Is New York City the Diaspora?
If I were going to be in New York City on July 14, which sadly, I’m not, I’d go to this event being held by awesome lit journal Habitus:
Is New York City the Diaspora?
A Conversation with Joshua Ellison and André AcimanJuly 14, 7pm
Museum of Jewish Heritage
36 Battery Place
New York, NYJoin Habitus editor Joshua Ellison for a conversation with celebrated author André Aciman.
Together we will explore a provocative question: Is New York the Diaspora? With its enormous Jewish population, its creativity and culture, and its unparalleled array of options for Jewish living, should we really think of New York City as part of the Jewish Diaspora; or is it just another kind of homeland?
André Aciman has chronicled a life’s journey across continents and has also emerged as one of contemporary New York’s most astute literary observers. He writes: “New York is my home precisely because it is a place from which I can begin to be elsewhere…a shadow city.” We will talk to André about being a stranger at home in New York, about the place of the city in his recent work, and what it means to be a Jew here.
André Aciman is the author of Out of Egypt and, more recently, Call Me By Your Name and Eight White Nights. He is a Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of New York.
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I’ve always been annoyed at New York Jews who think they live in the only place to be. Arrogant, narrow-minded, if I ever experienced a boring Jewish community, its in New York. WARSAW BOUND!
—boymlpisher · June 21st, 2010 at 1:58 am
boymipsher- I totally agree! When I decided to move to Seattle after going to Brandeis, a lot of my New York or Israel-bound friends, especially in the Orthodox community, looked bewildered and said, “Oh. Are there Jews there?”
Bwahahahaha!
I would love to not have to cross international borders for a fleishig restaurant, but other than that, I adore my small-yet-active West Coast community. It’s also pretty much the first place I haven’t felt very uncomfortable for having lefty views on Israel and gay rights. Because, hey, Seattle.
—Shoshie · June 21st, 2010 at 2:33 am
boymlpisher writes:
I’ve always been annoyed at New York Jews who think they live in the only place to be.
This attitude isn’t unique to New York Jews; it can occur among New York residents of any type.
—BZ · June 21st, 2010 at 7:49 am
I would just like to state that the author of this post is from Austin, Texas. He is in Austin right now and until August. He could’ve spent it in New York City, but chose to spend it in Austin.
And yes, there are Jews here.
And my very first regular post at Jewschool was about this very issue: jewschool.com/2009/03/12/15478/lone-stars-of-david/
—David A.M. Wilensky · June 21st, 2010 at 10:08 am
boymlpisher, as if Warsaw wasn’t the New York of the 1800′s.
—chillul Who? · June 21st, 2010 at 10:21 am
chillul who?
I am in Warsaw right now. You cannot compare the two. The situation of Jews in Warsaw in the 1800s was entirely different, Jews were struggling to define their place within the nation-state. We run America, bro.
—boymlpisher · June 23rd, 2010 at 8:44 am