S4 Ep. 5: JewAsian

Helen K. Kim is Professor of Sociology at Whitman College and in 2019 assumed the position of Associate Dean for Faculty Development. She is also the co-author of JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America's Newest Jews along with her husband Noah Leavitt. In this interview, Kim discusses macro topics such as racism in the Jewish community and the rancorous debate over communal demography. She also discusses more personal matters, including her experience of her son’s recent bar mitzvah. The episode begins with Kim talking about her search for wisdom in the Jewish tradition and how she found inspiration in the works of Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher and Torah commentator. Later, she expresses her frustration with Jewish organizations that long acknowledged the prevalence of racism behind closed doors but steered clear of addressing racism publicly. “Why are we choosing to run away from [these realities]? Why don't we choose to run towards them and try to do something about them to become anti-racist.”

You can listen to S4 Ep. 5: JewAsian online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

S4 Ep. 5: JewAsian is an episode from Hashivenu by Reconstructing Judaism.

This episode is 39:53 long.

This episode was published on Oct 26, 2021.

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