Jewish identity in these novels is defined by language and physique, not ancestry.

Evidence

As argued in the introduction and several essays in this volume, discourses about Muslims have always implied the Jews as an often unstated referent. Said had recognized that much when he labeled anti-Semitism the “secret sharer” of orientalism. While multicultural literature has problematized ethnic and racial difference (especially when it concerns the author’s own ethnic identity), its representation of the Jew remains that of the “standard” (in Said’s terms) orientalist representation of the Other. Multicultural literature has inherited the centuries-old trope of the Jew from Western literature, where the character of the Jew has often expressed essential, permanent Difference. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 732 (#complicates, via linked claim)

If Jewishness as exceptionalness was the reason for admitting Jews, then those were preferred who were clearly “a solid troop, homogeneous within itself and utterly dissimilar to the people who watched them go past,” those who had not yet “reached the same stage of assimilation” as their upstart brethren. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 263 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jewish identity is matrilineal and convertible, making it non-racial; Multicultural literature reproduces, not challenges, the orientalist trope of the Jew as essential Other — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 732; Assimilation reduced Jewish identity to a mere fact of birth (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Multicultural literature reproduces, not challenges, the orientalist trope of the Jew as essential Other #complicates (0.72) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 732
• Jewish admission into society hinged on perceived exotic difference, not similarity #complicates (0.71) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 263