Jewpanese Project

Follow the journey on Instagram @JewpaneseProject

Since May 2020, a community of Jewpanese people and Jewpanese families all over the world began to meet virtually on the second Sunday of the month in celebration of Jewish and Asian Heritage Months. This community is currently recording their lived experiences and stories at the intersection of being Jewish and Japanese in an oral history project conducted by Carmel Tanaka called the Jewpanese Project (formerly, the JEWPANESE Oral History Project).

With a foot in both the Japanese and Jewish worlds, communities traditionally closed to diversity and with a long history of emigration and expulsion, we touch on the sensitive subject of whether Jewpanese people can really belong anywhere, touching on cultural identity, belonging, acceptance, and a future where Jewpanese no longer feel alone. These stories have not been told previously, outside of the Jewpanese community, and will add to the understanding of issues faced by the Jewpanese community inside the Jewish community and in the world at large.

According to UrbanDictionary, Jewpanese is defined as "an individual of mixed Japanese and Jewish ancestry. There are probably like seven of them". Not only are there more than seven of us, being Jewpanese is diverse. Whether you have one parent of each, or were adopted into, or are Jewpanese by choice, you are invited to participate in the oral history project.

Are you Jewpanese or have a Jewpanese family? SIGN UP to join the monthly calls and/or to be interviewed!

The collection phase of this project was funded by Carmel Tanaka’s fellowship with the Anti-Defamation League Collaborative for Change Fellow (2022-2023), during which she collected 70+ in-person or virtual interviews across Canada, the U.S., Israel, Australia, and Japan.

As of June 2023, the Jewpanese Project became recipient of a Jews of Color Initiative research grant to aggregate data from the U.S. based interviews, and as of October 2023, also became a project under the U.S. fiscal sponsorship of Mission.Earth to help with grants and donations for future phases of the project. The plan is to create a FundRazr profile for smaller donations, which will eventually replace the current GoFundMe Campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/f/jewpanese) to help with costs of this project! Stay tuned :)

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