a mistake” by marrying his father.
That childhood experience, coupled with his increased involvement in the Jewish community during college, prompted Jackson last year to create Jews in All Hues, a day of discussion tailored to Jewish adult children of interfaith and mixed-heritage families.
On May 30, Jews in All Hues and Birthright Israel Next will bring their workshop to the San Francisco Hilton. The goal is to provide a safe space for “open, honest and intimate” conversation about the challenges and benefits of living as a Jew with dual heritage.
“The Bay Area is rich and vibrant, with tons of different people of varied histories and backgrounds,” said Rachel Thompson, director of the Bay Area chapter of Birthright Israel Next. “It is important to us that we offer an access point for everyone to feel welcome and considered.”
Some know the Bay Area chapter of Birthright Israel Next as Bay Area Tribe, the local wing of a national organization committed to helping Jewish young adults find or form a Jewish community that is powerful and meaningful to them.
Throughout the day, participants will have an opportunity to talk in large and small group settings. Jackson emphasized that conversation topics will be purely peer-driven, giving people the freedom to chat about whatever issues come to mind.
Having organized a similar workshop in Philadelphia a year ago, Jackson and Jews in All Hues co-founder Mira Colflesh, 34, understand the importance of letting participants guide the workshop.
“There’s this idea that [multiethnic] Jews have to check their identities at the door,” said Colflesh, a Jewish educator in Philadelphia. “Or, they don’t feel welcomed in the Jewish community. We found that Jews [who attended the previous conference] were there not to figure out how to fit in, but to claim that part of their heritage.”
Colflesh brings to the workshop a philosophy based on the idea that strong communities are built on “whole people,” those who aren’t afraid to openly discuss their multiethnic backgrounds.
“How can you really contribute to a whole community if you’re hiding some part of yourself?” said Colflesh, whose father is Jewish and mother converted to Judaism when Colflesh was born. “If we deny the chance to experience who we are, we are less good at being part of a larger community.”
Inspiration for Jews in All Hues hit Jackson while he perched on a rock in Israel’s Negev desert. He wanted to help multiethnic Jews feel welcome in all Jewish communities, realizing this effort would best be accomplished in a peer-led, grassroots setting.
“What if there was something out there where the ‘half Jew’ wasn’t told to choose sides?” he wrote in a blog that appeared in the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.
After producing Jews in All Hues in Philadelphia, Jackson, a Birthright Israel Next fellow, connected with Thompson this past October to discuss bringing the program to San Francisco.
In addition to opening the workshop to Bay Area participants, the Jews in All Hues website will invite attendees to its online community for exclusive access to photos, events and blog postings.
“I hope participants walk away feeling like they are proud of their identity and that their interfaith/multicultural experience is an asset,” Thompson said.
Jews in All Hues takes place from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 30 at the Hilton, 333 O’Farrell St., S.F. The event is free and open to Jewish adult children of interfaith marriage and mixed heritage. Information: www.jewsinallhues.org.