She hadn’t eaten for the past twenty-four hours, in observance of the Jewish fast day known as Tishah B’Av. A few days after Gore announced his choice of a running mate, for instance, I was meeting my mother for dinner at nine. I can already picture those “revolving-door” Jews, staunch secularists who disdain visible signs of affiliation, suddenly lining up to take a closer look at the quaint religious customs long ago left in the care of tottering relatives in Miami Beach. Suddenly, the press was brimming with folksy Yiddishisms worthy of Leo Rosten, references to abstruse Jewish concepts, and discussions about whether Lieberman would be able to attend his inauguration, which falls on a Saturday.Īs if I didn’t have enough conflicts already about having strayed from my Modern Orthodox upbringing, there now looms the temptation to reclaim it and avail myself of ready-made cultural cachet. At the Nashville announcement rally, the Connecticut senator exuberantly (or presumptuously, depending on your tolerance for direct appeals to the divine) invoked God, “maker of all miracles,” and praised Gore’s “chutzpah” in naming him. In doing so, he has given the beleaguered Modern Orthodox Jewish establishment something to be truly proud about, a reason to kvell. (Will he look out for the country’s welfare, or only for the interests of his own kind?) What is of significance-to Jews and Gentiles alike-is the fact that Lieberman is observant, a man of religious conviction: he keeps kosher, doesn’t turn on lights or travel in a car on Shabbos, and regularly attends synagogue services. To add to my confusion, Joseph Isadore Lieberman, the first Jewish Vice-Presidential candidate of a major party, and Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, are noisily airing questions that I’ve been debating internally for decades: How Jewish is too Jewish? Does a public declaration of religious allegiance always come across as self-serving-a sales technique custom-made for the age of identity politics? Whether Lieberman calls himself a Jewish American or an American Jew is a matter of hairsplitting, a preoccupation of the leery. But as the world becomes a more bewildering place almost by the week, I find myself longing for what I thought I’d never long for again: a sense of community in the midst of the impersonal vastness, a tribe to call my own. You’d think it would be easy, particularly in a city like New York, where no one cares whether or not you believe in God even my friends who do would be hard put to explain why, other than by alluding knowingly to Pascal’s wager, in which the odds favor the believer. Just when I think I’ve shaken it-put it firmly behind me, a piece of my obscurantist past no longer suited to the faithless life I now lead-it turns up again, dogging me. I’ve been trying to lose my religion for years now, but it refuses to go away. They treat recognition as part of a commitment to Jewish diversity and multiculturalism, with less attention to traditional normative definitions of Jewish identity.Minute variations in Jewish ritual are now the object of national scrutiny. Newer American Jewish organizations reflect greater denominational diversity and a more postmodern understanding of Jewishness as fluid and open-ended. For Israeli Jewish organizations, recognition is based on a more essentialist view of Jewishness and is oriented toward socializing "newly found" Jews toward Orthodox Judaism and preparation for immigration to Israel. This process of recognition reflects different understandings of Jewish identity and different political agendas among the various Jewish groups who have become involved with advocacy for "newly found" Jews. In the latter half of the twentieth century, tribal groups throughout Africa and Asia who regard themselves as Jews, such as the Abayudaya of South Africa and the Mizo of northern India and Burma, sought the recognition of their Jewishness by established Jewish communities in Israel and the United States.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |