I had a New York night. Don't have them often these days, now that I'm living in the woods and feel the economy like a great stony hand on my shoulder. But:
I went to a party in Brooklyn and had to wait a while for the local at the Union Station subway platform. There was a black brass band playing, a great 8 or 10 piece band, three or four trumpets, trombones, a French horn and a tuba, unbelievably good, and I recalled, This was my original sin as an assimilationist, when I was a kid in Baltimore I felt incredible romance about black culture. It was the great other, to the bookish circumscribed Jewish life I was raised in, and I went to black public schools and had black friends and reveled in blackness, inasmuch as I could get my feet wet. By the time I went to Harvard, I requested a black roommate. In retrospect this strikes me as affected, though I dug my roommate. I noticed other Jewish friends went further, I had one friend who sort of went over. He had darker skin. But that was my start, and last night I felt that considerable romance on the platform.
Then the party was just the mongrelized mix of New York, the great muttness of New York. Black gays, internationals, mixed couples out the wazoo, and a lot of Chinese adoptees. Sometimes I think this is just My crowd, then I understand, It's everyone's crowd in New York. It's just New York. I know Jews who hold themselves out of the great mixer, and that's fine. Everyone gets to do their thing. Some people are more conservative, but this is the way of the city, especially in this season. Slice the ham, dude.
Before I left for the city yesterday, I was watching CSpan and Alfonso Aguilar of the U.S. office of citizenship was on talking about assimilation. Urging it on immigrants. He was referring to Hispanics largely, but saying it was essential that they assimilate culturally and politically. They must "Americanize." There was an understanding of what it meant to be American, proselytized by the U.S. government. It is odd to hear assimilation urged by the government, and in my Jewish community, hear it denounced.
Assimilation is dangerous to the Jews. It affects Jewish numbers. Though I feel as if Jews should come up with some other marketing program to deal with numbers. Not so fervently anti-assimilationist, when we are the richest, by religious grouping. Doesn't feel right. Maybe Jews should try proselytizing on the basis of the rampant philosemitism. I know that's against Jewish law, but: Convert and do well!
Then there's the issue of political assimilation. It's hard to change hobbyhorses in midstream. But Aguilar urging political assimilation as gov't policy gets at the neoconservatives and their dual loyalty issues, and Elliott Abrams's assertion in his book of 11 years ago that Jews lives outside the society in every country they dwell in except Israel. This is an insupportable attitude, in the shadow of the charnel house Abrams et al made of Iraq. I urge political assimilation, a sense of American interests that transcends one side or another in the cycle of violence in the Middle East. The cultural stuff is gonna take care of itself.
My night concluded with meeting Jack Ross at Junior's on Flatbush Avenue. Most of the other people there were black. Jack and I talked about Jewishness, of the religious variety and the group-identity variety, and Jack, who seems to have read every Commentary ever published, spoke with his usual sardonic manner of some official of the Union for Reform Judaism talking about "the Jewish people." I felt very American.
"when I was a kid in Baltimore I felt incredible romance about black culture. It was the great other, to the bookish circumscribed Jewish life I was raised in, and I went to black public schools and had black friends and reveled in blackness, inasmuch as I could get my feet wet. By the time I went to Harvard, I requested a black roommate."
Has there ever been printed a more concise definition of hypocrite, liberal asshole?
"Assimilation is dangerous to the Jews. It affects Jewish numbers. Though I feel as if Jews should come up with some other marketing program to deal with numbers. Not so fervently anti-assimilationist, when we are the richest, by religious grouping. Doesn't feel right. Maybe Jews should try proselytizing on the basis of the rampant philosemitism. I know that's against Jewish law, but: Convert and do well!"
I thought you were advocating assimilation of Jews. Now it seems that you don't even understand the meaning of the word. When Europeans immigrated to America, they gave up their original ethnic identity to become Americans, and this is the only way a multiracial country can work at all.
"I know Jews who hold themselves out of the great mixer, and that's fine. Everyone gets to do their thing."
Jews rise to the top in every country they live in, but at the same time refuse to assimilate. Now what are other peoples supposed to do, who don't want to live under Jewish rule?
Interesting to compare POV with that of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who stood up for their principles during the NAZI era and were tossed into the concentration camps right along with the Jews. What
is the JW principle here? That you give to Caesar what is Caesar's. JW's have a track record of not being involved politically. Simultaneously, if they don't agree with the principles implemented by any government, they refuse to participate except by way of paying their taxes. Personally, I don't agree with the JW stance, but I do admire they stick to their belief guns, to the point of being gassed when they could have easily avoided it by playing games
with the powers that be at any certain time.
Compare this to the history of the Jews in Italy or Germany. Many were all for the new bandwagon–until it was very clear they were
not going to benefit from the new world order. Many Italian Jews originally joined fascist Italy, and not without reason–but Mussolini proved weak next to Hitler, eventually…
There's a difference between being all for whatever looks good for you and yours regardless of the consequences to others, and real
moral principles that are inclusive in full nature.
Hypocrisy Steve R, did I miss something? How can this be hypocritical ?
Phil,
Sometimes I think this is just My crowd, then I understand, It's everyone's crowd in New York. It's just New York.
Me too. I lived over half my life in Manhattan. My crowd too. And OMIGOD, I miss it. Out here in phucking Fly-By-Country.
You're learning, Phil.
"when I was a kid in [South Texas town] I felt incredible romance about Anglo-German culture. It was the great other, to the anti-intellectual, vulgar multicultural life I was raised in, and *I wish I had been able to go* to mostly white public schools and have more white friends and *been able* to revel in classical European-Americ culture. By the time I went to [redacted], I knew it would be evil and racist even to think I might prefer to have a white roommate." (the roommate I was assigned would hardly speak to me, became active in groups celebrating his own racial heritage, and requested a room change to someone of his own race.)