I know right?! While Jewish arts and culture fellowships seem to be poppin’ up everywhere these days, The Workshop is different in that it foregrounds the art and artistry of professional artists who happen to be Jews of Color, Jews of Indigenous backgrounds, and Jews of Sephardic and/or Mizrahi heritage.

We get that focusing on these distinct groups can raise questions; afterall, each of these groups have distinct histories and other group identities within them (e.g. Black Jews; Moroccan Jews; Bucharian Jews, Korean American Jews; et al). What is more, some folks within these groups may even have different levels of proximity to whiteness. Regardless, we choose to highlight these groups because the stories and creativity of artists who carry these identities tend to be under-represented or overlooked in arts spaces, Jewish spaces, and Jewish arts spaces.

“Jew of Color” is a broad term that encompasses people with a wide variety of lived cultural, ethnic, racial experiences. It is a term coined in the US and it is also used in Canada with varying frequency. The term’s origin stems from the necessity to create space for ethnic and racial minorities within a minority. For further reference on the inception of the term Jew of Color, see this article by Shahanna McKinney Baldon (Director, Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative).

By ”Indigenous Jews” we mean are Jews who have Indigenous heritage within the context of the United States (e.g. Lenape, Choctaw, Cheyenne & Arapaho).

The short of it is, race is complicated. 



TL;DR: As it is often said these days, “race is a social construct, not a biological fact.” Because race in America is the result of complex social processes, whiteness is not a static category. To get nerdy about it 🤓, prior to the mid-20th century, Jews of Ashkenazic and Sephardic heritage were often considered other/non-white, much like people of Italian and Irish ancestry. After WWII, there was a shift in American society that progressively allowed certain Jews (often of European backgrounds) to share in the privileges of white, American society. Due to this process, many Jews of Ashkenazic & some of Sephardic heritage became “white”. This process is unique to America, though. The realities of how Jews are externally identified elsewhere in the world (e.g. South America, Europe, et al) is unique to their local histories. To read more about the complexity of Jewish identity and race in America, see Karen Brodkin’s How Jews Became White Folks…, or Eric Goldstein’s The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity.



And if you’ve read this far… Why??? “Look at your life - look at your choices!” jk. jk.

The Workshop’s fellows each receive the following: 

- A participation stipend
- A production/presentation stipend (used to pay collaborators, directors, etc. for presentations)
- Access to workspace/performance space
- Artistic mentorship as desired from established, notable artists in the Reboot network.
- An all expenses covered artists’ retreat.

As of now, we do not receive applications for The Workshop, though we may reconsider as the program develops in the coming years.

While cohort size is flexible, each cohort will generally have between 4-8 artists.

The short answer is, no. The Workshop is first and foremost a fellowship for professional artists. As such, we do not promote a singular religious approach to Judaism, nor do we require that fellows to observe Jewish tradition in any particular way. Our fellows may have religious practices ranging from rigorously observant to “traditional” to boldly secular, atheist, cultural Jews.

While individual cohort members do sometimes serve as ritual leaders or educators in their personal lives, The Workshop is laser focused on supporting professional artists in their identities as artists. Thus, we do not offer ritual services like leading prayer services, officiating weddings or b’nai mitzvah, or running educational programs.

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