I Eat Chinese Food on Christmas
Last Updated on Tuesday, 5 January 2010 05:53 Written by bryfy Sunday, 3 January 2009 10:40
Agree of disagree with him, Jay Michaelson has a habit of calling as it he sees it.
In a recent article in Haaretz Jay asks the question of who is an authentic Jew?
It is a question that was raised several times during my research of Jewish teenagers. Even the most secular looking Jews identified with ultra-orthodox archetypes as their image of the “authentic” Jew.
This phenomenon should be particularly troubling for families and Jewish educators who want to develop Jewish identity among young people especially that will in no way resemble the stereotyped image that many children grow up thinking is the “authentic” Jew.
Such findings resonated with the research study that I conducted with Barry Chazan a few years back – looking at Home Away from Home at college campuses around America. What was interesting in this study was that Jewish college students would describe Chabad on Friday night as being just like home. When asked what their familial homes were really like they barely never resembled a Chabad house on Friday night – go figure.
Such portrayals are also common in popular culture. Watch the following clip from Brandon Walker’s now famous “I eat Chinese food on Christmas” (at the 1 minute 15 second mark) for further confirmation that the authentic Jew looks like a character out of Fiddler on the Roof.
This post reminds me of the rosenak distinction of authenticity vs relevancy. the way rosneak described it (in my memory), authenticity was about halacha and god, and relevancy was about bagels and ipods.
For Jay Michaelson, “authenticity isn’t about an old religious form or a Yiddish pun (please, enough with cutesy invocations of “gelt” and “schlep”). It’s when a religious, literary or cultural form – old, new or alt-neu – speaks to the depths of what it is to be human.”
doesn’t that mean that almost every idea in the world could be jewish?
i’d be interested to hear what Michelson (or bryfy) would say is inauthentic judaism?
Ittay,
Thanks for weighing in. I would love to give some thoughtful response to your post but the truth is – it’s just one of those issues that I don’t really have any concretized thoughts on. I mean, I’ve been through all of those discussions and youth group programs before and have never really been satisfied with any of the outcomes.
it just seems too easy for me to say things like:
“Anyone who defines themselves as a Jew is a Jew” (a la Eisen and Cohen)
or
“Everyone is in, except of course for Jews for Jesus, because they are obviously out”
or
“We all know that there are things that all Jews have in common, You know the bare minimum that makes us all Jewish. Like belief in God for example” (a la Counterpoint Seminars in Australia)
So – what is inauthentic Judaism? Perhaps the best response would be ignorant Judaism. Maybe what it all boils down to is having enough knowledge to make up one’s mind as to what is an authentic expression of Judaism or not. (then again – i know i just opened up a whole lot more conversations – what is “enough?’ what is “knowledge?”
And for us experiential educators out there – “what about the accumulation of authentic Jewish experiences” as the basis for decision making?
I like the idea of knowledge and experience being the yardstick for authentic Judaism.
since the JFS in london lost their case to the supreme court of england, they have had to have had to come up with a new definition of what constitutes an authentic Jew, which all new applicants to the school need to pass before being admitted.
you can see it here:
http://www.jfs.brent.sch.uk/media/47693/certificate%20of%20religious%20practice.pdf
shkoyach on the blog!