National Jewish American Heritage Month

Who is a Jewish American, and why is it essential that we mark this very important month?

Marina Berkovich JHSSWF President

Three hundred sixty years ago, a small group of Jews landed on the island of Manhattan.

In 1763, after passing from Spain to England, Jews were first allowed to settle in Florida. By 1860, the Jewish population of the United States increased tenfold to reached 150,000.

According to 2020 Pew Research, 67% of the 7.5 million of American Jewry identify as Ashkenazi or European (except from the Iberian Peninsula) descent. Sephardim, or those descendant from the Iberian Peninsula Jewry, are next at 3%. Mizrahim, also known as Jews of the Orient or Jews of the East, are only 1%. Another 6% identified as a genetic composition of the above. That totals about 77%. What about the rest? Well, 25% chose the option “do not identify with any particular category” while the remaining 3% fell into this survey’s abyss.

The month of May is Jewish American Heritage Month, and it is a truly appropriate time to contemplate and celebrate our Jewish ancestry, affiliations and affinity, regardless of which place in this or any other survey one may be slotted into.

The best conceptual understanding of Judaism as religion and culture ever conveyed to me was that it defies definitions and limitations. That thought came from my Jewish history professor way back in the early 1980s, when my alma mater, Queens College, City University of New York, was a safe harbor for Jews and Jewish learning. I entered it as a confused teen, lost in the multitude of unanswered questions, after having grown up in the antisemitic environment of Kiev and U.S.S.R. in denial of everything else Jews kept alive despite history’s turmoil. This is, sadly, reminiscent of what is now overtaking so many U.S. institutions of higher learning.

By my college graduation, thanks to the many wise academicians and countless Jewish support staff and peers, I learned to become Jewish not out of surviving antisemitism, but out of appreciation for Jewish resilience and diversity. As we moved through centuries and lands, protecting our cultural, religious and national essence, we each learned our version of being Jewish. My version may not be yours, and vice versa, but in the end, we are all Jews.

American Jews of all colors and languages, American born or not, matzo ball or hummus eating or not, Shabbat observing or not, need each and every one of the 15 million Jewish persons to unite their voices as one. What better time to do it than during the month of May, when in addition to Jewish American Heritage Month, we also celebrate Israel?

My personal dream is that friends and relations who have become too caught up in polarized intolerance will find it in their hearts to remember that we are all one and repair the damage that is keeping us apart. Just as at any difficult or trying time in history, we cannot fulfill our job of healing the world until we heal ourselves first, globally, regionally, locally.

Learn more about local Jewish history by participating in discussions and attending our future presentations and events. Your membership and generous support help us in our work. Sign up to receive announcements, reminders and news by email. Donate online, mail or contact us at office@jhsswf.org.

The Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida is a section 501(c) 3 charitable organization. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.