There was something deeper than skin tone: I needed to think of myself as Syrian-Jewish instinctively, beyond what white men had defined in books.
Raymonde Chira
Raymonde Chira
Raymonde Chira is a child of Brooklyn of both sides, from the Jewish cluster of Midwood to the Syrian quarter of Bensonhurst. She is a graduate of Oberlin College, where she studied Creative Writing and Social Anthropology. Since graduating, she has been writing short stories, essays, and comic books that explore colonialism in Japan and Palestine, inter-religious Arab identity, and the condition of so-called “model minorities.” She is a member of the Mizrahi Caucus at the NYC chapter of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, where she works on advocating for police reform and promoting platforms for MENA-descended New Yorkers. She lives in Queens.