Who are we becoming and why? In this period of extraordinary disruption, where many of our beliefs, values and ideals are being challenged, we are finding that our very identities as Jews are being transformed. For some of us, we are shaping our new persona, and for others, the outside world has imposed labels.

“Who are we” is no longer merely a theoretical proposition but a defining construct of where and how we find ourselves amidst the “undoing’s” of our lives. We are reminded that Jewish identities are always in transition. Indeed, labels can be fluid and contested. Today, as a result of the elements surrounding us and in response to what is happening both beyond and within the Jewish world, we see multiple new and different Jewish identities being formed.

It is certainly not the case that trauma and change have galvanized us into one body politic. Quite the opposite, in transformative spaces, there is a tendency to adopt a fight or flight response, leading us in multiple and at times competing directions.

Shadow Jews: A new era of fear has generated the re-emergence of a generation of Jews who seek to shed or hide their public Jewish image. This retreat into silence has resulted from the onslaught of hatred we are........

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