| Summary/Abstract |
The specific ethno-racial position of Jewishness offers an ideal case study for contemporary U.S. racialisation processes. Despite a proclaimed end to biologisation in a supposed ‘post-racial’ era, essentialist reasoning remains central to U.S. race-making. Employing a content analysis of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times (2000–2010), I find that biologically rooted constructions of Jewishness occur through appeals to (1) physical definitions based on DNA or phenotype, and (2) subtle biologisation vis-à-vis ancestral claims. Demonstrating both explicit and subtle biologisation expands social scientists’ understanding of race, ethnicity, and Jewish identities.
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