A friend who disagrees with me on Israel/Palestine sent me an email the other day inviting me to Rosh Hashanah services. Her headline was cute: "tribal rites." Then her signoff was, "Come in, the water's fine." I like her though we''ve never talked politics. Not long ago I was over at her house and there was klezmer. Beautiful klezmer, and good Jewish food, a semi-mixed crowd. She's tribal and makes no apology. The night after her invitation I had a dream. I was at Jim's house (a pseudonym). I knew him a long time ago, I don't think of him often. He's Italian and has always been odd about his Italianness. He thought it a bad thing for people to see his ethnicity in him when he was trying to succeed in New York. He grew up working class. He would be weird if you brought Italian culture up–just wanted to be the generic hipster. And in the dream I was at Jim's house and seeing what an amazing family he had. His parents went back generations as suppliers of high-end produce, like prosciutto or truffles. It's not clear now, but there was this air of splendor and achievement and nobility about his family, with ancient roots, and I'd never known it of course because he hid that away. I took the dream as a sign that I need to embrace my own tradition more. I'm anti-tribal, but I came from a tribe, and I need to honor it more. It's not like I'm going to wrap the tefillin or begin any kind of program. I've read Israel Shahak! Also I'm genuinely alienated from the body of Jewry by its idolatry of the golden Zionist tank. But at the same time I feel that some of this Who-are-the-Jews-anyway demystification talk, the Gilad Atzmon and Shlomo Sand stuff, and Shahak, too, which I'm sure is all true, that the Jews arose in western Asia or wherever, and the Palestinians are the original Jews, and the religion was tyrannical for centuries–at some level my response to that is, So what. People form their mythologies. They could have formed them 50 years ago or 100 or 200, it could be Leviticus or it could be Kafka, they're still animating mythologies, and they don't stand up to factchecking, and they're part of who we are. That's what the dream's about, not forgetting that stuff even as I go after religious nationalism, trying to give it an honored place in my life.
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I recommend "God Knows" by Joseph Heller. Good Jewish and Biblical humor.
But which tradition to embrace? Zionism is not a tradition but merely represents approximately 60 years of political self-indoctrination within the American Jewish community.
If American Jews want to return to traditions, they could use Yom Kippur as a starting point to face honestly a century of ethnic Ashkenazi genocidalism, which seems well on its way to becoming the core of Jewish tradition as Zionist Neocons try to manipulate the US government into incinerating more Arab and Muslim countries.
"the religion was tyrannical for centuries"
Not only that … but also the Hebrew Bible seems to be liberally sprinkled with thinly-veiled references to phallic worship.
Maybe we need to get back to our roots … LOL!
You are believing some falsehoods Phil.
Nearly certainly there was SOME influence of the Khazar adoption of Judaism, but to ascribe that as all of Judaism is utterly false.
The story of the various exiles with suppression in the locales that people stayed, but courageously clung to their "tribal myths" of enslavement, redemption, clarification, assertion, angst, is more true.
When Jews were exiled to Babylon, some stayed. When exiled to Persia, some stayed. When some were exiled from Israel/Judea/Samaria to the four corners, some stayed. Those that settled in North Africa, some stayed. Those that settled in Spain, some stayed. Those that settled in Northern Europe, some stayed. Those that settled in North and South America, and South Africa, and Australia, some stayed.
And, Israel, for all the criticism of its politics, some justly some maliciously, is the current community of the gathering of many (not all) of those unified from separated communities, from multiple genetic profiles, with multiple ideological mixes.
But, with common identity (not necessarily their primary identity), and common unifying themes and norms. (Ethical commitment, holistic, study, service orientation)
The Palestinians are also as diverse as the Jewish community. Some nearly certainly are descended from original Jews, some from original Canaanites, some from the Arabian migrations, some from Mediterranean and African migrations.
ANY of the racialist descriptions ascribed to all or even generalizations about "who they were" are false.
The most important characteristic, is that Jews identify NOW as Jews, and that makes them/us Jews. And Palestinians identify as Palestinians and that makes them Palestinians.
Those that used to but don't now, don't. Those that used to not, but do now, do.
There are ways that the authors that you site, BRUTALIZE both the self-identity and the very attractive features that form that self-identity. Especially in generalizing what is diverse.
Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur to Succot to Simchas Torah is a universalistic aspect of ritual. Passover to Shavuout is more specific to the Jewish commitment/obligation. (Passover a universalistic story of slavery-> redemption, hated by idealists when it gets to a specific us).
Many that love the tranformative process of the Days of Awe (Rosh Hashona to Yom Kippur) and the Abrahamic hospitality and intimacy of Sukkos, hate the discipline and tribalism of Torah commitment.
Its one thing to see that myths aren't literally and perfectly true. Its another thing to describe an alternative anti-myth as somehow MORE true than the original.
How about acceptance of diverse tributaries, and love it, and bring one's active present best to transform it.
It starts with "I". It doesn't start with "them".
If you can resist the peer pressure to take too much drugs, but still think of yourself as friends with those that did, you can resist the adoption of views that you consider false (peer pressure), and still really love the actual community that you are part of.
Dear Phil — There is a long tradition of truth-telling that goes back to the Prophets in Judaism that you both honor and continue with your efforts on this blog. Mike
Phil, do you believe that the U.S. could survive every group going tribal? Also, which tribes will be taken seriously and have their sins ignored, and which will be the designated as cross-bearers?
What is it that you are? What is it that you are a part of?
Nearly certainly there was SOME influence of the Khazar adoption of Judaism, but to ascribe that as all of Judaism is utterly false.
The Khazar thesis is very popular among the myth enamored branches of the "conspiralogists". I first encountered it next to the secret black pope, who is the head of the Jesuits of course and a satanist.
Although it doesn't really deserve any attention. How do the adherents of this theory explain the fact that the early Christian e.g. Paulus Paulus initially visited Jewish communities on their missionary journeys? What about the Jewish communities in Rome …
If all these historical details are not true, we need a really huge Judeo-Christian conspiracy that feigned them all. But such early myth-creating cooperations are hard to believe.
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The use of the Khazar as the origin of modern Jew feels like a rather desperate attempt to counter the proclaimed right to the land based on a 2000 year old right of the religious ancestors to me.
But I'd appreciate other lines of thought.
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More to the point of Phil's article. I thought about myth creation while reading Joshua Muravchik's "Short History of the Neoconservative Credo" yesterday. [Linked exchange between Muravchik and Walt]
It felt like a more secular version of the older national foundation mythoi, e.g. the English.
corrupt link: Jeffrey of Monmouth
Maybe I should have used this: The History of the Kings of Britain
Book Description
"The History of the Kings of Britain" is a mythical historical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans of Homer's Iliad founding the British nation and continuing until the Anglo-Saxons assumed control of Britain around the 7th century.
Very intertaining and believed to be the source of at least two Shakespeare plays, "King Lear" and "Cymbeline." There is also an account of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain. And the story of Merlin and King Arthur
Leander, I don't think that anyone claims that the Khazars are the ancestors of all Jews. Jewish communities were located throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean before the time of Christ. The claim is that the Khazars are the ancestors of Eastern European Jews. Slavs were converting to monotheistic religions at the same time, also.
I've read The Thirteenth Tribe, and don't know exactly what to make of it. Having spent time in Israel, I do know that there are several very different physical types calling themselves Jews.
All groups have founding mythologies and are heterogeneous to one degree or another. But that doesn't mean that all groups will ever live together peacefully, or melt together to form a new group. And even if race, religion and ethnicity are reaplced by ideology, man has shown that there is still plenty to fight about.
Without reading your link on English founding myths, is the piece about the genetic origins of the British Isles being largely stable since the Iron Age migrations, and meaning that the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic populations are genetically very similar? Just a hunch.
I took part in a DNA study, so I find it interesting.
For me secular jews form a a cult of the elite(the 'chosen' people.). An extremely dangerous form of tribalism as we have clearly seen.
You mention Atzmon – I think you'd do well to read more of his stuff – that would go a long way to answering the "so what?".
Phil you ought to be proud of your jewishness, jews are education seekers, gregarious, enterprising, forward thinking, rooted in the past, and loyal to their own….
what seems to have gone wrong in jewry is that they were seduced by zionism, they went off and worshiped the golden calf (israel) and have been indoctrinated into defending the worst sort of nationhood…national socialism of the racist variety. now the world finds the jew defending the worst crimes imaginable while using the other worst crime imaginable as the reason why they have to commit the crime they are commiting.
other than that…i never picked up from your writing that you werent proud of your jewishness, matter of fact you seemed quite proud of the achievements of your peeps as rightly you ought to be.
lambasting zionism isnt jewhating…….lambasting neoconsim is not antisemitsm.
did somebody get to you phil?
it seems the confusion is about "either/or". it's not an either/or question, tribalism vs no tribalism. honoring one's traditions in the privacy of your home is one thing, living your whole life wearing a badge declaring your tribe is another. i always thought the people who lived in the past sort of pathetic, they are the people who don't feel equipped to deal with the world without the cover of an "identity".
it seems the confusion is about "either/or". it's not an either/or question, tribalism vs no tribalism. honoring one's traditions in the privacy of your home is one thing, living your whole life wearing a badge declaring your tribe is another. i always thought the people who lived in the past sort of pathetic, they are the people who don't feel equipped to deal with the world without the cover of an "identity".
Peters,
My son wears a kipa and tzitzit conspicuously. He honors his tradition, his present, his family's future privately AND publicly.
Whether you like or not, he will continue, and he will still be entitled to all of the rights of a citizen, including the right to practise his religion fully, to assemble peaceably, to speak, to write, to bear arms, to be entitled to equal due process under the law.
Would you seek to deny him those rights?
LeaNder
You wrote:
Then what do you make of this discovery announced on September 4, 2008 in Arutz Sheva in Israel:
Found: Ancient Capital of 'Jewish' Khazar Kingdom
LeaNder, the quote of the first four sentences in your post at September 19, 2008 at 08:24 AM flunked the appearance test.
witty, that's ridiculous.
it's a teenage sort of thing. you know, the goth outfit, the hippie rags. in the security of your own group you don't risk rejection or competition of the wider world. you get to see the narcissistic reflection of the people just like you. you get to have the self-satisfied feeling of righteousness. well, we all need that sometimes. but to live inside the bubble is a bit stunted imo.
Richard
Would you seek to deny him those rights?
Absolutely not. But the same rights you cite as his are either derided or denied American Muslims fueled mainly by Republican Jewish groups like the RJC.
Phil
You're taking about the right to believe in your own creation myth, which is allowable. Religions supply that. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all branch from the same root like three thick grape vines entwining our globe.
My opinion? All three of them are strangling because they prevent growth of that which they encircle. They're all thousands of years old. To believe the world exists or was created the way the guy who could write them down believed is a bizarre aspect of human nature. [Does it come down to being published?] I'm not talking about belief in a deity. I'm talking about the "acceptable" rules created by ancestors for processing that belief and keeping the beliefs alive.
peters,
Every "in-group" needs an "out-group." The one can't exist without the other. So, your self-satisfaction at living "outside the bubble" ceases to have any meaning without groups who live, in your words, "in the bubble." Perhaps I shouldn't say "self-satisfaction," because that insinuates that you feel superior in some way, and I don't know if that's the case. The point is that we have no definition of ourselves without the "other."
That's what is so amazing about these discussions: the interdependence of everyhting. The fact that the one group NEEDS the other group in order to survive, even though they seem so diametrically opposed on the surface. At a deeper level, they are absolutely dependent on each other. White supremacists depend on blacks for their very identity. Jewish supremacists depend on non-Jews for their very identity (and vice versa). Etc.
You can't have up without down. It takes a very extraordinary human being to be able to live beyond this state of affairs, this "coincidence of opposites," as the philosopher Alan Watts used to refer to the situation. A mystic can do it. I think we all have shared glimpses into the silliness of the whole thing from time to time. But then we go back out into the world and it's very hard to detach ourselves from the group identity while living in our society (or most any society, for that matter).
And the group identity includes those people, such as myself (and I would imagine you, too) who believe that groups are for suckers, as are religions, and all that stuff. But try as I may, I'm still stuck in a group. My group is the "don't try to box me in – I hate labels – I've moved beyond the immature need to feel a part of a tribe – etc." group. It's a nice group, and I prefer not to call it a group or even refer to it at all, but the fact remains I derive at least a certain amount of my identity from this state of affairs, and its a state of affairs that would not be possible without Richard and his son. So, In a weird sort of way, I am dependent on Richard et al for my identity.
It's very hard to imagine a world without these group classifications. As I said, one probably has to be something akin to a mystic to even be able to approach living that way. And it will take an extraordinary change of human consciousness in order to achieve it.
"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." -Albert Einstein
My apologies for the ramble. Now, back to Mondoweiss…
Higgins,
You still don't know me.
I appreciate your last point.
My solution to it is universalism in place in community, rather than the fantasy or poverty of free from community.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2008/05/jamie-johnson-1.html
MRW: I don't understand what you are trying to tell me.
That the Khazars converted to Judaism in the late 8th, early 9th century is nothing new. Archelogist usually don't look for something they don't know ever existed. But maybe I don't understand.
By the time the Khazars converted to Judaism, Jews had already lived for a couple of centuries here in the Rhineland, the earliest record here in Cologne is a writing of Constantin I from dating from 321 C.E And it is assumed this is simply the earliest document, that they had been here before.
Richard, my comments were just generalities, and I was using you as an example because you're prominent here, and the classifications I was talking about are easily illustrated by our respective "camps," yours the "liberal Zionist" (I believe that's what you refer to it as), and mine the "anti-Zionist," for lack of a more nuanced term, although again, I prefer no labels at all. Anyway, it was just a crude illustration of a broader philosophical point, and nothing more.
"My solution to it is universalism in place in community, rather than the fantasy or poverty of free from community."
How do you envision this, Richard?
LeaNder, I think I misunderstood your original post. I thought you were writing that the Khazars' adopting of Judaism was a thesis, or that they didn't exist as a Jewish center. I certainly wasn't saying that they were the exclusive group or the first.
"How do you envision this?"
Strong identity, security, kindness, support for others, equal due process for all within.
Richard Witty wrote: "Strong identity, security, kindness, support for others, equal due process for all within".
It's mostly this clinging to a "strong identity", and especially when that happens at the expense of other beings, that lies at the root of most problems.
"It's mostly this clinging to a "strong identity", and especially when that happens at the expense of other beings, that lies at the root of most problems."
Agreed. My heritage is both Irish and Hungarian. I am an American. I was raised Catholic. I grew up in a somewhat upper middle class neighborhood in NJ. At one time or other in my life I have felt varying degrees of identity with all of these facets of my personal history, and obviously many others. But no single one defines me, and I feel no lack of a personal identity by not adhering more closely to the tenets of any one of them. In fact, I feel more universal, more able to love and understand others, when I don't allow any one of these to become a "strong identity."