Reconstructing Yiddishkeit 12 Ben Weiner
RECONSTRUCTING YIddISHKEIT 12 Ben WEIneR Among recent attempts to define “a yearning for a more authentic way “Jewish authenticity,” I find one of being Jewish.” Here, for a move- characterization of its absence most ment founded to diminish ritual for intriguing. In an essay titled “The the sake of a socially palatable ideal- Imaginary Jew” that appeared in ism, authenticity means combating an The Nation three years ago, literary identity crisis with a dose of authorita- critic William Deresiewicz analyzed tive tradition – solidifying a tenuous the failure of contemporary Jewish core by wrapping hoary leather straps fiction to produce hard-nosed explo- around arm and head. In contrast, Jay rations of the present, and noted its Michaelson, an author and spiritual- tendency to rely instead on whimsical ity teacher, struck a cautionary note exoticism. This, he claimed, could be in the Forward last year. “Meaningful contextualized as part of a larger social authenticity isn’t about an old reli- trend. “Over the past three decades, gious form,” he wrote. “It’s about when the dense particularity of American a religious, literary or cultural form Jewish life has, outside the Orthodox speaks to the depths of what it means community, largely disappeared,” he to be human.” Advocating “a personal- contended. “American Jewish experi- ized notion of authenticity measured ence is now, by and large, simply by integrity and individual coherence,” American experience.” In other words, Michaelson also warned against the the lack of a coherent Jewish present kind of nostalgia that distorts history to serve as the basis for, among other and handicaps the present, arising, for things, a compelling novel, bespeaks instance, out of repeated screenings of an American Jewish community “beset Fiddler on the Roof.
[Show full text]