The Color of Water

In Suffolk, Ruth attends the all-white public school as opposed to Hebrew school at the synagogue, or shul. This is when she changes her name to Ruth instead of Rachel, the Americanized version of Ruchel, because she believes Ruth doesn’t “sound so Jewish” (80).

Ruth makes only one friend in school at Suffolk, a girl named Frances who is kind to her and never judges her for her heritage.

The first time James hears Ruth speak Yiddish is when she buys him school clothes on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and haggles with the Jewish merchants. James has always thought Jews were something from the Bible and not people he might interact with, let alone his own mother. Over his childhood, an awareness of Judaism slowly creeps into his life. A Jewish foundation pays Rosetta’s tuition at the historically Black Howard University. When Dennis returns from college, he lauds the Jews he met for supporting civil rights. Ruth, meanwhile, does not talk about Jews as white people. Almost without fail, Ruth works to secure admission to predominantly Jewish private schools for her children, who grow accustomed to being the only Black students in many classes. James finds that many Jewish people are caring and kind, while others are virulently racist.