A few weeks back, Dana Goldstein of The American Prospect overcame her reserve about writing about Israel/Palestine because Gaza was so appalling to her; and she called on Jews to raise their voices. Now she's back. Today in The American Prospect she has a clear and powerful Passover-inspired piece about her Jewish education and the contradictions of Jewish identity, in which she describes the Diaspora as the central element of Jewish history:
Pair this narrative -- the most central to the Jewish faith -- with lesson upon lesson about the Holocaust, and you can begin to understand the oppression ideology with which American Jewish children are raised. Now look at the lives of many of these children -- cosseted, suburban, affluent -- and you can begin to understand the bipolar nature of Jewishness in America.
The Jewish people have a 3,000-year history of exile. The intellectual vigor of our people was fostered not only by our devotion to the Torah -- "the book" -- but also experientially, by generation upon generation forced to make sense of societies that were alien to us, and often cruel and hostile. In Israel today, that dynamic is reversed. It is Jews who have the power, as conservatives like Avigdor Lieberman know well. It is a power whose exploitation they relish.
Things I like about this piece:
--The authority of a young writer. Goldstein's voice is clear and forceful. The piece is called the "Questioning Spirit," invoking the child questioners of the Passover seder. Make no mistake, she is taking on her elders on essential issues;
--Its non-Zionism. Moving to Israel is called making "aliyah," or going up, and most Jews have a feeling that Israelis are superior for having moved there. Goldstein is rethinking this idea openly;
--the word experiential. I would add that, as Goldstein hints, that Jewish experience includes assimilation and power.
(Thanks to Serge Duss for tip)
"bi-polar".
Some call the ability to accept contradictions and tensions, maturity.
"The intellectual vigor of our people was fostered not only by our devotion to the Torah — "the book" — but also experientially, by generation upon generation forced to make sense of societies that were alien to us, and often cruel and hostile."
This is a dumb argument. The average person anywhere was forced to make sense of cruel and hostile societies. I once spent an hour sitting in my car listening to a Rabbi explain on the radio that Jews needed to quit propagating this suffering victim version of history. By his account, Jews lived peacefully most of the time in societies where they were a good deal better off than the average person, who was most likely a peasant, and often held valued positions near the reigns of power. Even during bad times they still were tax collectors to lower ranking Christians.
Yes, some Jews were victims but many more Christians were victims too (in many cases of higher ranking Christians)
Richard -
The problem is not the ability to accept contradictions and tensions, it is the inability to so. You either misread or are misinterpreting what her reference to "bipolar" meant in the context of her article.
To take it one step further, once you recognize and accept the reality that there are contradictions and tensions in your society (not all is perfect and black and white), you (general) are compelled as a moral and ethical human being to deal forthrightly with those contradictions and tensions when they result in negative outcomes for human rights and human dignity, and for humanity in general. And this isn't being done in our community to the extent it should be regarding Israeli policies and in interrogating Zionism (what it means in practice for both Jews and Palestinians, where is it going, etc.), in general. This is Dana's point.
Has anyone asked why the Egyptians all of a sudden decided they couldn't trust the Jews when their war started?
That would be interesting to know. In all the stories of Jewish explusions there is never any mention of what in the Jewish community might have taken place and inspired others to distrust them.
The day Jews cease to be consumed with thinking about only Jews, Jews, Jews and start to think about humans, humans, humans, the day they consider the countries they live in to be their country and their first national loyalty they might stop having problems with the world.
I have never, ever seen a group of ethnic or religious of any kind so totally and completely and singulary and mythicaly focused on themselves to the exclusion of the rest of the human race while demanding to be considered top dogs in the world.
Even when 'good' Jews, not all but most, write about Gaza and aparthied Israel they do so in terms of 'Jews'..as if Jews are suppose to have some 'higher level' of moral outrage than the other humans who are revolted by it or they are only thinking about it because it is about Jews. They don't talk about Israel's outrages in terms of universal everyman's feeling about this kind of horror but related it to "themselves" as Jews.
Some of the more intelligent and honest seem lately to have begun to examine the fabric of Judism and it's dark core of victimhood and how that relates to the evil side of zionism
But for all the navel gazing and obsessing they do about Jewishness they have learned nothing about themselves. Or perhaps they can't admit to what they themselves have fostered because then they would have to take responsibiity for what happens to them and the world's attitude toward them. One thing is sure, the world is tired of Jewish centricness and it's expression in Israel. If they want to be an island or tribe 'unto themselves'and not assimilate or concern themselves with any other humans in any way then they need to live like the Quakers in non political, non minipulating sphere where they bother no one and no one bothers them instead of trying to bend the entire world to serve the Jewish victim exceptionalism.
american
Well said.
It is more or less my usual spiel, but you can find my comment in Dana Goldstein: Hebrew Schools and Israel.
@ Witty
""bi-polar"
Some call the ability to accept contradictions and tensions, maturity."
And the first step is to acknowledge contradictions. A core tension evident in Phil's blog
revolves around the comparative real power of Jewish Americans in today's USA (itself the sole super-power
in the world) and the strained official rhetoric of eternal Jewish victimhood.
(Israel mirrors this same tension.)
When does defense become aggression?
When does depression become euphoria?
When does the bi-polar entity or person become a threat to itself, the self?
When a threat to others?
Except when temporarily hospitalized as a safety precaution protecting either, the diagnosed
bi=polar person is set free on the street, left to him or her whether or not to take the prescribed medicine & get regular blood checks to keep dosage optimal to level out temperament.
There is no cure. Bi=polars can be very progressively productive, including or even more so,
when in mania stage; conversely, very destructive to self and others when in depressive mode.
They are king, then they are nothing in their own mind. An ac/dc switch.
All normal people can do, starting with their own family members, is to call 9-11 when the bi-polar citizen start to get out of hand, is threatening self and/or others–becomes dangerous.
Then to protect all they can be confined against their will for everybody's good, including their own.
Do I hear a 9/11 call in the works?
Who's listening?
Bi-polars are notoriously manipulative, dissembling, liars both to themselves and to others. They are often socially adept, educated, charming, etc.
Often, after a time of good behavior, e.g., while on lithium, they rebel against the horrible memory
of depression by going off their meds, by feeding the always latent mania; it's a natural high.
The ups are worth later downs, preferable to a sense of dullness caused by the meds & a remembrance of the highs, when they were the kind of the world, which sometimes, as I said,
focused their highest goals into good product. Mania leaves a trail of destruction and waste
in its wake. When they are OK again, they feel terribly guilty for what they did, the trouble they
cost even and especially those most close.
Living with contradictions is a normal sign of maturity. Again, the first step is to recognize
those contradictions. Bi-Polar, the mental disease, attributed to some combination of DNA ( imbalance in chemical makeup) &
upbringing, is NOT normal.
No bi-polar person can be convinced you or anyone else has a right to lecture them, or question them much, if at all (e.g., "Are you taking your meds? Getting regular blood tests?"), even if your good intentions are accepted; you and they will never know what it's like to be bi-polar.
Bi-polars truly live in a world of their own.