Why is it that most Jews seem to be white? Is it because of the mass emigration from Europe et al after Isreal was formed? I would still expect people who are native to that regon to have darker skin, and generally resemble the other neighboring peoples. I understand that there are many segments of the jewish population, but whenever I see a member of the leadership, or even a general citizen on the news, they tend to be much lighter then other Aribic peoples.
I’ll bite. Jews fall into two broad divisions: Ashkenazi or Sephardi. Ashkenazi Jews are those of mainly Eastern European origin, and generally maintain higher profile than Sephardis. This is due to a number of circumstances – most Jewish immigration to America was from European countries, Ashkenazim were a leading force of Zionism in the early 20th century and thus helped to form Israel, and they were more educated for the most part and tended to move into positions of prominence in Israel. The Jews that had been in Israel since the time of King David are considered Sephardim, as are the Jews who lived throughout the Islamic regions. There were large Sephardi populations throughout the Mediterranean and Spain, as well as in Iran, Iraq, and even India. These people do not look “white.”
Why do Ashkenazim appear white? Well, mostly because Jews settled throughout Europe and maintained a low level of interbreeding throughout history. Jews first moved into Europe IIRC (someone will be along shortly to tell me how wrong I am) after the fall of the Second Temple and lived amongst the population. Through years of assimilation, interbreeding, rapes, conversions, and the like, Ashkenazim became mostly European.
I’ll try not to avoid the “no such thing as biologically determined races” angle (even though it’s true), and just say that Arabs are generally considered to be white.
I’ll add to what edwino wrote, a quote from the Mishnah (Negaim 2:1) which tells us something about the typical Jewish skin color of the period (2nd century), when few Jews lived yet in Europe:
“A bright-white leprous spot [which is ritually impure] will appear dull [and therefore mislead the priest into declaring it pure] on a German, while a dull-white one will appear bright on an Ethiopian. Said Rabbi Ishmael: The Children of Israel - may I be their atonement! - are [mostly] like boxwood, neither dark nor light, but intermediate.” [The rest of the paragraph goes on to describe how to correctly diagnose leprous spots on Jews of German or Ethiopian extraction.]
To judge by the swatch shown on the Amateur Woodworker website (http://www.am-wood.com/wood/wooddesc/boxwood.html), boxwood tends towards the lighter end of the scale - and to my eye, it looks a few shades lighter than typical Middle Eastern skin color, but somewhat darker than the Northern European type.