For starters: I'm Black American...
My grandfather's grandma was an Ashkenazi Jewish woman from Lithuania. I started an ancestry journey and discovered this after so many people kept asking me, "What are you?" for the longest time. The question always threw me off because I never identified and saw myself as anything other than Black.
But even in NYC, where diversity is nothing new...people would question my origins. At first I just thought it was because I have wavy hair. But when people began pointing out other things like my bone structure, undertones of my skin, etc. I was like OK maybe there is something in my family's past that I don't know about.
After research and DNA testing I discovered my Ashkenazi ancestry - and it actually makes a lot of sense because Ashkenazi Jews are genetically MIddle Eastern...and I look a LOT like the East African population who are usually mixed with African and MIddle East. (especially my hair ... it's like a clone!)
And my grandfather looks VERY Middle Eastern - I always wondered why I got an "Arabic" vibe from his appearance but couldn't make sense of it. Now I know.
But, since my family is far removed from our Jewish heritage ..instead of saying I am part Jewish, I'd prefer to say I am part Middle Eastern/North African. I have no connections to the Jewish community so I wanna be very careful about claiming something that far removed. But, at least I have an explanation of why I look the way I do - and my grandpa as well. WHen people ask now, I will simply say I am part MIddle Eastern/North African, and ONLY if they continue to push for more information will I explain my Jewish roots and go into why I do not claim Jewish connections.
