The latest newsletter from Bechol Lashon (In Every Tongue), an organization that asks us to “imagine a new global Judaism that transcends differences in geography, ethnicity, class, race, ritual practice, and beliefs,” introduced me to Lacey Schwartz.
Lacey’s parents were good at keeping secrets. They didn’t reveal that her biological father was black until Lacey was eighteen years old. Her story is the spark behind a documentary that her MySpace page claims will allows us to join “Lacey on her journey to confront her mother and two fathers about her mixed-race identity, and uncover the traditions, heroes, heritage, roots, and identity of the larger American Black Jewish community.”
I love the title of the documentary, “Outside the Box.” It encompasses in such few words the struggles of those of us with multiethnic, multicultural, multiracial identities and how those little boxes people try to force us into can’t truly express our lifestyles.