Entry #12 Brodkin, Karen "How Jews Became White"

Brian Gerker
ETHN 101
Reading Journal Entry #12
10-21-2007

Karen Brodkin, “How Jews Became White.”

In “How Jews Became White,” Karen Brodkin’s thesis is “’But think what you might have been without racism and with some affirmative action!’ And that is precisely what the post World War Boom, the decline of systematic, public anti-Euro racism and Anti-Semitism , and government affirmative action extended to white males let us see.” She writes about how Jews became part of American society, and how they no longer were Jews but were whites instead.
To summarize “How Jews Became White,” Brodkin starts with her story, the story about her parents and how her parents believed that they “pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps.” She tells about how Jews were placed in separate neighborhoods and very few of them were even allowed to go to school. Brodkin brings about how she believes Jews became white. It mostly has to do with World War II and the post war economic boom. Because of the great economic success of the U.S. many minorities were given opportunities to go to school and get educated, so that they could move on to the workforce. Brodkin even gives outstanding percentages of Jewish success in college, which relates to how Jews were able to get better jobs and make more money, boosting them to the middle class rather than the lower class. Also, housing rentals were a step in “the whitening.” The Federal Housing Administration was a huge governmental voice that allowed Jews to be able to suburbanize. This is also a way that Jews were able to become more middle class, and give their ethnicity a different look. Overall, it was job opportunity, education, the post war boom, and the FHA that worked together to give Jews their “whiteness.”
The author’s position in relation to the topic has many benefits. Karen Brodkin grew up in Jewish society in America, and also received benefits from her parents who fought in the World War. Being of this background, Brodkin is able to give great details from her life and real stories, which make this reading work. She could bring events from her own life out and use them to explain the reasons for Jews becoming white. Those life experiences are essential for creating such a writing.
I actually enjoyed this reading, when at a first glance I thought I wouldn’t. I like how Brodkin was able to share so much of her own experiences and her parents experiences and even their different views of how Jews became white. Brodkin gives great details and was able to keep my attention. She also lays things out very specifically in how Jews became white due to education, opportunity, and post war effects, and the FHA.