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November 26, 1999/17 Kislev 5760, Vol. 52, No.13
Is Jewish the new 'new thing'?
GARY ROSENBLATT
New York Jewish Week
Madonna, Roseanne, Elizabeth Taylor and Sandra Bernhard are among the pop celebrities studying kabbalah, a once-obscure form of Jewish mysticism undergoing a remarkable renaissance.
Best-selling books over the last year include "Kosher Sex" and "Kaddish," and in "The Big Lebowski," a recent Hollywood film, John Goodman plays a bowler who proclaims, "I never roll on Shabbos."
What's going on here? Is it "in" to be, and "do" Jewish these days?
And is there a downside to this - and why do some of us feel vaguely uneasy about this seeming infatuation with things Jewish?
Richard Siegel, the executive director of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, notes that Jewish culture has become increasingly mainstreamed into American society. He says he sees more regional theaters and symphonies and museums doing plays and music and exhibits with Jewish themes.
"The phenomenon is in the normal integration of the Jewish experience into American life," says Siegel. "Despite our demographic problems, we American Jews have been successful in maintaining our specific identity within an open society."
Some Jewish leaders believe that one way to bring unaffiliated Jews back to Judaism is to show them that non-Jews are interested in Jewish teachings and ethics. If Madonna studies kaballah and Michael Jackson goes to shul, then maybe Jews will be impressed sufficiently to explore their own religion, according to the theory.
Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, says Americans in general are obsessed with celebrity, and like most minority cultures, American Jews are looking constantly for reassurance from the majority. "It's pathetic and anachronistic," he says. "We should be beyond that by now."
Jenna Weissman Joselit, who teaches American and Jewish studies at Princeton University, puts the issue into historical perspective. Jews yearning for acceptance by non-Jews is nothing new, she says, noting that an exhibition of Bezalel art from Palestine at Madison Square Garden was a big hit in 1914, and Jews were thrilled to see Christians buying Jewish art.
"It's a symptom of our insecurity," she says, adding that the increased mixing of cultures of late may be a product of the growing rate of intermarriage and a heightened interest in "the other."
So what are we to make of all this? The evidence is clear that Jews and things Jewish are increasingly part of American life, but the question is whether this mixing of cultures will have a positive or negative effect on American Jewish life.
The fear is that if America accepts Jews and their culture too readily, we will lose our distinctiveness as a people and assimilate completely. That's already happening in terms of interfaith marriage, since Christians now see Jews as acceptable marriage partners.
The positive view is that with acceptance, Jews will feel more comfortable with their identity and will be emboldened to observe their rituals and maintain their distinctive customs and lifestyle with pride.
In the end, then, it's what we make of it. Maybe the question we should be asking in this context is not "Who is a Jew?" but who cares, and why?
Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week.
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