Download Sh`ma A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSBBlLlTY

Sh’ma
A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSBBlLlTY
I’m not a synagogue Jew.
God knows, I tried. But I don’t blame
my waywardness on my mother (an aspiring rabbi), my father (an Israeli immigrant), or even on a string of uninspiring
Hebrew school teachers.
The pull came from a much greater
source, that inexplicable thing called
American pop culture. In a land of supposedly unlimited choices, traditional
Judaism didn’t seem as exciting to an ’80s
kid as the latest Nintendo technology or
Michael Jackson’s new 10 minute
“Thriller” video. In my Conservative
synagogue, dark suits, somber melodies,
and still prayer battled against the neon
outfits, synthesized pop tunes, and frenzied dancing I saw on MTV. Easy to
guess which won my interest.
Too Much SUEEeSS
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So here we are in 1997, Jewish parents’
and grandparents’ hands thrown up in the
air. Short of hiring a market strategist to
devise snappy Jewish campaigns, they’re
at a loss. Young Jews are disappearing
into the very “melting pot” that once
offered shelter from religious persecution.
It’s a classic tension between spirituality
and technology. In an age where multimedia
and pop culture have become the “powers
that be,” religion feels like an obscurity.
Synagogue Judaism is not gonna bring the
published by CLAL
twenty-somethings back. Cultural Judaism,
on the other hand, just might.
Dual Identity
Allow me to explain. I grew up on the
outskirts of Detroit, in a neighborhood
populated by Whites, Blacks, Arabs and a
tiny sprinkling of Jews. I attended public
school by day, and went to Hebrew school
two afternoons a week and on Sundays.
Being one of twenty Jews in a large
public school district did more for my
awareness of Jewish identity than being
raised in an all-Jewish environment ever
could. Searching for a group to fit in .
with, I never knew quite how to define
myself. Was I White, since my skin was?
If so, why did non-Jewish White kids
always sense that I was “different”? It
always came back to one indisputable fact:
I was Jewish.
At the same time, Jewish history was
largely ignored. In my eleventh grade American History class, there was one sentence
mentioning the Jewish Holocaust, in an
entire chapter about World War II. Even
twice-a-week Hebrew school lessons couldn’t combat my sense of insignificance. I
began to feel like I lived between two
worlds. On the one hand, I was hyper-aware
of being Merent from my peers, because I
was Jewish. Yet, that very difference-rny
cultural identity-was totally margbked.
- The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership
This identity crisis may be at the crux of the Gen X
Jewish conflict today. We’re permitted, even encourage,
to assimilate into the hot dog/rock ’n roll/pro-sport
landscape of mainstream America. At the same time,
we’re supposed to maintain a second, somewhat abstract
identity-our Jewishness. Rather than bring these worlds
together in some way, we keep them as partitioned as
men and women in an Orthodox synagogue.
Unfortunately, society defines Judaism as merely a
religion, rather than recognizing it as a culture, an
ethnicity. Since few secular American Jews today are
religious, many simply call themselves “Americans.”
In a conversation about Black-Jewish relations, my
friend Dyann raised an interesting point. “I can’t just
wake up one day and decide I’m no longer black,” she
said. “No matter how out-of-touch some African Americans are with their culture, even if they’re adopted by
Whites or raised in an all-White setting, they can’t
choose to be seen as anything else but Black.”
For me, making Judaism part of my daily life won’t
include regular trips to the synagogue, at least not for
now. I do believe in one God, and I consider myself a
spiritual person. On occasion, I will attend synagogue.
Yet, I choose to express my Jewishness on a cultural
level-by refusing to assimilate. When asked to check my
ethnicity on one of those quintessential bubble sheets, I
skip “Caucasian” and go directly to “Other.” Beside it,
I write “Israeli, Jewish, and Middle Eastern.” In many
ways, Jews are an invisible minority. If we don’t assert
our cultural identities, we will continue to be ignored or
stereotyped-and there’s nothing new about that.
Maybe someday, these ethnicity questionnaires will
actually acknowledge Jews, rather than banishing us to
the land of the undefined. But it won’t happen until we
welcome cultural Jews into the dialogue, and create a
’new, expanded definition for ourselves.
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Judaism-Make My Day
Judaism is a bit different. Anyone can convert to the
religion, which doesn’t exactly simplify our struggle for
self-definition. But is Jewishness really a “coat of many
colors” that we can shed at our convenience?
I’d argue that it shouldn’t be. I’d like to see Jewish
contribbion to American culture recognized, our legacy
acknowledged. I want to learn about the many nationalities and cultures within Judaism. I want to know which
modem American inventors, actors, pop musicians, and
writers are Jews-and how their Jewishness shapes their
identities. It makes me feel proud in a sisterly sort of way
(“Hey, my people are cool! Did you hear what we
invented?”) Moreover, it allows me to feel that, even as
a post-Bat Mitzvah Hebrew school dropout, I still have
something to add to the dialogue on American Judaism.
I need to hear the honest stories of young, American
Jews-religious and secular-because it helps me understand who I am.
Feeling akin to other Jews on a global level, outside
of the synagogue, awakens my spirit more than Saturday
services ever could. Why? Because I can relate. It’s
Judaism connected to my experience as a millennial
American Jew interested in multiculturalism and social
issues. Scholarly discussions, contributing to the artsthese are age-old Jewish traditions, just as much as
prayer is. I’d like to see mainstream Judaism open up and
acknowledge that rich aspect of our history.
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OPHIRA EDUT Is 24 years old and Ihres In Ann Arbor MI. She is the
Founding Publisher of HUES (Hear Us Emerging Sisters), a national
quarterly journal for young women of all cultures, shapes and Ilfestyles.
For information about HUES, call 800-HUES-4U2.
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