I often try to explain to American Jews my general observation of the Jewish experience in North America: their American identity is a primary identity, and their Jewish identity is a secondary identity. This truth is obvious to me, but many reject this observation. This week, I had an interesting debate which gave me a rare opportunity to win one "battle" in what appears to be a lost "war".
An American Jewish guest in my home countered my observation by noting that his identity is a "synthesis". It is composed of many elements, and there is no component of this identity that is first or second, major or minor. He's an American, and he's a Jew - in addition to other aspects of awareness. Well, as always, I argued that one's American education is always very substantial, whereas the time spent in a Jewish educational framework is generally so brief. It simply can't be that the two cultural worlds are equal. Although no one would know the answer, still I asked him: "What percentage of American Jews would know the names of the Five Books of Moses?" On the spot, he admitted that he himself doesn't know the names, just as he doesn't even know the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In short, so I argued, he doesn't have any Jewish educational background, so surely Jewish culture is quite foreign to him. His reaction was that it shouldn't be dictated what one has to study in order to be culturally Jewish. People have a right to choose for themselves the content of their cultural world (and no one would be entitled to define such a cultural world as having mere secondary importance in life).
It occurred to me to ask my guest if he felt that studying the US Constitution should be obligatory in the American school system. His immediate answer was "yes" - it is very central". So it turns out that there are aspects of education that are so very important that they should even be dictated to the public. But why would he have such standards for his American society, but there is no need for any standards in his Jewish life? The answer is that American life is important, and hence it justifies educational standards. Jewish life is not really important, and hence one doesn't have any real intellectual expectations from the Jewish public. "Important", so I claimed, "can be translated to 'primary', whereas unimportant can be translated to 'secondary'". Much to my surprise, this line of logic was convincing - he accepted the fact that his American identity is primary, and his Jewish identity is only secondary.
It's very rare to have an ideological debate that ends with an admission that the one side is right. Seemingly, I should be pleased - but I'm not pleased at all! My central claim in this whole blog has been that the American Jewish community lacks a tradition of self-criticism. Everything is just fine, and there is no sense of failure or crisis that must immediately be addressed. This above debate is no different. My logic was that a Jew who recognizes that Jewish identity is merely secondary would be very interested to examine ways to change such a sad and disappointing reality. After all, it is a break with the entire history of the Jewish people. However, this was not the conclusion that was drawn from the above new understanding of identity. There was no sense of emergency, no pondering what could be done to remedy this problem. On the contrary. The fact was simply accepted as a reality, about which there is absolutely no value judgment. I can only wonder what would be the Jewish crisis in America that a "simple Jew" would understand as unusual and deserving of some serious soul-searching. So far I haven't found it.
An American Jewish guest in my home countered my observation by noting that his identity is a "synthesis". It is composed of many elements, and there is no component of this identity that is first or second, major or minor. He's an American, and he's a Jew - in addition to other aspects of awareness. Well, as always, I argued that one's American education is always very substantial, whereas the time spent in a Jewish educational framework is generally so brief. It simply can't be that the two cultural worlds are equal. Although no one would know the answer, still I asked him: "What percentage of American Jews would know the names of the Five Books of Moses?" On the spot, he admitted that he himself doesn't know the names, just as he doesn't even know the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In short, so I argued, he doesn't have any Jewish educational background, so surely Jewish culture is quite foreign to him. His reaction was that it shouldn't be dictated what one has to study in order to be culturally Jewish. People have a right to choose for themselves the content of their cultural world (and no one would be entitled to define such a cultural world as having mere secondary importance in life).
It occurred to me to ask my guest if he felt that studying the US Constitution should be obligatory in the American school system. His immediate answer was "yes" - it is very central". So it turns out that there are aspects of education that are so very important that they should even be dictated to the public. But why would he have such standards for his American society, but there is no need for any standards in his Jewish life? The answer is that American life is important, and hence it justifies educational standards. Jewish life is not really important, and hence one doesn't have any real intellectual expectations from the Jewish public. "Important", so I claimed, "can be translated to 'primary', whereas unimportant can be translated to 'secondary'". Much to my surprise, this line of logic was convincing - he accepted the fact that his American identity is primary, and his Jewish identity is only secondary.
It's very rare to have an ideological debate that ends with an admission that the one side is right. Seemingly, I should be pleased - but I'm not pleased at all! My central claim in this whole blog has been that the American Jewish community lacks a tradition of self-criticism. Everything is just fine, and there is no sense of failure or crisis that must immediately be addressed. This above debate is no different. My logic was that a Jew who recognizes that Jewish identity is merely secondary would be very interested to examine ways to change such a sad and disappointing reality. After all, it is a break with the entire history of the Jewish people. However, this was not the conclusion that was drawn from the above new understanding of identity. There was no sense of emergency, no pondering what could be done to remedy this problem. On the contrary. The fact was simply accepted as a reality, about which there is absolutely no value judgment. I can only wonder what would be the Jewish crisis in America that a "simple Jew" would understand as unusual and deserving of some serious soul-searching. So far I haven't found it.
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