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Transcript
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 I 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. + 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. ................................................................................................. 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. 2 Sh’ma 28/541