“Reflections On ‘The Jewish Americans'”
January 11, 2008
Rabbi Gary S Creditor

Recently someone told me that when making an application wherein there were questions of discrimination, he looked to see if being Jewish qualified as a minority. He was struck by the response of “No.” In fact, he was told, that officially, there was no category of discrimination against Jews. Well, official or not, we all know that Jews in the United States have been discriminated against in the past. The truth is that we are hardly discriminated against anymore. We can live where we want. Do what we want. And join nearly any country club we desire. We don't need to hide our names in Hollywood . And we can lobby Congress for Israel even against the President's wishes. From coast to coast, nationally and internationally, economically, culturally, geographically, we, the Jews, have made it. There should be no surprise that as a group we are included in the category “white” or “Caucasian.”  Nearly nothing differentiates us in the public or the private domain.

While I did not see the PBS “The Jewish Americans” that aired this week, I forgot to record it, in reading the reviews and descriptions, I think that the first segment, there two more to follow, clearly indicates the truth of my opening remarks. In the article in The Jewish Week of New York it says: “Jews have slowly reached a balance, overcoming predictable problems like anti-Semitism, making a place for themselves in American society rarely attained by Jews anywhere.”

To all of this I share with you some heartfelt very personal reflections.

A disclaimer: There is only so much I can, and only so much depth into which to enter that in a few minutes that even the series is devoting six hours.

I.

Forty years ago, at numerous USY inter-chapter kinusim , encampments and national conventions, the major topic was the sequence of the two words: Jew and American. Should it be ordered Jewish-American or American-Jew? Both of those phrases employed a hyphen. Today I guess we could create two more sequences in parallel but remove the hyphen. With or without, the conversation of forty years ago and now focuses on the difference between the two sequences, for in both cases the first word stands as an adjective to the second which is the noun.

                        Are we Americans who have some distinguishing characteristics called “Jewish” – leaving that undefined, for the moment? Or,

                        Are we Jews, who happen to live in American, dutiful citizens of the country, yet the main distinguishing attribute is being a Jew – that, too, left undefined for the moment?

                        Which is it?

                        What am I?

                        Which is the square peg and which is the round hole?

                                    Which is supposed to fit into the other?

This documentary clearly gives evidence that we are living in a post-assimilation time because we made it! That struggle is over. But the questions that clearly lie before anyone who calls himself or herself a Jew, before any parent or grandparent that is going to send their children to “religious” or “Hebrew” school – or pay for it - and tell them that they are going to be Bar/Bat Mitzvah, who contemplates joining a synagogue, a JCC or giving to Federation campaigns are:

Why?

How does this activity, membership, involvement define me?

What is the organizing principle of my life?

                                    What is the straw that stirs me?

Which is my core that I cannot live without? And,

                        Which is the periphery that can change or be shed with impunity?

                                    Is there something meaningful in being a Jew?

                                    Is there something meaningful in being an American?

                        Are we prepared, predisposed, predetermined to divest one for the other?

II.

All of this, and the first segment of the series, deals with us, Jews , but not with Judaism . Judaism is a faith . Judaism is a religion . Jews are people . Judaism has been the faith of people called Jews. It was the faith, begun with Abraham that brought forth a people. The people embodied the faith. The faith lived with the people.

            No people, no faith.

            No faith, no people.

Our history couldn't imagine a dichotomy between the two. Certainly if there weren't any believers, Judaism would be relegated to an academic subject, studied like any of the ancient cultures, religions and civilizations that died and disappeared.

            But what about Jews without Judaism?

                        It's obviously possible. Jews have defined themselves through social activism, philanthropy, Soviet Jewry, and Israel – sans religion. Jews have seen their Jewishness through activities in these areas, devoid of Judaism, absent of faith, lacking God.

            My next set of questions:

                        Are these areas of interest transferable to our children? Namely, if this is the sum total of our Jewishness, and these don't interest our children, will they be Jewish? Will they identify themselves as Jews?

                        What happens to Judaism? Will it be the faith of only a small number of those who call themselves Jews? If so, what will be their relationship to those who don't embrace faith and call themselves Jews? Do they know each other? Do they care?

                        Interestingly this is issue is a core subject in Israel . Why are Israelis in Israel ? Why live the hard life they do? Why not leave? Is there a reason to be there? From faith, from Torah, from the concept of God who made a covenant with Abraham and promised him and his descendants this particular land, then there is a clear and present answer.

            But if there is no God, no Abraham, no covenant, then why this land?

            Why be here? There is a struggle within the soul of Israel to know who they are.

            There is a struggle in our souls, or there needs to be:

                        to know who we are and what we want to be,

                        if we want to be,

                        do we want to believe,

and what to believe in.

If we care, if the words “Jew” and “Judaism” mean anything to us, then these are our ultimate questions. I look forward to the next two segments to see what they cover and if they reflect on the existential questions that I have posed tonight. I proposed no response and preached no doctrine, for the answers are not mine to give. They are yours. I look forward to conversations with you.

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To end on a lighter note, the newspaper article quoted a classic joke:

Beryl, pious but poor, was applying for a job as a shamash of a shul in Pinsk . The interview was going well, until the president of the shul handed Beryl the shul bulletin, in Yiddish, to read. Embarrassed, Beryl admitted that he was illiterate.

“We can't hire a shamash who doesn't know how to read,” the shul president said.

With no other prospects in Pinsk , Beryl sailed to America . Like other immigrants, he became a peddler. He prospered. Quickly he was a business owner, then a magnate, then a multi-millionaire.

In a business meeting one day, one of Beryl's employees handed him a report to read. “I don't know how to read,” Beryl told him.

The employee was amazed. “Do you know where you would be today if you knew how to read?” he asked.

“Of course,” Beryl answered. “I'd be a shamash in Pinsk .”

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Shabbat Shalom.