Drawing upon her experience as a person of both indigenous Hawaiian and Jewish heritage, Ferreira-Mathews interrogates the meaning of “birthright” within a settler-colonialist nation, where national identity is so fundamentally entangled with the systematic displacement of native peoples.
"This is an important work of honesty and self-examination, deeply needed within Jewish communities around issues of Israel and its role in the US. If Zionism is defended as a legitimate or viable concept, then it should be open to vigorous criticism, and this book is an important part of a new wave of critiques of the Birthright program in particular. Together with the Jewish National Fund, the Israeli military, and Israeli historiography in general, Birthright and other core Israeli and Zionist institutions are being demystified, making possible a higher degree of accountability. This is a work of complexity, intersectionality and truth-telling, part of a growing and necessary dialogue about Jewish identity and which side of history Jewish individuals and communities choose to identify with." —Jesse Benjamin, Kennesaw State University.
Nani Ferreira-Mathews is a freelance journalist, independent musician, and activist currently living in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2011, she was an organizer during the most radical days of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City. As an independent scholar, she has an interest in communal decision-making practices and communication styles. She has studied squats, communes, and intentional communities in North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East.
