Expanding the tribe in the home of the brave
The passing of Debbie Friedman and shooting of Gabrielle Giffords highlighted the stretching and morphing of Jewish identity in the U.S., a trend sadly not mirrored in Israel.
By Naamah Kelman, Elan EzrachiThe assassination attempt on U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' life drew attention to her Jewish identity and once again raised the issue of the boundaries of who is a Jew. Giffords sees herself as Jewish, even though according to the definitions accepted in Israel she would not be accepted as such by some of the powers that be.
 |
Gabrielle Giffords. |
| Photo by: AP |
She was born to a Jewish father and grew up assimilated. However, as an adult she chose to self-identify as a Jew, to join a synagogue and to identify with Israel. As the great-granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi, Giffords would certainly be entitled to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return but then she would bear the brunt of endless bans and shunning. Her activity in the Reform Jewish community in her home town of Tucson, Arizona, would not be of help to her.
Over the past 30 years, several demographic studies of Jewry in the United States have been published. For many years the dominant line was that mixed marriages were a disaster that would lead to a decline in the number of Jews. There is, however, another view that sees connections between Jews and non-Jews as in fact a possibility for expanding the definitions of identity and enlarging the ranks.
Recently there have been a number of new studies showing the number of Jews in the United States is not decreasing.
Beyond the demographic hairsplitting, it appears there is a phenomenon of historic dimensions developing there: Instead of fleeing from Judaism, entering Judaism; instead of black and white definitions, "hybrid" definitions that enable surprising connections between Jews and non-Jews. These new definitions are expanding the boundaries of the tribe.
A few days after the attack at the Tucson shopping center, another event occurred that sent shockwaves through America's Jewish community. Folksinger and cantor Debbie Friedman died suddenly. It is hard to imagine American Jewish culture in the United States without Friedman. At Jewish summer camps, schools and synagogues many of her melodies for prayers and her songs are sung.
Friedman led the Jewish version of the youth revolt influenced by the 1960s. She was active in equal rights movement organizations, the feminist movement, the struggle for peace and justice and initiatives for tikkun olam - repairing the world.
The prayer for Giffords' welfare offered by tens of thousands of American Jews was a special version based on the traditional "Mi Shebeirakh" prayer for healing the sick combined with words in English, to a melody by Friedman.
Sadly, Friedman died just a day after Giffords was shot. Most in the Israeli media were not familiar with her and did not mention her passing but The New York Times saw fit to publish a long article about the woman who returned "congregational singing" to the Reform synagogues, which had been known for the strict formality of their prayer.
Giffords and Friedman embody the right combination of democratic values and Jewish tradition. While Judaism in Israel is become moving further to the margins and concentrating mainly on whom to push out of the fold - the convert, the foreigner, the half-Jew or the new immigrant serving in the Israel Defense Forces - in American Judaism a dynamic of acceptance, embrace and widening circles is developing. This is another measure of the growing gap between Israeli society and the largest Jewish community in the world.
Rabbi Naamah Kelman is the dean of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem; Dr. Elan Ezrachi is an educational consultant to international Jewish organizations. They are married.
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
As a member of a Reform congregation, I think that welcoming the non-Jewish family members, including them as much as possible in services and events and demonstrating appreciation for their role in the Jewish education of the children is what Reform should be doing. Let's keep it up. Israel has a lot of learning to do about the proper relationship between the state and the synagogue.
The Reform Movement has it right; the black hats will continue to exert their will, but only is Israel which is no longer the center of the Jewish spiritual universe - largely because of them.
Most Americans do not view Judaism in racial or genetic terms. The WWII experience of discovering and liberating the camps was not an enjoyable experience. And the US experience with our own racial past tends to make a lot, an increasing lot, of Americans reject the racial attitudes of the past. So she chose her father's and grand father's religion. No big deal.
Just because you Naamah and Elan do not understand the Halachic process of conversion you dare to call it hairsplitting? You forget Hillel's second phrase to the Ger "Go learn"!
This article brought up some valid points that are discussed in the States all the time and many of these concepts are widely accepted-resulting in more Jews as the article states. Judaism in Israel is more restricting and keeps a lot of people out that would like to come-look at what they are doing to B. Streisand's cousin.Sheesh!!
Hi, Complement to Naamah Kelman and Dr. Ela Ezrach for the very well written article,also the picture from Mrs.Gabrielle Giffords Che looks so smart and lovly.By the way I wish her all best. Greetings Werner
Judaism needs to be more accepting if Jewish identity is to be preserved. Two reasons I do not claim my identity despite going to synagogue as a youth and having a Bar-Mitzvah: 1) ultra-orthodox insulting me because my mother is not Jewish; and, 2) as an American, Jews from New York exclude me because my background is not Ashkenazi,and because my releativees live in Israel, not New York or New Jersey. (Jews come from Brookly, not Israel!) So, among secular, educated or non-religious Americans, I am accepted. Among many American Jews, I face prejudice.
Israel has some impressive accomplishments but sadly Judiasm is one of Israel's failures.
...that no matter what religion you believe in, it never imagined a place like the United States of America. We identify ourselves as citizens with equal rights (including the right to follow whatever religion, or not, you wish to follow) first and foremost. Most do believe in a divinity, but we also know that there may be more than one way to honor that divinity.
My daughter has a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Though I'm not a religious man or part of a congregation I identify as Jewish ethnically and culturally and I've made a point of reading Jewish history and learning Hebrew. At age 7 my daughter already enjoys bed-time reading of the Hebrew-English picture dictionary I got for her at Hanukah some years ago. In fact I've been surprised at the level of interest she's continued to exhibit and I've promised to teach her the aleph-bet and refresh my own Hebrew by doing lessons with her. Beyond that I tell her of our history and I'm hoping to take her to Israel on holiday within the next year. Ultimately I regard her as a Jew as much as I am and yet despite this according to the rabbinate in Israel she isn't Jewish. I'm satisfied that she would be able to make aliyah if she desired, but I don't understand limiting Jewishness to matrilineal descent - an archaic and limiting distinction that no longer seems to serve any purpose. Jewish laws aren't ironclad - they have changed over the centuries and millennia. It's time to officially recognise that fathers have as much a role to play in the Jewishness of children as their mothers.
From the outside looking in: It seems to me that any group as small as the Jews would welcome anyone who is half Jewish and who places themselves under the covenant. Suppose Ishmael ahd told Abraham: I will not harrass Isaac anymore and your God is my God. Think how much difference that would have made in the Middle East of today.
Keep in mind that the Orthodox in Israel do not represent a majority. The are politically powerful. Most jews have no problem in seeing and accepting Reform American jews for being what they are ie Jewish. Coalitions change and political parties change, its only inevitable that a more 21 century approach will be accepted and legitimized soon.
being fundamentlists.. is not Israel fundamentalist?
If it's just about "enlarging the tribe" then let's re-define every Christian as Jewish, on the basis that Jesus was Jewish? That'll give a billion extra Jews overnight! Does defining non-Jews as Jewish as described in the article make any more sense?