One of the most interesting on-going debates among scholars has been the existence of–or lack of– a single Jewish ethos. Some scholars have questioned that there exists “a Jewish People.” While I agree that the composition of the Jewish people is extremely diverse, I would tend to disagree that we lack a “universal Jewishness.” There have to be some intrinsic Jewish values that glue together the Diaspora, right? Is it a common political identity? A common history? A common religious outlook? A connection to Eretz Israel? Perhaps it’s something that cannot be explained…a feeling that you get when you meet a fellow Jew in a distant part of the world- a feeling that he or she understands precisely who you are and what you have been through.
What if the concept of a Jewish ethos is not a product of anything that we do or feel, but rather a function of how others perceive us? That is, what if the one thing that unites all Jews–however diverse–is the perception of “outsiders” that we are in fact one people? If this is the case, perhaps we should (as a people) define what our “oneness” should look like. That is, if the outside world is going to group us together and view us as having a single Jewish identity, it may be useful to help those individuals along.
So, what should our “public face” look like?
Shall we be the Jon Stewarts and Woody Allans of the world? Neurotic, seemingly harmless, and Kvetchy?
Shall we be Rham-bo? Arrogant, fiery, uncompromising, “All up in your grill” about every issue of importance to our people?
Shall we work behind the scenes and deflect attention from ourselves?
Shall we take pride in and proactively emphasize our literary, political, economic, and social accomplishments?
Shall we take pride in and emphasize our military accomplishments?
Shall we downplay our accomplishments?
Shall we remind our enemies that we are still here and that future encroachments will be met with force?
Shall we apologize for our people’s misdeeds?
Shall we assimilate or try to remain “outside” the mainstream?
From an academic perspective, there is no single Jewish people. Even if we limit the definition of the Jewish people to only those relatively few observant, orthodox Jews. There is a common language of prayer and common beliefs, so we've got that. However, Sephardim and Ashkenazim can't even agree on the order of these common prayers let alone other customs or even philosophies. If we assume that religious praxis is the barometer of the Jewish people then progressing toward ultra-orthodoxy just brings more divisions, different customs, different languages.
ReplyDeleteOnly on an emotional and somewhat religious level can we speak of the Jewish people. Theoretically we could define the Jewish people as those people whose souls attended the revelation at Sinai. It's not very academic, but it works. It ties us all back to the defining moment of the Jewish people (who at that point were unified).
In terms of our public persona, "the" Jewish people is similar to "the" Hispanic minority (or majority, depending on whether you're reading this in the not so distant future) in America. The term Hispanic covers a wide swath of vastly different peoples. Yet an ignorant, xenophobic American will probably think of them as Mexicans, pay them no mind and get on with his day. Argentinians can barely understand Nicaraguans and in general are far more European in culture, language and thought. Neither of them are Mexicans; each have their own customs, traditions, dialects. However, the one (P.C.) word that binds them together is derived from their distant, once common place of origin: Spain. (Or for Americans their presumed more recent common place of origin: Mexico.)
That said, we should do all of the things you suggested above (each in their own time), except for one: never assimilate!
(Eli)