On Faith asks:
“Starting this week PBS will air a series on ‘The Jewish Americans.’ We know what ‘Jewish identity’ has meant in the past. What will it mean in the future? How does a minority religion retain its roots and embrace change?”
For me this is not just a question. It is THE question. And while I have no crystal ball, for me Jewish identity depends and will continue to depend on maintaining ties to other Jews.
It’s important to remember that Judaism is not just a religion or a cultural inclination. Jews originally constituted a tribe. There is a reason that there must be 10 people (or men, if you’re orthodox) present in order to pray. And for much of our history we lived separated from non-Jews. Our religion is intended for a physical community.
Today we don’t all live in the same ghetto and there aren’t any social barriers keeping us from the non-Jewish world. And so we must choose to maintain social ties to other Jews. The documentary told the story of Anna Solomon, who raised her children Jewish in 19th century Arizona with no synagogue for thousands of miles. She accomplished that by sheer force of will and insisted that all of her children marry Jews. Most people would have disappeared into the general population. Jews need to be around other Jews to stay Jewish.
During the opening section of “The Jewish Americans” last night, I looked closely at every video and photo of modern American Jews, fully expecting to see someone I know. Jews are a small group, which creates a sense of closeness. Any Jew who has ever attended a Jewish summer camp, gone to a youth group event, belonged to a synagogue, traveled to Israel, or just been around Jews in general feels that the Jewish world is familiar and part of their life. Thus the time honored tradition of playing Jewish geography. When you meet another Jewish person, you find out where they’re from and what sort of Jewish affiliations they have, and proceed to name people they might know. It’s a small enough Jewish world that this is often a productive exercise. I was not particularly surprised to find that me and fellow Jew “Lox et Veritas” have seven Facebook friends (all Jews) in common.
In an atmosphere of choice, where few concrete markers of Jewish identity remain, Jewish affiliation is the key to self-definition as a Jew. The “Jewish” label is minimally imposed from the outside, so it must come from an individual’s active choices. Participating in Jewish activities – be they cultural, religious, Zionist, or social – is the only sure way to a strong Jewish identity. Only fasting on Yom Kippur or only watching Woody Allen movies is not enough.
Jewish communal life has been redefined, and Jewish identity is following suit. An individualistic conception of an ancient community is underway; it is now the conscious participation in some aspect of Jewish life that at once declares Jewishness and creates Jewishness.
Comments (2)
I completely agree 100%!
Posted January 14, 2008 10:44 PM
Posted on January 14, 2008 22:44
Good assessment, Shari. But there's another question here, that all of us are asked at least once in our Jewish lives, related to yours:
Are we Jewish Americans, or are we American Jews?
Answers I have received to this question are varied: some say that the noun is most important and is the most defining, as in "a loud person". The identifier is the "person" label, while the adjective is merely a characteristic. So too, this answer would imply that if we are Jews who live in America, then we should be "American Jews". However,if we are Americans who incidentally happen to be Jews, then maybe we are "Jewish Americans".
On the other hand, some would argue that the more important term should come first, where both are equally as valuable, though I can't think of a good example outside of cultural markers, like "Italian American". On the other hand, we always talk about the German Jews, the Mizrachi Jews, the French Jews. It's almost unheard-of to speak of Jewish Germans, Jewish Mizrachiyim, Jewish Frenchmen. So why in America are we Jewish Americans, the other way?
Posted January 10, 2008 3:22 PM
Posted on January 10, 2008 15:22