color me jewish

i attended a book reading at barnes and noble tonight featuring the author james mcbride who has just come out with a new book. for those of you who are not familiar, james mcbride is the author of the book 'the color of water' which is about a jewish woman from russia or poland who moves to the united states, marries a black man and passes herself off as black. i read the book years ago so i dont remember all of the details. it was a very interesting book because unlike 'turbulant souls' by steven dubner , which is about a man whose jewish parents convert out and eventually he returns to judaism , james mcbride does not,which makes it even more interesting. in 'the color of water' james mcbride does acknowledge his jewishness, but he doesnt identify himself as a jew. he prefers to be a black christian. what is most curious about mr mcbride is that a few years after i read his book there was an exhibit of photos of jewish writers at the center for jewish history and behold, there was a photo of james mcbride with his daughter and a siddur. for years ive wanted to hear him speak because though he isnt a member of the aish hatorah baal teshuvah of the month club, i do consider him a curiosity. he did not disappoint. i found him to exude a very warm personality, and though he doesnt consider himself jewish, he does acknowledge that those are his roots. he mentioned during the book reading that his first supporters of his firstbook were seventy year old white jewish women . he admitted to feeling the love when he was in the room with them because they reminded him of his own jewish mother. interestingly enough, other jewish celebrities who are black seem much more jewish than james mcbride does, seeing as other black jewish celebrities like lisa bonet or rain pryor grew up with jewish identities that shaped them , whereas to be fair, james mcbride did not.