moment asks 35 two big questions

MEL BROOKS ELIE RUTH BADER WIESEL GINSBURG SHMULEY WHAT DOES IT MEAN

BOTEACH SARNA JONATHAN TO BE A JEW TODAY? JOE LIEBERMAN ITZHAK PERLMAN WHAT DO JEWS BRING TO THE WORLD? RUTH

LEONARDNIMOY tony kushner WISSE REBECCA NEWBERGER moment JEROME symposium 2010

GOLDSTEIN LIZ LERMAN GROOPMAN

also featuring (in alphabetical order)

THEODORE BIKEL.GERALDINE BROOKS.MICHAEL BROYDE. ALAN DERSHOWITZ. STEPHEN J. DUBNER .DIANNE FEINSTEIN. DA N GLICKMAN ARTHUR GREEN. BLU GREENBERG .ROYA HAKAKIAN .MICHAEL HAMMER SUSANNAH HESCHEL. MADELEINE MAY KUNIN. DANIEL LIBESKIND . YAVILAH MCCOY .RUTH MESSINGER .SHERWIN NULAND .JUDEA PEARL. JUDITH SHULEVITZ. GARY SHTEYNGART. ILAN STAVANS. LEON WIESELTIER

plus READ 35 MORE THOUGHTFUL RESPONSEs online getty images - - 37 mel brooks

" . may/june 2010 / Moment 2010 may/june Sex

Geraldine Brooks Kosher When I announced my plans to marry a Jew and convert every to his religion, one assumed I was doing it for my fian When cé. I told friends that he greeted my decision with bemused indifference, care, doesn’t he if “So baffled: were they and you don’t believe in God, explained, why I on God, it?” do you would earth had nothing to do with it. It was about a people for three millennia. We ought toa people We for three millennia. share what we have learned with the rest of the world. Shmuley Boteach is a rabbi and the author of - - - - - we can certainly offer matzoh brei offer matzoh we can certainly "we bring brie matzah the to world." mel brooks " know how to create passionate marriages. We know so much about inspiring chil as things these on focused have We dren. elytizing faith, nor should we be, yet we Islam and Christianity offer. to much have I do Where issues: macro-cosmic on focus heaven What’s die? to going I’m when go like? How can I be saved? Judaism is fo How do issues: I on cused micro-cosmic learn not to gossip? How do I learn to be spiritually fulfilled? How do I get an in How God? with do I relationship timate avoid and structure family a viable create tenetscertain mastered have We divorce? of life that the modern world fails We at. have yet to correct it—is believing that Ju that believing it—is correct to yet have are not a daism pros is We only for Jews. what do jews bringwhat the to world?

------What does it meanWhat be to a jew today? moment Theodore Bikel Shmuley Boteach symposium 2010 tions of our people. But the biggest mis take the Jews have ever made—and we American Jews American are proud phenomenally of the history and the modern contribu Far too often people forget this. Theodore Bikel is an actor and folk singer. ened with extinction fights for physical people moral a as survive to Yet survival. is as maybe important, more important. the world about survival, we are talking about creative survival, not mere physi cal survival. Everybody who is threat into the jaws of death are better able to face who those than threats the with deal tell we when But time. first the for them with pain. We peddle the lessons of We his with pain. mortal of face the in survival for As tory. threats, we who have repeatedly stared good and evil. We are not better than our not neighbors, nobler; we just carry a knapsack that is heavier with memory, still needs to hear it. Call it the Word of Word Call it the still needs to hear it. call it call an it God, ethical orientation, between difference the of knowledge the people” people” meant chosen for a task, That task for was privilege. to bring the not it— hear to needed that world a to Word Am I special because I am a Jew? Too often, people misunderstand the notion “chosen Being the of Jewish specialness. dant of all the Jews who came before me; before came who Jews the all of dant I am grandfather also and father, ances tor of all those who will come after me. and family of every Jew who lives today, and family of every Jew who lives today, wherever he or she may grandson be. and descen because I am son, Vertical, I consider myself to be a Jew in the ver tical and horizontal sense. Horizontal, because I feel myself to be kin, relative

wrote, I think, was, “You can’t keep Jews Alan Dershowitz moment in jail, they eat lox.” I’ve seen Jews come through an awful lot in my life, especially Being Jewish today includes both a symposium 2010 the Holocaust. In the Army, I suffered positive and a negative element. On a lot of anti-Semitism. Sometimes, I suf- the positive side, Jews have contributed fered a lot of curiosity from southerners: enormously to every aspect of life in the “Mel, what’s a Jew? What do you people world—literary, scientific, legal, medi- history. Since Judaism is passed through eat?” There’s much less stigma attached cal. We tend to be overachievers, leaders the maternal line (a fact I admired for to being Jewish today than there used to and people who exert considerable influ- its hard-headed pragmatism as well as be. But it’s still an excuse for gathering ence on our communities. But this suc- its feminist implications), there was no hate and anti-Semitism. What can we cess continues to breed jealousy. To be way I was going to become the end of a offer the world? We can still offer what a Jew today means always being put on tradition that had made it through Ro- Maimonides and Moses laid down. We the defensive about something, whether man sackings, Babylonian exile, Spanish can offer the law of human behavior. We it’s ’s imperfections or the imper- Inquisition, Russian pogroms and the astonishingly were one of the first cul- fections of individual Jews. Being a Jew Shoah. And reciting the ancient He- tures to create this thing called law, what means never being bored, never being brew blessings encourages me to notice is right and what is wrong, based on the able to say that we are completely safe the small gifts of daily life—the dew on tenets of the Old Testament. And, if they and secure and never being able to for- the grass, the new moon, the swift grace want something tasty, we can certainly get the past. As Jews, we must offer the and subtle hues of sparrows. Slow down, offer matzoh brei. world a vision of moral clarity. There is take a minute, bless the bread and be Mel Brooks is a comedian, writer, actor, di- no clearer moral litmus test in the world grateful. This, I tell myself, is what Jews rector and producer. today than attitudes toward Israel. By do. This is who I am. What can we offer defending Israel while being critical of the world? I think of the poem: “Try to Michael Broyde some of its actions, we force the world praise the mutilated world.” The world to confront its bigotry, its imposition of is a tangle of the beautiful and the ugly, Jews have a particular model of think- a double standard on the Jewish state the cruel and the gentle, the funny and ing about the relationship between law and its refusal to confront the oldest of the tragic. We know from the Torah that and ethics from which there is much to prejudices in the newest of guises. it has always been this way and from the learn. Secular law is a white line—you Alan Dershowitz is an author, trial lawyer sages that it is our business to mend it. are either on the legal or the illegal side and professor at Harvard Law School. Geraldine Brooks is the winner of the 2006 of it. Jewish tradition is about shades Pulitzer Prize in fiction forMarch . of gray. In Judaism, something can be Stephen J. Dubner legal but discouraged, frowned upon Mel Brooks but not prohibited. Medical bioethics is Judaism provides a social, political, his- about shades of gray and is one area in torical and religious blueprint for the I’m part of the generation that changed which Jewish tradition has had an enor- way civilization has unfolded. That’s not their name so they’d get hired. I went mous impact on secular American law. because Judaism was necessarily the best from Kaminsky to Brooks. My mother’s For example, in sharp contrast to the or even the first, but because it is a very name was Brookman. But I couldn’t fit stance taken by the Catholic Church, robust religious tradition that taught the Brookman on the drums. I was a drum- all major Jewish denominations have world what civilization can and should mer. So I got as far as Brook and then put stood in favor of stem cell research, look like. It has informed the way people on an “s.” There was a lot of comedy when provided that it is carried out for medi- have thought for centuries about ven- I was a little kid, street corner comics. We cal or therapeutic purposes. As Jews we geance, guilt, punishment, law and order couldn’t own railroads, so prize fighting can continue to offer the world reason- and justice. Millions of Jews since then and comedy were open to us. We’re still able answers to complex biomedical have done a remarkable job of extending comedians. Maybe because Jews cried and other ethical questions in the name that religious tradition into political, so- for so long, it was time to laugh. Who of religion. cial and moral realms. Marx, Freud and knows? I started in the Borscht Belt Michael Broyde is a rabbi and law professor Einstein, three of the essential intellects with terrible jokes. The first joke I ever at Emory University. who shaped the 20th century, were Jew-

38 may/june 2010 ish. Not only is that not a coincidence, but it’s also not insignificant in inform- ing how we think about Judaism beyond the shul. Judaism has a great deal to of- fer the world in terms of thinking about justice, government, science, medicine, language and music, as do a great many other traditions that I also love with all my heart. Stephen J. Dubner is the co-author of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics.

Dianne Feinstein For some, religious identity may be cut and dried, but it isn’t for me or for many Jews who saw what happened as a result of Hitler and who have been denied homes and land because of their reli- gion. All these things enter into who we are today. Since the whole history of the Jewish people has been one of struggle, there’s much strength to draw from Ju- daism. The motivation, drive, staying power, all those traits we have needed, "marx, freud and einstein" stephen j. dubner are not just inherent in the scriptures or the Ten Commandments but in the whole of our history. The strength of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is the author of purpose and the care and compassion we Rebecca Newberger give to others are important. Whatever 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. God has given us, we use to the fullest. I Goldstein think that defines who we are and what What I’ve always admired about Judaism Dan Glickman we bring. is its worldliness, its earthliness, its impa- Dianne Feinstein is a senator tience with metaphysical questions about Being Jewish has always been a big part of from . God’s existence and the afterlife, which my life because I was one of the limited has always struck me as a realistic assess- number of Jewish people in my commu- ment of the limits of human understand- nity. I got a good Jewish education grow- Ruth Bader Ginsburg ing. Judaism focuses on the here and now ing up in Wichita, Kansas, a small Mid- I am a judge, born, raised and proud of with a zestiness that infuses all different western town, where you were expected being a Jew. The demand for justice runs aspects of life, whether intellectual, cul- to conduct the entire bar mitzvah service. through the entirety of Jewish history tural or spiritual. It’s a life-celebrating As a result, I came away with a strong and Jewish tradition. I hope, in all the attitude, and I love that. There’s also a sense of identity, which I’ve carried with

years I have the good fortune to serve on certain greediness, which I also love, a me as I’ve worked in various fields, includ- courtesy of stephen j. dubner the bench of the Supreme Court of the greediness for life itself. It seems signifi- ing the movie industry, where there are United States, I will have the strength cant that Judaism never went in for mo- many Jews, and agriculture, where there and courage to remain steadfast in the nasticism. Moral growth has to be strived are very few. Bill Clinton always used to service of that demand. for within the mess of human life itself, think it was somewhat humorous that he Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an associate justice because the mess itself is valuable; the appointed me as the first Jewish secretary on the U.S. Supreme Court. mess is life, and life is good. of agriculture. Once, when a change of

may/june 2010 / Moment 39 holy; every human being is the image took my ancestors to get me here as a of God. As what happened in Rwanda, Jew, and I intend to make the same effort moment Bosnia and many other places shows, it for my line, improving the world, I hope, symposium 2010 is a lesson that the world has not learned. in the process. We Jews, as survivors of the Holocaust, Blu Greenberg is the founder of the Jewish should never again let that happen to Orthodox Feminist Alliance and author of other human beings. As bearers of the On Women and Judaism: A View From rules for meat and poultry inspection was memories of slavery, of liberation and the Tradition. under consideration, a group of rabbis covenant, we still need to bear witness came to see me, worried that I was go- and help make the world hear. ing to make kosher slaughtering illegal. Arthur Green is a rabbi and author of Radical Jerome Groopman Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition. I looked at them and said, “Do you think Being Jewish is a dynamic struggle with the first Jewish secretary of agriculture identity. It’s Jacob with the angel, or who- would outlaw kosher slaughtering?” My Blu Greenberg ever it is who comes in the middle of the Jewish upbringing has been valuable for night to wrestle with him. That’s what dealing with both Jews and non-Jews. To be a Jew is to live a joyous, vulner- Jews do: We wrestle with God, we wrestle The dignified treatment of fellow human able, purposeful existence, mindful of the with others, and, most fundamentally, we beings and other principles laid out in noble legacy we carry and the incredible wrestle with ourselves. One of the won- the Torah and the Talmud have created ethics Judaism contributed to the world. derful legacies of Jewish thought is chal- a value system that teaches us how to live It is to take enormous pride in the Jew- lenging authority and doubting. As a sci- our lives and is one we can impart to the ish state and in Jewish contributions all entist, I believe that real scientific progress rest of world. around the world. It is to feel respon- comes from being an iconoclast, smashing Dan Glickman is president of Refugees sible for all Jews, no matter where they idols in the tradition of Abraham so that International. are and to care for the downtrodden, the you challenge traditional wisdom. You outsider and the stranger in our midst. It don’t accept things at face value, and you is exhilaration in the cup half full—the demand a great deal of yourself with re- Arthur Green many ways Judaism has integrated the gard to the validity of your knowledge. I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, in a new feminist values. It is to be grateful The excitement and the energy of science white ethnic neighborhood where a for the core value of family that tradition comes from disputes, and the Talmud is couple of kids could still grab you on contributes to my life. It is sitting in shul, nothing but great authorities arguing with a street corner and say, “What are you, people-watching and loving my commu- themselves. As a physician who takes care kid?” Answering “Jewish” got you a nity more than conversing with God, yet of patients, I look to the wonderful prayer bloody nose, but Jewish was who we deeply sensing the two go hand in hand. (refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf) for the heal- were. I still had a close relationship to It is to believe in God at some moments ing of spirit and body. Judaism long ago Yiddish-speaking Eastern European but not others—accepting this as all-of- appreciated these two dimensions in the grandparents and to that world of native a-piece in an ongoing faith. It is to be experience of illness. As a real-world, prag- Yiddishkeit. There was no question about forever scarred by the Holocaust, yet be- matic people, we are determined to do ev- whether you should “keep being Jewish,” cause of it more intensely bound up with erything possible to improve the physical which meant both religion and ethnicity. our partners in the covenant. It is to wor- condition of the person but understand I am aware that now we have to ask the ry about and marvel at Israel in its ethical, that there is an emotional, psychological question, “Why be Jewish?” People who restrained use of power despite continu- and spiritual dimension that also needs to are fifth-generation American Jews have ous war and threats to its existence. I have be addressed. What we call “healing” re- no connection to Eastern Europe, no faith in the promise of an eternal people, quires both. As a writer, I remember that memory of Yiddish accents. It’s a very yet I know it demands of us a continuous we are people of books who understand different time, a great change in my struggle to stay alive. What a great gift that words have power. There are rabbinic lifetime. What the Jews have to offer to be chosen to walk through history as injunctions against using words incorrect- the world today, however, is our ancient a Jew, a direct descendant of those who ly and false testimony. What I extrapolate truth, to which we were covenanted stood at Sinai and accepted the mission from our tradition is that the words I offer so long ago. All of existence is one and that is not yet finished! I know what it in public to describe science and medicine

40 may/june 2010 have to be carefully chosen and, as best as possible, filled with truth. Jerome Groopman is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Roya Hakakian I was a lot less open to the idea of being a Jew as a teenager in Iran because the con- text in which I could exercise my Judaism was not a democratic one. When I emi- grated to the United States in 1985, how- ever, I had options. Living in a democracy means that Judaism is not a monochro- matic exercise, it is a multi-colored fact, a brilliant spectrum of many possibilities in which the range is so vast that all of us can find a shade that becomes us and allows us to continue to identify as Jewish. I love that our task for the Day of Atonement is to collectively read a single book in a day. One community, one book project. This is what we do as Jews: We read. Our connec- tion with the higher authority is through a very rigorous exercise of reading. Human "a certain greediness for life" religious proxies are dangerous because rebecca newberger goldstein it is easier to manipulate people this way. If there is to be a proxy, let it be a book. As Jews, we can help bring all other faith tor. We not only share a common culture culture, we carry the special talents we communities, including Muslim ones, in and religion, our genes tell us we share a have as Jews. There are many explana- contact with the texts that they worship. common origin. One example is the spe- tions for this. Perhaps Jews, as a result of Enhancing literacy among all populations cial genetic marker of the Cohanim, the having evolved through the many near- is the way to engender the greatest Jewish priestly class, which is represented by a extinctions and persecutions, had to be value there is. unique Y chromosome lineage carried by clever and outthink others to survive. Per- Roya Hakakian is author of Journey from Cohanim in different Jewish communi- haps because Jews could not own land in the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in ties today that traces back to a common many places in the past, they had to work Revolutionary Iran. male ancestor over 100 generations ago. with numbers and mental constructs and I’m not a Cohen but knowing this has an abstractions more than others. And, of Michael Hammer emotional impact on me. Our ancestors course, our culture has always taught us almost went extinct many times in his- the importance of education and study- courtesy of rebecca newberger goldstein When I look at the Jews, I see continu- tory, so it’s amazing that Jews still exist ing. So what do we offer the world? We ity among people of different communi- today as a people. Our genetic heritage offer our unique brand of intelligence. ties—Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, the brings with it all the forces that shaped Michael Hammer is a population geneticist Bukharan Jews from Central Asia—who that struggle for survival. Genetic varia- at the University of Arizona. remained apart for thousands of years. tion is influenced not only by chance but From a population geneticist’s point of also by selective pressure. Whether you Susannah Heschel view, to be Jewish today is to be a beau- have what it takes to survive changes in tiful example of the process of descent the environment depends on what you My father, Abraham Joshua Heschel, was with modification from a common ances- carry with you, so in our genes and our once asked at a demonstration against

may/june 2010 / Moment 41 Tony Kushner tiate what we’re going to keep and what we’re going to let go of. Being Jewish is moment What Jews have to offer the world right a daily act of creation. We can’t keep out symposium 2010 now is what we always have offered it, our creative impulses because they’re although the world has not always been so-called “not rational.” You cannot sur- willing to pay attention. We have a vast vive unless you keep and let go, keep and experience of oppression, of displace- let go. And that is painful and sad—and the war in Vietnam, “What are you do- ment, of a refusal to accept nonexis- very inspiring. ing here?” My father replied, “I’m here tence. Jewish history, culture, theology Liz Lerman is the founder of the Liz because I can’t pray. Whenever I open and ethics have immense amounts to Lerman Dance Exchange. the prayer book, I see images of chil- teach the world in terms of how ma- dren burning from napalm. How can I jorities relate to minorities. They teach pray?” For me, that captures it. On the us how minorities come to understand Daniel Libeskind themselves as being a model for the rest one hand, we have a need to pray. But if What it means to be Jewish today is what of the world, of being more exemplary as we’re able to pray easily when there’s so it has always meant to be Jewish, which is a result of lessons that either history or much suffering around us, it’s not really to bring together memory, the past and God has chosen to teach. The question prayer. My father believed that prayer the quest that is part of the Jewish sense is: Does our survival, which has always had to be subversive, that prayer should of life. Being Jewish is not just a one liner. been a difficult proposition, mean that make you feel that you need to strive It’s a complex tradition with many differ- we’re exempt from our own moral codes for something more. To be a serious ent strands, both religious and secular. when nobody else is following them? Jew means you can’t be complacent. A The challenge and meaning of being Tony Kushner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning life of kedusha means that we have to be Jewish today is to bring together the playwright. concerned about humanity, about others various, often even contradictory, threads who were also created in God’s image. of the Jewish tradition into the future. Susannah Heschel is a professor of Jewish Liz Lerman It’s to assert the very deep Jewish values studies at Dartmouth College. that are always under threat in any con- The Jews are known as “the people of temporary society. What Jews offer the the book,” but we could have been “the world today is to question the world. The people of the body,” too. It’s the body Madeleine May Kunin fantastic thing about being Jewish is that that carries the books. It’s the body that Jewishness offers freedom of discourse We came to the United States when I was remembers the stories. It’s the bodies and imagination in all directions. There’s a child because my mother feared that Hit- that touch each other when we stand in no limit to it; that’s the eternal. That’s the ler would occupy Switzerland, as he had a circle. It’s the body that stood up to Jewish mind. It’s very important for us to all the countries around it. Being a Jew in the pogroms. Our bodies are sources bring something positive to the world in America is very different from being a Jew of knowledge, memory and deep con- which there is so much negativity. Ulti- in any other country. Here, your religion nections that are inexpressible through mately, despite all that has befallen the is not your identity, at least from the view- language. But we decided to define our- Jewish people, the Jewish tradition is a point of other people. You are Madeleine selves as the people of the book and that tradition of joyfulness, of celebration. Kunin, governor of Vermont, not the Jew- has been both fantastic and difficult for Above all else, that is a key to what Jews ish governor of Vermont. But when I re- us. The difficult part is being addressed can offer to the world: to be the leaders turned to Switzerland as an ambassador, I today with a renaissance of artistic ac- against dark shadows. was considered the Jewish American am- tivity in the Jewish community. We can Daniel Libeskind is an architect and artist. bassador. There’s a difference. Jews offer offer the world our notion of survival. the world diversity, intellect and ambition. We’ve absorbed massive amounts of We also offer a sense of history, particu- beautiful things from the cultures in Joseph Lieberman larly the lesson that silence in the face of which we lived, visited, even were op- injustice is never acceptable. pressed by. I am interested in the com- To me, being Jewish today means what Madeleine May Kunin, a former governor promise that emerges from these influ- it has always meant—a covenantal re- of Vermont, is a professor at the University ences. I don’t see compromise as a bad sponsibility to honor and enjoy God’s of Vermont. thing but as the border where we nego- creations (natural and human), and to do

42 may/june 2010 whatever we can to protect and improve their existence. But being Jewish today also means something unique—being blessed to be alive at an extraordinary time in Jewish history, when so many of us have the privilege of being citizens of the United States, which has provided Jews with more freedom, opportunity and respect than any other country in history, and when the State of Israel has been re-established after centuries of praying and working for that result. As Jews, we can try, each in our own way, to advance and implement the great prin- ciples of ethics, justice and humaneness that were given at Sinai. Joseph Lieberman is a United States senator from Connecticut.

Yavilah McCoy What it means to be Jewish today is to be an African-American-Jewish woman. People need to understand that the "the demand for justice" choice to be Jewish cuts across differ- ruth bader ginsburg ent racial identities. We are not look- ing to be integrated and absorbed. We are a manifestation of what Judaism has Ruth Messinger one of less intolerance and less violence. become. We are the Jewish commu- Because we have the capacity, because we Being Jewish is being part of a thou- nity. If I lined all of us up as a Jewish have the obligation, because it directly af- sands-year-old faith that offers guidance people in terms of color, we would look fects how we’re seen in the world and be- as to the importance of connecting to the more like the United Nations than the cause it creates a better world for us and world with a moral agenda requiring ac- United Nations itself. Yet what binds us our children, we should take action. tion. To help others, the Talmud tells us, together is deeper than skin color. Our Ruth Messinger is the president and CEO of is the way of peace. I take very seriously morals, ethics and values have impacted American Jewish World Service. the world. The Exodus was the model the obligation to pursue justice and ad- the Founding Fathers used to found our dress the problems of inequity, injustice country. The United States of America and poverty. The American Jewish com- Leonard Nimoy was supposed to be the next Zion. The munity in the 21st century has reached idea of freedom that permeates the Bi- a level of affluence and influence far be- I’m a first-generation American. My ble is what helped to create the Consti- yond what our grandparents could have parents were very ghettoized people; tution of the United States. Care for the imagined. While the Jewish community they were immigrants. For everything stranger is the model that Jews can give still faces serious problems, there are bil- that broke in the news, their concern to the world in a graceful way. We must lions of people whose lives are worse off was: “Was it a Jewish person?” and “Is it understand that it’s not those who have today. As citizens of the world, not just good or bad for the Jews?” If there was and those who don’t, it is who we all are of our own community, whether this be- something terrible that somebody did, when we stand before God. comes a world of greater or less equity

you prayed that it wasn’t a Jewish person ap images Yavilah McCoy founded Ayecha, a Jewish and justice will reflect on us all. A more because it would inflame anti-Semitism. diversity resource organization. just world is one that will hopefully be We’re past that to some degree. We don’t

may/june 2010 / Moment 43 of an extended family, bonded by shared There is freedom, and I don’t experience history and shared destiny. Our whole discrimination. What it means to be moment culture is based on the tribal idea that Jewish hasn’t changed throughout time, symposium 2010 we have a special responsibility to one it’s just the question of others’ attitudes. another and to the world around us. It’s As far as the Jews are concerned, we are not that we aspire to greater ideals than a people with a serious past history and other collectives but that we have found should always remember who we are. have Father Coughlin on the radio spout- a cognitively compelling way of encoding What Jews can offer the world is what ing anti-Semitism. Still, we take pride in those aspirations, so that they will be pur- they’ve offered in the past: Whether the accomplishments of Jews and worry sued effectively, using a unique symbiosis in science, art or literature, we excel. I about the negatives. What can we offer between tribalism and universalism. God love music. I love traditional klezmer the world today? It would be wonderful promises Abraham: “I will make you into music and traditional cantorial music. to say, “Oh, we’re honest, striving, liberal, a great nation and all people on earth Somebody asked me once, “Why are educated, persevering, cultured, sophisti- will be blessed through you.” Thus, our so many Jews great violinists?” I don’t cated, people of the book, all that good reward is in the progress of mankind, not know. It’s a cycle, it’s a hunger. Today, stuff.” But it’s not so easy today to hold in personal redemption; to be Jewish is to the cycle is not necessarily toward ourselves as an example. Just look at the be universal in compassion and tribal in the Jewish violinists but Asian ones. question of Israeli-Arab relations. I was responsibility. In the time of our grand- Koreans are number one right now. A having a conversation with an Israeli cab fathers, the prayer shawl was our unify- lot of people say, well, you have to be driver once and he said, “They lie to us! ing symbol. Today, Israel is our unifying Jewish to play it this way. I don’t know if We can’t negotiate with them; they lie to force, for it is the most powerful symbol this is true or not. But maybe pain and us!” After a moment’s pause, he added, of our potential as a collective. Empow- suffering, a little krechts in what you’re “And we lie right back!” ered by Israel, we offer the world an un- doing, a sigh—a real sigh—helps. Leonard Nimoy is an actor and photographer. precedented role model of a society that Itzhak Perlman is a violinist and conductor. was blighted by oppression and managed to lift itself from the margin of history to Sherwin Nuland become a world center of art, business Jonathan Sarna and science. We also provide an example Our faith is based on learning and a con- How is being Jewish today different than of a society which constantly creates, stant increase in knowledge and under- it was 500 years ago? Back then, nobody questions the status quo, innovates and standing. We believe in improvement and would likely have asked, “What does it aspires to improve the lot of mankind. progress, based on our notion of free will. mean to be Jewish?” Today, the ques- The strengthening of Israel and peace We live for the here and now rather than tion yields over 14 million hits on the in the Middle East should be our highest for rewards that will be given to us in some Internet, and the answer, in many ways, priority as Jewish people, for this will en- unspecified afterlife. This is probably why is, “It’s completely up to me.” It is com- able us to continue our collective identity the accomplishments of Jews have been so mon to suggest that Jews can offer the and channel all of our cultural charge to remarkable. Remember that famous Rab- world Torah or tikkun olam. The for- the betterment of mankind. bi Tarfon quote from the Pirkei Avot?: “It mer, though, we have already given to Judea Pearl is professor emeritus of is not your duty to complete the work, but the world, and the latter tends to be the computer science at UCLA. you are not free to desist from it, either.” latest universalistic cause with a Jewish We give the world the Jewish personality, inflection. I believe that the value that whose restlessness tells us that this is not a Itzhak Perlman is distinctively ours is the idea of klal perfect world, and we have the responsi- yisrael, the remarkable notion that “all bility to do something about it. You’re Jewish, you’re not Jewish, there’s Jews are responsible for one another” Sherwin Nuland is clinical professor of sur- no difference. Perhaps I think this whether we know them or not, like them gery at . because of the two places where I’ve or not, agree with them or not. Millions lived my life. The first 15 years were in of Jews around the world are alive to- Israel—it’s your land, your mishpacha, day because other Jews—who never set Judea Pearl that’s it. The next 51 years I’ve been living eyes upon them but felt a strong sense Being Jewish is to see oneself as a member in City, a very special place. of kinship toward them as fellow Jews—

44 may/june 2010 reached out to save them or their ances- tors during times of persecution. Sadly, today less than half of all American Jews feel comfortable embracing the notion of klal yisrael. Rather than abandoning this crucial Jewish value, it must be re- inforced and shared with others. If ev- eryone learned to embrace their own people as family, perhaps someday we might advance to embrace other peoples around the world as well. Jonathan Sarna is professor of American Jewish history at .

Judith Shulevitz To be Jewish is to inherit both a wealth of riches and some daunting, even alarm- ing, responsibilities. The first part of this inheritance is intellectual and spiritual— the Torah and Talmud and the rituals endorsed therein and the extraordinary body of law and legend and philosophiz- ing and interpreting that have grown up around them. The second part of the "leaders against dark shadows" daniel libeskind inheritance is less appealing; it features a history of horror, persecution and dis- location. All outsize inheritances make demands on those who receive them; the idea that everyone has the right to that uses the best ideas from around the you can’t hold on to something you rest, an egalitarian notion that is not only world. Jews have been cosmopolitan in don’t manage wisely. So how are we go- the basis of all thinking about modern the best sense of the word and, in that ing to manage our Jewish tradition? Are labor rights but is fundamentally the way, other ethnicities are now becoming we going to be halachic Jews, following ancient notion of human dignity. To be Jewish themselves. it to the letter? Or are we going to see Jewish is to remember these things and Gary Shteyngart is author of The Russian ourselves as interpreters of the tradi- grapple with the obligation to do right Debutante’s Handbook. tion, bringing it up to date but letting by them. observance wither? How do we deal with Judith Shulevitz is author of The Sabbath Ilan Stavans the darkness of our history? How do we World. make sense of it? What Jews can bring To be Jewish is to have a sense of other- to the rest of the world—must bring to Gary Shteyngart ness, to be at once an insider and an out- the rest of the world—it seems to me, are sider. To be Jewish is to be able to speak the good ideas contained within Judaism, I live in New York, which is, in many ways, the language of power but not be at its and the lessons we’ve learned both from more Jewish than Israel. Yiddishisms are command, for power corrupts. To be Jew- courtesy of daniel libeskind extreme powerlessness and our brief pe- used by everyone: Latinos, Chinese, In- ish is to serve as a bridge between cultures. riod of nationhood. We were slaves, and dians, Koreans. It is the lingua franca As time and space travelers, Jews have sur- we wrote the greatest liberation narrative of New York. The most important role vived the nightmare of history by learning ever written. We invented the command- for Jews has been the ability to migrate the codes of the various environments in ment to honor your father and mother. between different cultures, to absorb which they have found themselves, al- We invented the Sabbath. We invented things and to create a kind of mish-mash though never to the extent of forgetting

may/june 2010 / Moment 45 their inner essence. I was born and raised became a people. God gave us the Torah, this regard we at least offer the example of in Mexico City, and, in spite of my Ash- and, in a way, he said, “Oh no, not only for flawed and fallible people who have (usu- kenazi upbringing, I feel a strong con- us.” He gave it to everybody. ally) preferred to be strict with themselves nection to the Iberian Peninsula. I share Elie Wiesel is the author of Night, co- about themselves. We certainly have been not only some of its languages but its col- founder of Moment Magazine and the among the world’s great teachers of the lective imagination. The Jews of Spain winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. spirit of criticism. before 1492 were into materialism while Leon Wieseltier is the literary editor of The also devoting themselves to mathematics, New Republic. philosophy and poetry, believing—fool- Leon Wieseltier ishly, as it turned out—in the coexistence The meaning of Jewishness, however of religions. American Jews have many of much we refine it and contribute to it, is those same traits and will share the same not anything that we wholly invent and To be a Jew means being part of a civi- fate. The American experiment isn’t eter- is not just an affair of self-expression. It is lized people who live according to the nal; like other civilizations of the past, it something that we inherit. To be a Jew to- law of Moses and Israel. That remains no is meant to give place to other varieties day means still to be a member of a people simpler today than it was in the desert, or of human interaction. Medieval Spain that is one of the primary facts of human under the rule of Romans, Christians or disappeared but not its Jews. While this history, that created an entire civiliza- Muslims, though perhaps simpler than it wonderfully complex nation of ours isn’t tion around the religion that is its core. I was under Nazism and communism. The ahistorical, the Jews in it are. That’s an find it impossible to imagine a meaning- value of Jewish national discipline, cre- enormous responsibility that dispenses a ful Jewishness without some deep rela- atively refined over many centuries, was crucial knowledge: Jews must always see tionship to Judaism in its philosophy or proven when Israel reclaimed indepen- our day and age from what Baruch Spi- its practice. For all our devotion to this dence three years after the Holocaust. No noza called sub specie aeternitatis—under world, which our tradition more or less Jewish offering to the world could possibly the aspect of eternity. mandates, Jewishness must also have an be greater than the example of a people Ilan Stavans is a professor of Latin Ameri- otherworldly element, some acknowledg- ground to ashes whose remnants had the can and Latino culture at Amherst College. ment of meanings that we cannot see or wisdom, strength and courage to reclaim touch. Otherwise it will be merely ethnic its land and gather its displaced persons. Elie Wiesel or tribal or anthropological. Being born a What we can offer the world depends, Jew is a stroke of good luck, and an honor alas, on the world. Today, as in the past, As a Jew, I know that not everyone can and a summons to work. We bring to the the most corrupt and barbaric forces com- make history. But it’s incumbent on all of world all the things we are, high and low, mit aggression against the Jewish “entity,” us Jews to be part of Jewish history. And good and bad. The important thing is to forcing Israel to become the front line of the way to accomplish that is to be part of be able to distinguish between our high defense for human decency. Until the ag- the community of Israel. That community and our low, our good and our bad. The gressors come to terms with Israel, the includes learning, solidarity and memory ethical ideals and the spiritual challenges best we Jews can offer is to resist our de- with all of its components, the tragic and that our tradition teaches are certainly a famers and would-be destroyers. Repair- the glorious. Memory is part of learning, light unto the nations, though they ought ing the world begins with stopping wars but learning without memory is impossible. to be first a light unto ourselves. As for our against the Jews. We should remember and feel solidarity as low things and our bad things, we are as Ruth Wisse is a professor of Yiddish literature a Jewish people, Israel, whatever we call human as the rest of the species, but in and comparative literature at Harvard. Jewish destiny individually and collective- ly. As Jews, we must help teach the world that whenever a community is targeted, all Moment's 2010 Symposium continues at momentmag.com are affected. Hence, as Jews, we must help all who need help, wherever they are. We with Ed Asner, David Biale, Andrei Codrescu, Anita Diamant, Samuel must understand their needs, understand Freedman, Dara Horn, , Walter Mosley, Francine their fears and understand their joys. And, Prose, Hannah Rosenthal, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, David Saperstein, ultimately, understand what is theirs is also ours. It is incumbent on the Jewish people Harold Schulweis, David Wolpe, edward witten, Y-Love and many more because this is what we have done since we

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