God bless the Jewish Week, it has a fabulous interview with Wallace Shawn defending his support for the Toronto Declaration and talking Jewish identity. I’d say the most interesting aspect of the Jewish identity stuff is how straightforward Shawn is about his falling away from Jewishness, how sad he seems to feel about it. And the shadow of his father’s denial of Jewishness. I don’t know that this should be a source of guilt, but it seems to be among us universalists. Yes, something has been lost. But there was great sociological gain, too: William Shawn was one of the most powerful editors in the country and led the charge against the Vietnam War. (Franz Kafka writing to his father about cutting the cord: [To] the religious material that was handed on to me.. may be added at most the outstretched hand pointing to "the sons of the millionaire Fuchs," who attended the synagogue with their father on the High Holy Days. How one could do anything better with that material than get rid of it as fast as possible, I could not understand; precisely the getting rid of it seemed to me to be the devoutest action.) Shawn, interviewed by Eric Herschthal:
How did you get involved in the Toronto Film Festival petition?
Someone alerted me to it. I hate petitions; I prefer to write what I think for myself. But I believe that we all have to be politically active. If you’re politically active, you’re going to have to occasionally march in the streets and sign petitions. … And yes, I do think that the Toronto festival must have been somehow lured into becoming dupes, really, of a campaign on the part of a public relations company that is trying to change the image of Israel. …
In my view, there are terrific Israeli artists and they should be invited to show their work. But celebrating Tel Aviv is a trap they should have been clever enough to stay out of.
You grew up in New York, and your father, William Shawn, was the New Yorker editor for 35 years. How Jewish was your upbringing?
The answer is disappointingly short. I’m not proud of it, but I’m not ashamed of it, either. Both my parents grew up in Chicago, and my mother’s mother was pretty religious. But my mother’s father died when he was young. My guess is that they weren’t very religious but they went to temple and probably weren’t very knowledgeable about Jewish traditions. … My parents were atheists and had no real interest in their religion, and I grew up with no real interest in it either – the cord was cut.
But you do identify as Jewish, even playing a Jewish character, Cyrus Rose, in the current season of "Gossip Girl." The identification must come from somewhere.
Well, yes. My father realized that his personal character grew out of his religious background. He would tell me that when he had lunch with Isaac Bashevis Singer he felt like a relative. But people didn’t really know my father was Jewish. … I know very well that my characteristics come from my Jewish background, but in a certain sense the cord has already been cut. If I started studying Jewish traditions, I would be starting from scratch, and so I could just as well start studying African traditions. … I don’t boast of my ignorance. But if I have a love of justice, I didn’t make that up. I feel that comes from my parents and they got that from their parents and that came from the Jewish tradition
