hey, just found your blog and I love it! I'm just wondering what you guys mean when you write that you're jews of Polish/Ukrainian or Syrian extraction. Why do you say extraction? I'm an American Jew with European roots in Poland/Russia/Hungary, and I'm just curious so I can better express my own identity. thanks!
I say “extraction” because that means it’s where our families are from. I don’t consider Polish or Ukrainian to be my nationality. Both of our families were functionally expelled from those countries through persecution, so our relationships with those countries are complicated to put it lightly. It also puts the emphasis on our Jewish identities, in my case as an Ashkenazi Jew and in Linda’s case as a Mizrahi Jew. Jewish identity is a very complicated thing, but I think being a Jew defines me a lot more than where my family came from before they moved to the USA.
