Bitter Herb
Bitter Happy Passover!
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Big Post of Jewish Conspiracies
This is not a post about Facebook’s latest redesign.
However, thanks to the redesign, last Thursday I noticed my “highlights” column announced that four of my friends had joined a group called “Young Jewish Leaders.”
I thought to myself, “Hey, I’m a young Jewish leader! Why wasn’t I invited? Maybe word finally got out that I am now 31.”
I clicked on the group and saw that my four friends who had joined weren’t people I generally think about in the category of “young Jewish leaders.” (For example, one such friend was Alan Ronkin, Deputy Director of JCRC of Greater Boston. He turns 42 today. Happy birthday, Alan! I’m not calling you an Alter Kocker, but it’s stretching most organizations’ definitions of “youth” to include people on the other side of 40.)
At the time, the only information on the group page was the following description:
We’ve just started this group! Please join and enjoy the virtual camaraderie of other folks like you!
Next, I noticed the group administrators were four (self-labeled) researchers, including friend-of-Jewschool Steven M. Cohen. So the gears naturally started turning in my head. I sent an e-mail out to the Jewschool Teen Brigade, essentially saying “I have a hard time believing four researchers would start such a group without an ulterior motive of trying to research us.”
True to form, one of our trusty Jewschoolers contacted the researchers, and we got some clarification. Apparently, this is part of a research project funded by AviChai and headed up by Jack Wertheimer. To quote the researcher, they “are studying young Jewish leaders who are influential among their peers. The facebook group is a way for us to get in touch with large numbers of leaders.”
They’ve since updated the group page to give a little more information:
A place for young Jewish leaders (self-defined in terms of “young” “Jewish” and “leader”) to share ideas, announce events, and generally be in touch with one another.
This group was created as part of a research project by the Avichai Foundation, but we (the researchers) are not monitoring the group like it’s some kind of petri dish.
Rather, it seemed like the easiest way of getting in touch with young Jewish leaders — both inside and outside the organized Jewish world — and that it could also serve as a common meeting ground for said leaders.
Even with the added information, that’s still a big cup of vague for my taste. Given that facebook (and the internet in general) is already littered with groups in which Jews (young and old, leaders, followers, and others) can meet and share ideas, I’m not sure what this adds to the mix. And since the research agenda is still obscure, I’ll opt out, thank you very much.
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Religious Conversations
This sort of thing seems to happen to me fairly regularly. I’ll be walking down the street, taking a taxi, on the bus, or crossing the border, and will be questioned about my religious practices. The comments usually stem from the observation that I have my ears pierced. But not always: in the past, I’ve had a border guard quiz my friend and I, en route to LimmudNY, about our understanding and interpretation of the book of Daniel. Driving to Seattle, I was called “father” by a Catholic border guard who asked me how my parents felt about my earrings. I’ve been asked about living on the “wrong” (French, Catholic) side of town by a taxi driver in Montreal, questioned by a city of Montreal employee on homosexuality and Judaism while walking to school, and stopped while crossing a street in Vancouver because I was the “only Jew” this long-term resident of Vancouver had ever seen in the city.
I usually enjoy these conversations, bizarre though they may be.
And Thursday morning’s was no exception. I was quite early to the airport, forgetting that you don’t need to give yourself quite as much time to go 
through customs and security at YVR as you do at NY-area airports. I was sent to one of the dozen border guards who were free; I was one of two people in the “line.” Noticing the work visa in my passport, coded for “religious worker,” he asked what religious work I was doing, and what religion I practised. He looked at me, then asked how I could be a member of the Jewish clergy if I had my ears pierced. After clarifying that I wasn’t a clergy member, I tried to give a nonchalant answer, shrug off his question. It really wasn’t any of his business, right? At that point, he looked at my boarding card, saw that my flight was another two hours away, and said “we have time, let’s talk.” He still had my passport, which he hadn’t yet stamped, so what position was I in to say no?
He cited Leviticus 19:28, that one cannot mar their body, and again asked about my pierced ears. I tried to explain that Tanakh is open to interpretation, but he was adamant that it was literal. I asked if he understood everything he read in the Bible to be literal, and he said he did, noting that’s why he believes that the Jews are the chosen people, and why he holds Jews to a higher standard. Interesting… Did that mean he practiced stoning as punishment, avoided shrimp, and brought sacrifices to his priest? We eventually agreed that there was room for interpretation. (phew!)
But that somehow led him to Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac. He wanted to know how, if Jews are the chosen people, if Jacob was renamed Israel, I reconciled Hagar being told her seeds would be greatly multiplied, that her descendants would be numerous, that Ishmael became the descendant of Abraham that the Muslims follow. 
I tried to explain that there can be differences in interpretation, that despite the shift in lineage, the Qu’ran contains many of the same stories as the Torah, and that there are some academics who argue that originally Islam followed Abraham/Isaac, and only later, after a dispute, did some shift the stories to Ishmael.
I think I lost him. It might have been too much for an early morning conversation with an evangelical Christian border guard. But he did say that we’re all brothers, Jews and Muslims, if not cousins, and we should really all get along. I agreed. He asked if I’d been to Israel, what my opinion was about Palestine. I gave him a short answer. And then, smiling, he stamped my passport and told me he’d have to research earrings for Jewish men (we’d already established he had no problem with earrings for Jewish women).
And, after about 10 minutes of talking, I went through to security.
I’m curious: do other people find themselves in these situations? I’m fairly convinced they’re the product of my being a “visible” Jew, living in a country with a small Jewish population, and in cities (or neighbourhoods) that aren’t heavily Jewish. Do conversations like these happen in NY with airport employees? I’m guessing not, since they see Jews on a daily basis. But… maybe I’m wrong. I’d love to hear other people’s stories.
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This Is One Of Those Moments
It’s hard to believe that in 2009 there are still important films that are only just making their DVD debuts, but such is the case with Yentl. I’m not sure what the hold-up was, but the film has finally gone digital with a 25th anniversary, two-disc directors’ cut edition. It may be easy for nonbelievers to dismiss Barbra Streisand’s masterpiece as a vanity production, but the film broke through Hollywood’s glass ceiling as the first woman (since the silent era) to write, direct, produce, and star in a film. The glass ceiling hasn’t been totally shattered. No woman has yet won the Academy Award for directing. (In fact, if I’m reading the list correctly, I don’t think any women have even been nominated. Ever.)
Watching the film again for the first time since college, I was struck by just how good the film is. I know, I sometimes see Streisand’s work through the goggles of a gay man who, after all, once had a “Wall of Barbra” in my living room.
But watching the film with seven years as a full-time, professional Jewish educator under my belt, the story of a woman who risks her entire world for the sake of learning… well, let’s just say I was moved to tears when (SPOILER ALERT!) she gets accepted to the Yeshiva. That a woman broke through Hollywood’s barriers to tell the story of a woman who broke through her Jewish community’s barriers only made the message more resonant.
I was similarly moved this week reading about Sara Hurwitz. If you’re not familiar with her name yet, you will be. To quote from an e-mail sent to the mailing list of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, a center for advanced Jewish learning dedicated to empowering women:
In the years following her three years of full time study at Drisha, Sara, the Madrichah Ruchanit (spiritual counselor) of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, intensively studied for and successfully passed the examinations that traditionally entitle candidates for rabbinic ordination to receive yoreh yoreh certification. Her new title, MaHaRaT, which is an acronym for Manhigah Hilchatit Ruchanit Toranit – a leader capable of serving the halakhic, spiritual and educational needs of her congregants – reflects the depth and breadth of her accomplishments and her commitment to her role as a full member of the clergy.
There has been (and will continue to be) a lot of debate about whether or not she should have the title of Rabbi. I’ve heard conflicting reports as to whether Maharat Hurwitz wanted the title “rabbi” at all. In an article published last month by the JTA, she was quoted as saying, “I hope to reclaim and redefine my new title, so that it comes to have the identical connotation that the word rabbi does.”
This sounds to me a lot like the same-sex marriage compromise argument. I know plenty of us who would trade the word “marriage” for the 1000+ federal benefits currently being denied married couples of the same gender. But I also know that even once those rights were granted, most of us would not stop fighting (or at least hoping) for the true equality that comes in both name and deed.
Still, as someone who is neither Orthodox nor a woman, I can only root from the sidelines and offer my congratulations and support to both Maharat Hurwitz and the many I hope will follow in her footsteps.
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Shlosha mi yodea–Who knows three?
And this from the Forward…
The Passover Family Pack, which for $39.99 buys you two haggadot, a seder plate and a kiddush cup, is a messianic Haggadah which critics say is more of a disguised attempt at missionary work than it is a Haggadah. Take this quote, for example:
One of the Messiah’s last earthly acts was the celebration of the Passover. Gathering his disciples in a small room in Jerusalem, he led them in the seder. “I have eagerly to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:15) He passed the foods among them. It was there, in the context of this celebration that Yeshua revealed to them the mystery of God’s plain redemption. He spoke to them of his body and blood. He explained to them that he would have to die.
It was no coincidence that Messiah chose the Passover for the setting of what is now celebrated as communion, the Lord’s supper. For in the story of the Passover lamb, Yeshua could best communicate the course he would be taking over the confusing hours that were to follow. Here, as we participate together in the Passover seder, may we experience once again God’s great redemption.
Uhm… What now? I’ve seen some crazy Haggadot in my days, but this one takes the thorny crown! I’m actually pretty speechless right now. So it seems to me that the issue is this– If they’re trying to “trick” Jews into buying this Haggadah and come to the surprise that it’s filled with Jesus references then this is a BIG problem. If this is, as the publishers claim, an attempt to teach Christians about Jews… it’s still a BIG problem.
In my opinion, there is really no room for this kind of nonsense. I can’t see how this encourages understanding of Jewish tradition at all, but rather seems to be a Judeo-philic appropriation that, at best, bastardizes our tradition and creates something which would surely have the Rabbis rolling in their k’varim.
But, hey, if the Rabbis could “out-Hellenize the Hellenists” by “Hebraicizing” the Symposium… I guess we had it coming. But to quote a dear friend of mine, I suppose this can best be summed up by: “Ewh.”
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What’s Wrong With This List?
As we reported last week, a group of 25 large Conservative synagogues calling themselves HaYom: The Coalition for the Transformation of Conservative Judaism has formed to pressure the USCJ [the congregational arm of the movement] into becoming a “synagogue organization that truly speaks to the needs of our congregations and community on every level, both here and in Israel.” Their founding and subsequent announcements were signed by the rabbis and presidents of 25 large Conservative synagogues. As we learn in their latest dispatch, these shuls were chosen “based upon the size of their dues obligation in order to create a climate in which the leaders of the USCJ would come to the table quickly and begin a dialogue.” We also learn that the shuls collectively contributed $25,000 to the new coalition. In other words, these are the shuls with the money, and therefore the power.
As fascinating as all of this might be to Conservative movement watchers, I found something else more interesting (and irritating, and unsurprising). Here’s the list of signatories to the new coalition (rabbi followed by president/s). What do you notice?
Rabbi Richard Camras Barry Wolfe
Rabbi Mark Cooper Barry Bearg Peter Drucker
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove Steven M. Friedman
Rabbi Menachem Creditor Jeff Rosenbloom
Rabbi Alexander Davis Marshall Lehman
Rabbi Ed Feinstein Andrew Hyman
Rabbi Wayne Franklin Nathan Beraha
Rabbi Baruch Frydman Kohl
Rabbi Bill Gershon Hylton Jonas
Rabbi Felipe Goodman David Steinberg
Rabbi Bill Hamilton Noah Roffman
Rabbi David Kalender Edward Weiss
Rabbi Joseph Krakoff Brian Hermelin
Rabbi Harold Kravitz Judy Cook
Rabbi Alan Lucas Susan Zelman
Rabbi Jack Moline Evelina Moulder
Rabbi Joel Rembaum Diane Shapiro
Rabbi David Rosen Stuart Wilson
Rabbi Phil Scheim Carrie Orfus Gelkopf
Rabbi Michael Siegel Jay Goodgold
Rabbi Alan Silverstein Bill Lipsey
Rabbi Barry Starr Arthur Spar
Rabbi David Steinhardt Roger Leavy Fred Weiss
Rabbi Gordon Tucker Mark Zeichner
Rabbi Steve Weiss Dick Myers
Rabbi Irvin Wise Nina Paul
Rabbi David Wolpe Kurt Smalberg
Rabbi David Glanzberg-Krainin Fred Wolfson
Hazzan Jacob Ben Zion Mendelson
Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi
Hazzan David Propis
Number of men? 54. Number of women? 6. Number of rabbis who are women? 0.
If we take this list as even somewhat representative, even (or especially) just representative of large, American Conservative synagogues, women appear to make up a mere 10% of the top synagogue leadership and 0% of the clergy.
These are the rabbis and synagogues that pull the purse strings, get the PR, and wield power in the movement, such that congregations have any power in the Conservative movement anyway. And women appear to be largely absent from that scene.
It’s not, as some will say, simply because women have only been ordained in the Conservative movement since 1985 and therefore haven’t made their way to the “top” congregations yet. What are the barriers to women’s election/appointment to the presidencies of large synagogues? Grump.
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Policeman Foley and the Dustup at Tompkins Square
As was noted here previously, the Jewish world is getting sun stroke as it prepares for Birkat Hachama (“Blessing of the Sun”) – observed only once every 28 years – on Wednesday, April 8. As predicted, right about now, reports of BH observances are virtually exploding throughout the Jewish community. (At my congregation in Evanston, IL, we’re going to observe BH with a sunrise meditation service, yoga sun salutations along with the traditional ceremony itself.)
An increasing number of BH related items have been crossing my desktop of late – my favorite is this article from the April 8, 1897 issue of the NY Times. Apparently when a group of venerable rabbis tried to observe the sun ritual in Tompkins Square, NY, they were almost shut down by the police. My favorite line from the (very detailed) piece:
No Permit Had Been Thought Necessary for the Gathering and Policeman Foley Could Not Understand What It Meant.
(Hey, get in line, Policeman Foley…)
Here is an extensive list of Birkat Hachama resources (including where to get your own commemorative t-shirt.)
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Sarah Silverman: “I’m good for the Jews”
This is a couple weeks old; sorry if it’s been posted everywhere already, I know that’s uncouth. For more cerebral conversations, TPM TV has interviews with Eric Alterman, Michelle Goldberg and Jeremy Ben-Ami after last week’s panel discussion.
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Purim, Passover and the Middle East Conflict: What’s the connection?
Margie Klein is coordinator of Moishe House Boston: Kavod Jewish Social Justice House and a third year rabbinical student at Hebrew College. She recently co-edited Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice (Jewish Lights).
On the Bronfman Youth Fellowships alumni forum, there has recently been an active and sometimes virulent debate around Israel Palestine issues, emerging from the Times article last week about Israeli soldiers’ testimony around the Gaza war and (alleged) disregard for Palestinian casualties. The conversation started with a young man saying he was questioning whether he should remain identified with Judaism and the Jewish community given Israel’s actions and the Jewish community’s widespread support of them.
In response to the discussion, I wrote the following dvar torah back to the list:
As a rabbinical student, I thought I would add some Torah to this discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As I will share, whether or not we agree with Israel’s policies, I think our tradition and our power as North American (or Israeli) Jews invites us not to throw our hands up, but to take responsibility for making this situation better. So, I conclude with a list of organizations that can help you take action, depending on your perspective.
PURIM AND PASSOVER – WHAT IS THE CONNECTION?
In the Jewish calendar, we are halfway between Purim and Passover. In the Talmud, when deciding whether, during a leap year, Purim should happen in Adar I or Adar II, the rabbis rule that it needs to be in Adar II, right before Nissan, the month of Passover, l’smoach giula l’giula, in order to connect one redemption to the other.
What might the connection between Purim and Passover – how are these redemptions related and what do they teach us? I believe Passover teaches us empathy, and Purim teaches us empowerment. More »
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E1: End of the Two State Solution?
From today’s Ha’aretz:
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a secret deal with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for highly contentious construction on West Bank land known as E1, Army Radio reported Wednesday.
While this might not seem like major news to some, this report, if true, would be devastating to the peace process (such as it is…) In fact, settling E1 might well constitute the final nail in the coffin of the two state solution.
“E1″ stands for East 1 – it is the administrative title given to the area east of Jerusalem and west of the West Bank development Ma’ale Adumim (see map above). Israeli settlement monitors such as Ir Amim and Peace Now have long cautioned against the dire consequences of settling this critical strip of land:
Construction of E-1 would jeopardize the hopes for a two-state solution. It would, by design, block off the narrow undeveloped land corridor which runs east of Jerusalem and which is necessary for any meaningful future connection between the southern and the northern parts of the West Bank. It would thus break the West Bank into two parts – north and south. It would also sever access to East Jerusalem for Palestinians in the West Bank, and sever access to the West Bank for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. Both of these situations are antithetical to the achievement of any real, durable peace agreement and the establishment of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.
The expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, as with the expansion of any other settlement, is a unilateral act which undermines and jeopardizes efforts to resume negotiations which are based on the principal of two states living side by side with peace and security.
It’s not such a stretch to imagine Netanyahu blithely giving E1 away to Lieberman as a political bargaining chip – he’s been hankering after this piece of earth of some time now. In fact, back in 2005 he choose a barren hilltop in E1 upon which to announce his candidacy for Prime Minister. This is what he had to say at the time:
This is Jerusalem, it’s our capital…Nobody can tell us to freeze building in our capital. What we need to do is to break this siege by building here.
You can see all of E1 quite easily from the top of Mt. Scopus. It’s beyond sobering to think the fate of the peace process might well hand upon a mere 12 square kilometers.
Trust me, this will be one to follow…
PS: Click here to send a letter to Secretary of State Clinton to ask her to make a settlement freeze a necessary part of the peace process going forward.
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I can be an anti-Zionist, Abe Foxman told me so
For many days now, I’ve been reconsidering the position of Diaspora Jewish left viz a viz the powerlessness we think we suffer on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The word “occupation” was unforgiveable just a decade ago and the two-state solution is now the accepted solution to the conflict. In the past 28 years, the Jewish community has blossomed with mainstream peace voices: Americans for Peace Now (1981), the Israel Policy Forum (1993), Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (2002), and J Street (2008), not to mention many blogs. And now Obama invited all four to the big kids’ table.
We have come a long way. There is reason to celebrate.
But there is even more to celebrate if one listened to Abraham Foxman, Bret Stephens and Oren Rudavsky at last night’s 92nd St Y panel “Why Zionism Has Become a Dirty Word.” There sat three giant voices of Israel defense and Zionism apologetics, lamenting endlessly the deterioration of the Zionist movement and how few American Jews support Israel. There is a dearth of “proud Zionists” and it’s “a failure of PR” that Israel isn’t better received, they said. Had I not attended tonight’s sorrowfest (hat tip to EV and his friend) I would have drank a beer at home while morosely blogging anti-occupation screeds. Instead, I see now that my side — nuance, compromise, moral consistency — is winning. More »
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Blast From the Past
According to the info posted with the below video,
On April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, the third night of Passover, hundreds of people of varied racial and religious communities gathered in a Black church in the heart of Washington DC to celebrate the original Freedom Seder. For the first time, it intertwined the ancient story of liberation from Pharaoh with the story of Black America’s struggle for liberation, and the liberation of other peoples as well.
More info on the event can be found here.
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Gayest Person Ever on Art as Tikkun Olam
Joel Derfner, author of Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever, keeps a blog. (Who doesn’t?) In today’s post, he reflects on his parents’ work as civil rights and workers’ rights activists in light of his own life working in the arts.
So I grew up in an atmosphere in which working to make the world a better place (in Hebrew, tikkun olam—”the healing of the world”) wasn’t just a virtue; it was an imperative.
I am therefore somewhat ambivalent about having gone into the theater; in a way, the fact that I’m not in a third-world country working to create food distribution systems makes me feel like a moral failure. (When I’m at my most self-loathing, I say, “My parents secured black people the franchise, and I write pretty music that makes upper-middle-class white people feel nice.”)
But my self-loathing aside, the fact is that theater does have the power to inspire its audience to tikkun olam; actually, we seem to be getting closer to measurable evidence that it does. more
I’m a big proponent of the need for art, even (or perhaps especially) in times of crisis when art feels like the farthest thing from a priority. But can it be tikkun olam? Read the entire post and see if you’re convinced.
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Same story in two movements
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle.
The JTA brings us this today: “Figuring out why promising Conservative alumni set up ‘indy minyans.’”
The article is basically a summary of the Conservative movement’s mostly ineffectual attempts to draw in former members who have left for the indie minyans, or the emergent scene.
The most interesting qutoe in the article, to me is this:
“They live precisely as we told them to, but paradoxically they practice their Judaism outside our movement,” Epstein wrote. “They perceive that there is no place for them and their Judaism in the Conservative synagogue. If we want to grow in numbers and strength, if we want to inspire passion and commitment, we have to welcome those Jews who live our values and ideology outside of our synagogues to do it inside our synagogues instead.”
This is the same challenge that I and many of my friends face with our own Reform movement. The Reform world has educated some of us so well and so effectively taught us how to be engaged in some sort of active personal reformation and now we’re so into it that all the “normal” Reform Jews think we’re nuts.
Meanwhile, according to this article, the same thing is going on in the Conservative movement. Jews who want to live as true ideologically Conservative Jews have no real home in their movement because everyone else thinks they’re nuts for being true to the ideals of the movement.
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“You’re doggone right we’re feisty”
This story caught my eye and I just wanted to share.
It’s not your everyday bat mitzvah story, so it is particularly nice that the New York Times picked it up and that it was their 4th most e-mailed article of the day!
I hope it brings a few smiles and helps us each to think about the great possibilities that are out there not only for our youth but also for our elders.
While we are appreciating elders, don’t forget about Old Jews Telling Jokes!
Do you have a story of an elder who has brought some pizzazz into your Jewish life that you’d like to share? Comment away…
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Rabbinate and State
For those of us who live in the U.S. and who, at least in this country, are committed to the ideal of separation of church and state- it is odd to see our own religion so deeply intertwined in the workings of a Democratic Jewish state. In her first documentary, Amy Beth Oppenheimer explores the role of the Rabbinate in Israeli life, mostly in terms of what it means for marriage. Her Film, Faces of Israel raises provocotive questions- What is the role of the Rabbinate? Who should be included in it? What are the alternatives to it? Should Israel allow Same-sex or secular Civil Unions? Her presentation, in the form of a series of interviews, is surprisingly evenhanded, and broad in scope. She allows her subjects, who range from rabbinic leaders to average Israeli citizens, to speak for themselves. That even-handedness is the strength of this movie, and I hope it will inspire viewers to hear the many disparate voices in this conversation.
Faces of Israel opens Tues. March 24th at the Riverdale Y and will be followed by a panel discussion. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.facesthemovie.com, or at the door.
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Tourists in Israel, Tourists in Judaism
The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandies has released a study of the Jewish communal involvement of Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni. Focusing on the four North American cities with the largest Jewish populations (Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto), the study (called Tourists, Travelers, and Citizens: Jewish Engagement of Young Adults in Four Centers of North American Jewish Life) finds that by and large, the young adults remain “tourists” in their North American Jewish communities.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency had an article earlier today summarizing the findings, but it seems to have been taken down. [Edit: later this afternoon, it's back up.] Luckily, I copied down the part I found most interesting:
The alumni surveyed in all four cities said they would like to be more involved than they were in Jewish life. Most preferred small gatherings to large, anonymous “meat market” Jewish events.
“They’re happy to eat free food and drink free beer at those big events, but they don’t feel it meets their needs to find Jewish community,” [study co-author Fern] Chertok reports.
Respondents also said they were interested in learning more about Judaism and Jewish culture and history, including Hebrew, but were wary of outreach groups with a perceived “religious” agenda. They also wanted a network of friends to share those experiences as a way of re-creating the camaraderie they felt on their Israel trips.
Without spending too much time wondering where the article has gone, I’d love to think through this a bit more. Do these results sound like your experiences with the Jewish community? Do you know of people or organizations that are doing it right? (The article also talked about Birthright’s own alumni engagement program, Taglit-Birthright Israel NEXT, although it sounds like NEXT has grown a bit since the study was completed.) And if Birthright is (as all evidence seems to imply) awakening great feelings of Jewish identity in a new generation of Jews, why is it so hard for the Jewish community to make room for them?
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The Wonders of America
I just sat down to start reading Jenna Weissman Joselit’s The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture 1880-1950 for a class. A couple of passages from the introduction really struck me.
Upon arriving in the New World in 1904, folklorist Yehuda Leib Cahan could barely contain his enthusiasm for the vibrancy and color of local Jewish life. “Here folklore can be scooped up by the handfuls,” he exclaimed. The decades that followed Cahan’s visit witnessed a continues efflorescence of Jewish cultural ingenuity and inventiveness that even he would have had difficulty imagining… the likes of plastic dreidels, chocolate-covered matzohs, “yahrtzeit memorandums,” Chanukah bushes, tie clips in the shape of the Ten Commandments, floral Torah crowns, elaborate bar mitzvahs, kosher-style cuisine, and overwrought funerary monuments.
… Jews accumulates a great many things, filling their armoires and attics with silver shabbos candlesticks, chromium Chanukah menorahs, colored-glass Passover dishes, and souvenirs of the Holy Land. Whether a priceless family heirloom brought over from the Old Country or a decorative trifle brought in the New–a tshatshke–objects inhabited and elivened the lived of thousands of American Jewish families, rendering Jewishness tangible.
How delightful. It seems the American Jewry’s great contribution to the world is kitsch. And I think I’m okay with that.
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