Beyond the Myth of Whiteness: Using Photography to Challenge Stereotypes and Increase Awareness of Jewish Diversity

Background: Antisemitic incidents have increased dramatically over the past few years in the United States, and institutions of higher education have become incubators for ideologies that espouse hatred of Jews. Schools of Social Work, charged with producing graduates who will promote human rights and social justice, rarely include antisemitism in their curricula. Negative attitudes towards Jews are not recognized as a problem owing to the widespread myth that Jews are White, and the privilege that Whiteness confers has given them access to economic and social success. In fact, the majority of Jews worldwide are not white, and have broad geographic, economic and ethnic diversity. To address this problem, one NYC School of Social Work housed a photography exhibit entitled Jewish Identity Jewish Diversity that showed the occupations, life cycle celebrations, and ethnicities of Jews all over the world. This evaluation addressed two questions: (1) Did the level of awareness change from pretest to posttest? and (2) Did the amount of change reported by Jewish participants and non-Jewish participants differ from pretest to posttest?

Methods: This evaluation used a pretest-posttest design. The final photo of the exhibit had a QR code that brought participants to a short survey to complete on their phones. The study used a convenience sample (N=59) comprised of those who responded to the survey. 56% of the respondents were Jewish and 44% were non-Jewish. The sample included students (56%), faculty (10%), administration (3.4%), alumni (12%), and people not affiliated with the school (18.6%). The survey asked participants to rate on a 7-point scale their awareness of the diversity of Jews both before and after the exhibit. It also contained open-ended questions that prompted participants to reflect on the photos and describe their reactions. Paired t-test and Repeated Measures ANOVA using SPSS-25, were used to assess the two questions.

Results: Using a paired-test, the diversity awareness level after respondents witnessed the photographs (M = 6.10, SD = 1.03) was statistically significantly higher than before they witnessed the exhibit (M = 4.86, SD = 1.8), t(58) = -6.977, p = .000; the effect size is large (Cohen’s d = -.908). Repeated Measures ANOVA was used to assess whether there was a difference in awareness level between Jewish participants and non-Jewish participants. There were statistically significant changes in reported awareness for both Jewish and non-Jewish participants; non-Jewish participants experienced statistically significantly more change than Jewish participants.

Implications: The findings of this study suggest that photography is a novel yet effective medium for heightening people’s awareness of the ethnic, racial, geographic, and economic diversity of Jews. Not only did Jewish participants’ perceptions of Jewish diversity expand, but more importantly, the perceptions of non-Jews changed in a way that reflected a significant increase in how they understood Jews. The hope is that this greater awareness from this photo exhibit will translate into more positive attitudes and, ultimately, behaviors toward Jews. Thus, images may be a powerful tool in combatting antisemitism.