Chapter 10 CFSa Inventing Jewish Identity in California: Shlomo Bardin, Zionism, and the Brandeis Camp Institute Deborah Dash Moore This chapter employs a case study to explore educational inno- vation explicitly designed to change the Jewish identities of its par- ticipants. Through its focus on a charismatic figure in Los Angeles and the camp he created in the Simi Valley, the chapter approaches central issues of individual initiative and communal organization to test the claims of theory Close attention to local history not only al- lows us to reclaim the past in its rich detail to see how ideas and dreams were translated into actual institutions, but it also provides a solid ground for subsequent generalizations. Shlomo Bardin and the Brandeis Camp Institute, the subjects of this chapter, were part of a larger American movement in adult Jewish education that flourished after World War 11. Such mass membership Jewish orga- nizations as Hadassah and B'nai B'rith embarked on ambitious ef- forts to educate their members; to train a new generation of leaders; and to foster basic Jewish literacy, ritual competence, and ideologi- cal commitment (Moore 1981: 231-40; 1997). Yet Bardin's decision to locate the Brandeis Camp Institute just outside of Los Angeles took him on a different path from that of adult Jewish education. Responding to the character of Los Angeles Jewry and in partner- ship with local leaders, Bardin developed a form of spiritual recre- ation specifically tailored to address the needs of uprooted Jews of 202 Deborah Dash Moore Inventing Jewish Identity in California 203 Los Angeles. These Jews retained only faint memories of Jewish life ring. The high mobility of American society guarantees that each in the Northeast and Midwest, their home towns. Most had received generation is encouraged to make its own way physically removed a minimal Jewish education and few knew how to practice any from their parents. Only a minority of Jews live in the same city as forms of Jewish ritual observance. Yet, because of World War I1 and their parents and grandparents, and even mobility from one neigh- the Holocaust, they were not ready to abandon Jewish life and a borhood to another causes some dislocation. Jews who moved to connection with the Jewish people. Entrepreneurs like Bardin, who California after World War 11 left behind a Jewish cultural world set out to reach these Jews, recognized that they would be future that many of them actually rejected. They did not seek to replicate leaders of American Jewry, and, therefore, of Diaspora Jews. Thus the world of their parents in Los Angeles, one of the reasons why he tried to develop educational institutions to inspire Jews to be they were open to the innovation and personal charisma of Bardin. Jews, to link them with Jewish peoplehood, to whet their appetite So if a disrupted culture characterizes Jewish life, identity forma- for more learning, and to encourage them to bring up their children tion will resemble Len-Straus's bricoleur more than any organic, as Jews. holistic process of intergenerational transmission. I need not add I characterize these innovative methods as spiritual recreation that Bardin was a bricoleur, scavenging bits and pieces of his own because this approach to Jewish education integrated it into the pastperhaps in a way analogous to Harvey E. Goldberg's persua- leisure pattern of living typical of Los Angeles. Indeed, the city's as- sive account--to produce a formula that worked (Goldberg 1998). sociations with leisure, epitomized in the tall palm trees lining the Second, I think that Daniel Elazar's substantivists and experi- streets, attracted thousands of Jewish newcomers each month after entialists are valuable categories of analysis as long as we recognize the end of the war. Yet Jewish recreation differed from other, popu- them as gendered terms (Elazar 1998). Thus the split between the lar forms: it was spiritual. It inspired, uplifted, transformed. From two involves a gendered division. Substantivists are male, that is, an easterner's perspective, it often appeared shallow and superfi- the educational ideals they subscribe to come close to masculine cial, with a touch of Hollywood dramatics. From our contemporary Jewish traditions of education-traditions that are now increas- perspective, it might appear typically Californian: eclectic, experi- ingly open to women. The experientialists are female, trying, in ential, experimental, and popular. I argue that it was remarkably Elazar's words "to give people a good feeling about feeling Jewish." effective. Whether it is exportable or serviceable as a model of Jew- That is exactly what many Jews took away from their homes, where ish education depends, in part, on how one assesses the condition of women traditionally were educated. Recognizing this gendered American Jewry today. If most American Jews now resemble those reading of the educational debate might be productive because it postwar pioneers who moved to Los Angeles, then spiritual recre- might encourage us to look at how Jews behaved in their homes, ation may indeed point to the future. Bardin certainly thought of points made by Riv-Ellen Prell (Prell 1998). Bardin chose to focus himself as a pathfinder. Perhaps he was right. His one unfinished upon Shabbat because he believed in it deeply, because it provided dream was to build a model Jewish preparatory school, as good as that specific point of Jewish spirituality and peoplehood that was Choate or Exeter, which would attract and train the cream of the potentially transformative, and because one could enjoy it with all of crop, the future leaders of the American and Jewish world. In 1970 one's senses. Not only did Bardin want people to feel good about such dreams could not be realized; now the idea seems far from im- feeling Jewish, he also wanted them to feel good. possible and thus may be implemented by figures who don't recog- This brings us to Prell's two narratives of mobility and intimacy, nize that they are following Bardin's footsteps. both gendered accounts. Mobility produced leisure time, a mark of Before turning to Bardin and the Brandeis Camp Institute, middle-class status in postwar America, a desired goal of not having some theoretical reflections are useful. First, I think it is important to constantly work. One of the attractions of a city like Los Angeles to emphasize the disrupted character of Jewish culture throughout to American Jews was its leisurely atmosphere: the climate, patterns the world (Elazar 1998). Even when we think we see continuity, as of work intermixed with recreation, casual clothing styles, and so- in the United States where the majority Jewish population is at cialization opportunities out-of-doors, all pointed to the breakdown of least two and often three or four generations removed from the dis- rigid categories associated with work and urban life in the Northeast locations of immigration, an ongoing process of disruption is occur- and Midwest. There "going out" involved getting "dressed up" to 204 Deborah Dash Moore Inventing Jewish Identity in California 205 engage in leisure activities in places that were special, an utter con- experimental religious rituals. Bardin deliberately set out to arouse trast to the situation in Los Angeles (Nasaw 1993). Ultimately the emotions: to awaken interest in the Jewish people, to stimulate a two narratives propel Jews to L.A. where Judaism and Jewishness desire to pursue Jewish knowledge, and to instill a sense of respon- can both become leisure-time pursuits. If Judaism and Jewishness sibility for the Jewish future. "Above all," he explained, the institute are leisure-time activities, they will change. They will become part of "attempts to create an atmosphere which enables the young Jew to a Jew's identity, but a special part, providing certain rewards and gain new insight into himself, . " (Bardin 1946: 27). The institute satisfactions tailored to each individual. tapped the talents of Jews working in the motion picture industry. Finally, Arnold Eisen spells out some of the rewards, including Bardin enlisted them to create the "atmosphere," to write scripts meaning, community, and religious experience, which can be ac- and stage pageants, to compose music and design rituals, and to in- quired as a leisure-time activity Bardin recognized the value of all spire the art of Jewish living in their own lives and in the lives of three and tried to provide these to young adults who came on others. Bardin grasped the manifold possibilities of Jewish spiritual "aliyah" to Brandeis. He explicitly used drama-theatrics, is another recreation. name--and music to reach people quickly because he had to work his The future BCI began as an experimental summer leadership magic in four weeks with young people and in the space of a week- training program initiated by the recently established American end with adults. Bardin produced Judaism-he staged it-so that Zionist Youth Commission and run by its energetic director, Shlomo those watching were simultaneously participants and observers. Bardin. The camp institute intended to demonstrate to campers the To summarize the relevant theory for this case study of Bardin compatibility of their Jewish and American identities. It intention- and the Brandeis Camp Institute: the Brandeis Camp directed its ally catered to young adults, aged eighteen to twenty-five, whose attention to Jews whose culture was disrupted, which meant most Jewish ties were most vulnerable. This vision owed something to L.A. Jews who were migrants to the city, and created an experien- Louis Brandeis's version of Zionism. The goal was "to give the young tial female-gendered program that spoke to young Jewish women, a feeling of belonging; . to make him feel at ease as a Jew in an future homemakers, helping them to feel good about feeling Jewish.