Jews of Color with Gage Gorsky & Ilana Kaufman

Stanford's Taube Center for Jewish Studies and the Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies at the Graduate School of Education invite you to a conversation about Jews and race with two leaders in the field.

American Jews are diverse, representing a range of identities. Although American Jewish Organizations have spent considerable effort trying to understand American Jewish experiences, they have also consistently avoided questions about race and ethnicity, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of American Jews who might identify as "people of color." In 2020, the Jews of Color Initiative sought to rectify this situation by commissioning a national study of self-identified Jews of Color. The effort culminated in the publication of "Beyond the Count: Experiences and Perspectives of Jews of Color." Join Ilana Kaufman, the Executive Director of the Jews of Color Initiative, and Dr. Gage Gorsky, a member of the "Beyond the Count" research team, for a presentation and discussion about what the report reveals about race, identity, and diversity in the American Jewish community.

In conjunction with Professor Ari Kelman's course, "Understanding Jews," this event is open to Stanford students, staff, faculty, and the public.

About the presenters:
Ilana Kaufman, Executive Director of the Jews of Color Initiative.
Ilana’s (she/her) work sits at the center of Jewish Community, Racial Equity, and Justice is anchored by the voices and experience of Jews of Color and is focused on grantmaking, research and field building, and community education. She has been featured on NPR's Code Switch and All Things Considered, and she is passionate about all things at the intersection of Jewish Community/Racial Justice/Jews of Color/Education/Philanthropy.

Dr. Gage Gorsky (they/them) is a research consultant who uses mixed methodologies to explore intersections of identity and social categorization, with a focus on marginal experiences. They received their degree in Educational Measurement and Statistics from the University of Washington, where their dissertation examined gender stereotypes embedded into middle school math word problems. Gage is uniquely positioned within their work as a non-binary queer Mexican Jew, born and raised in Chicago. They currently live in Seattle with their loving spouse and adorable pets.