Kertzer, Morris, and Lawrence Hoffman - What Is a Jew?

[oyceter]

(subtitle: A Guide to the Beliefs, Traditions, and Practices of Judaism That Answers Questions for Both Jew and Non-Jew)

To clarify, I am in the non-Jew category.

I feel incredibly stupid reading this book, since I feel like I should know more about this topic. But after several completely random anti-Semitic comments that sprung up during the PotC2 debate and IBARW, I realized that I knew pretty much nothing about Judaism the religion, and even less about Jewishness (is that the proper term?) as a culture.

I've learned more about Passover and the seder from LJ and from books, but most of what I know about Judaism is from the Bible, from the extremely obscure Kabbalistic references that anime and manga so loves to use, pop culture Yiddish, and the Holocaust. In fact, I feel extremely stupid just typing all that out and exposing the depths of my ignorance.

Anyhow. I learned quite a bit from the book, from how the Torah is different from the Bible to the importance of Israel, which I hadn't really understood before. I understood it intellectually, but never quite got why emotionally. I'm not saying that I do now, but it's more understandable now.

But I'm leaving the book with more questions than answers, including questions on how accurate the book is. I have no doubt that the rabbis who wrote it are factually accurate, but it's the emotional accuracy that I'm not sure about and that probably no one can answer, as the emotional accuracy will differ with each individual. At least now, I have the terms to think about things in, and a broad framework for questions, which is much more than I had before this.

But I find that I want to know more; I want to know what the culture is like when lived in, what it means when you're half in it and half out of it, what it means for a strict Orthodox, what it means for a Reform Jew, what it means for a non-religious Jew. And I'm sure all these things aren't something that can be answered by anyone, just like questions on Chinese culture will have a broad framework but vary on the individual level.

I'm glad I read it, and that I know more now about Jewishness as a living culture, as opposed to the oft-frozen-in-time culture that it felt like to me in books (probably because most books on Jewishness that I have read have been about the Holocaust).

Need to find more books now.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I could tell you more about Jewish culture from a non-religious perspective-- and there's quite a few of us out there who are not religious but identify strongly with the culture, despite the fact that many of us would happily eat lobster topped with bacon.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

There's a proverb that goes something like 'two jews -- three opinions.'

For kids, I recommend the All-of-a-kind Family books by Sidney (sp) Taylor. They are set early in the 20th century, but they are lively and entertaining and were the only books with Jewish people I remember from my childhood.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

All of a Kind Family!

(Sorry, I just had a moment of squee there. I loved those books as a kid.)

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I'd similarly suggest fiction to get a good sense of place, culture, and ideology. There was a boom of 1960s fiction about muscular, can-do, epic Israeli nationalism: peri- and post-war novels like War and Remembrance and Mila 18; and Leon Uris churned through a number of trees writing fiction about the founding of Israel. Chaim Potok's The Chosen is about the relationship between two New York boys who are different flavors of Jewish, and how their senses of tradition interact. Jane Yolen has done several children's books about Ashkenazi myths and legends.

One easy non-fiction source for knowledge about everyday life (in the US anyway) is the New York Times Metro section. New York has a really big population of Jews, of all different flavors, and you'll find culture articles here and there that can fill in little gaps. (There was a piece a week ago about the first female leader of an Orthodox congregation, and how she was a rabbi but couldn't technically do this or that because of her sex, and how the congregation danced delicately around the rules.)

[rydra_wong]

I feel incredibly stupid reading this book, since I feel like I should know more about this topic.

Trust me, it's even more embarrassing to realize that you know nothing when you're actually demi-Jewish.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too. And as someone who grew up in a fairly observant family (though somewhat later than where the books were set), I can testify that Sydney Taylor got it right.

There's a somewhat more depressing take on it in My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok. about a boy whose need to be an artist brings him into conflict with his Judaism.

[fialka.livejournal.com]

Some stuff by Jewish feminists -- they're all a bit old, but it's a different perspective, one that meant a lot to me while I wrestling with my relationship to the religion (having been raised fairly secular, I didn't know much about it growing up):

Dreams of an Insomniac - Irena Klepfisz
Standing Again at Sinai - Sylvia Plaskow
Deborah and Golda and Me - Letty Cottin Pogrebin

And on a more theological note (she's a British rabbi):
On Being Jewish - Julia Neuberger

[fialka.livejournal.com]

Yes! Me too! Or rather, they were the only books I got to read as a child with Jewish children that *wasn't* about the Holocaust.

[oyceter]

I will very much pick your brain some time! I'm also curious in how it works out with the Baba-lover-ness of your parents.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the rec!

[oyceter]

Thanks for the recs!! I've heard of the Potok (and Yolen, of course), but not the rest, and I never thought of the newspaper.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

How it works out also has to do with my Dad's parents being atheists, and my Mom's parents just not being very religious. Then we had Baba. Now we have me, the atheist. The fact that I still consider myself Jewish, and every Jew I've ever met thinks I'm Jewish, is a testament to the fact that being a Jew is about a lot more than the practice of Judaism.

"Two Jews, three opinions" is also the (proverb? joke?) I would quote if I was trying to sum up the concept of Jewish culture apart from religious practice in four words.

[oyceter]

Oh thank you!! I was looking for Jewish feminist books at the library but didn't even know where to start.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yup. A Jewish agnostic raised by Jewish agnostics reporting for duty as well here. (-:

I wasn't raised in a Jewish community, didn't attend any synagogues, didn't keep any holidays except the minor one of Chanukkah, but my family and I still totally culturally identified as Jewish.

[oyceter]

Ah yes. See, the books always have the basics, but then there are the myriad variations from real life as well. Or I get to know the myriad variations without knowing the basics, and I end up confused again.

[oyceter]

Cool! I figure there is this very large culturally Jewish component that I know nothing about, and that the non-fiction books may not address that much.