For my last blog post I couldn’t really decide on one specific topic, so like some of my other classmates I want to sum everything up, pick out the aspects of the course that made my mind do a 180 degree turn.  I would like to end the post with a few open ended questions.

The part of the course that first really changed my original perception of what it meant to be Jewish was when we talked about bar and bat mitzvah.   This raises that main issue of an American Jew.  We have studied Jews from different parts of the world e.g. Argentina Morocco.  To have this one sided American view of what it means to be Jewish is limiting, I think.  I thought that a person was Jewish if they had a bar or bat mitzvah. But we learned that this isn’t necessarily the case.  Actually the meaning of the word just seeks to tell us that someone has become of age, and not the American image of a huge party with lots of singing, dancing and putting someone on a chair.  So now when I hear someone talk about bar and bat mitzvah I pass along my knowledge of the word so they can have a better understanding.  The Diaspora also has changed my perception.  At first I thought about a Jewish person on a very narrow minded road.  I guess it has just made me realize how clueless I actually was.  I couldn’t picture a Jew in Yemen or Morocco.  I guess the first day of class when we watched that video I was really confused.  I was so confused it made me scared that I had no idea what was going on.  How could this person be Jewish if they prayed like that?  But it seemed the rest of the class had also not been exposed to this type of Judaism and this type of Jewish culture.  As the semester moved on we kept seeing different types of Jewish culture.  It was fascinating to see such diversity packed into one culture, “Jewish.”  Jewish people taking on other cultures but at the same time having the “great tradition.”  The terms like Judaizing, great and little tradition were also new to me.  At first I was confused with these concepts, but now they make perfect sense because I see this larger picture of what it means to be Jewish.  Well I like to think I see what it means; I guess I have an idea.  Class made me want to go back to my Mckinney suite while everyone was playing video games and interrupt and talk about perception of the Jewish culture.  It made for excellent long run conversations about religion and what does it mean for a person to be Jewish.  As I said in my first blog and was pointed out by Professor Staub there really should be more awareness of the culture and religion on campus.

Since I have so much new and fresh information on Jewish culture and Jewish experience (the title of our course) it leads me to a few questions.  Since there is a Diaspora and there are different types (sects…? not sure of the correct term) of Judaism Why do they clash as they have been in recent events at the Western Wall?  I suppose every religion and culture will have different little tradition views which lead to argument… In my observation of my dad I would really like to know how he could stop practicing Judaism?  Maybe his answer is simple, he has never stopped practicing.  So then I am left with what makes a person Jewish forever?

As has been articulated many times, it appears that there exist several Jewish cultures rather than one universal Jewish culture. Considering this idea further leads to more questions about what constitutes a Jewish identity. For instance, does a Jewish culture have more in common with the surrounding non-Jewish culture than with other Jewish cultures? And if so, what qualities unite Jews with different Jewish cultures?

This question came to me as I was writing my previous blog entry. As I wrote about the henna ceremony, I realized that this ritual must seem very foreign to some Jews. This Jewish practice in North Africa and the Middle East is more similar to Muslim wedding practices that it is to U.S. American Jewish wedding practices. Indeed, I wonder if a U.S. American Jew would be able to distinguish between a Jewish henna ceremony and a Muslim henna ceremony. Similarly, we have studied how Jewish foods are vastly different in various regions, and are usually more congruous with foods of the local culture than with Jewish foods in other regions. Therefore, when the Jewish culture has more in common with the local non-Jewish culture than with other Jewish cultures, how can these cultures be related? How can there be a connection between cultures with such differing norms?

It seems that there are many things that do connect Jews with very different cultural norms. Most obvious is the fact that all Jewish communities share the same texts, although even this statement is somewhat misleading. Most Jews place a high value on the Talmud, but there are some who reject the Talmud and still consider themselves Jewish. Other Jews attach great importance to the Zohar, but it is of little concern to others. One could even argue that the Torah is not a cultural text for Jews who are atheists or other secular Jews.

A common history is another factor that could unite Jewish communities. However, the shared history of Diaspora communities only continues up until the point when these communities were forced to re-locate. Thus the most recent history of many Jewish communities is separate and distinct from others.

It seems that one of the greatest uniting factors in the Jewish community is the perception of shared ancestry or shared blood. Most Jews probably realize that the concept of shared blood is inaccurate because of intermarriage, conversion and other factors, but it seems that many Jews feel a familial connection upon meeting other Jews. When my group interviewed Bettina in Soc 313, I asked her if she feels a connection when she meets U.S. American Jews (Bettina is from Uruguay). She explained that she feels at ease with other Jews, like there is some intangible feeling of understanding. Although they have had vastly different Jewish experiences, they are still part of the same larger community. I am still not sure what this connection is, but it is apparent that there is a strong relation between different Jewish communities.

When we were watching, A Jew is Not One Thing, the Diaspora was a theme of the film. The question arose if the Diaspora was a good or bad thing? Also, did the Jews survive because of the Diaspora? We commented that the film did not really portray the American Jewish identity and opinion, and I think the Diaspora is something that American Jews can relate to. As an American Jew I believe that the Diaspora was a good thing, because it has shaped the Jewish people and the country of Israel so dramatically.

In some ways American Jews are almost in what I would call their “Second Diaspora.”  Most American Jews are originally from Europe, making them Ashkenazi. These Jews left Israel after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD and lived in Europe until around the 19^th century, when they began to immigrate to America for economic opportunity or to escape persecution. Most American Jews have only lived in America for a few generations. They had to leave their homeland of Europe in order to survive, much like the Ancient Jews had to leave Israel to survive. The Diaspora community enabled the Jews to survive. By leaving persecution, the Jews could maintain their practices and keep their “boundaries” between their foreign neighbors and themselves. But once again the Jews had to leave Europe, entering a “Second Diaspora,” in America. And once again this “Second Diaspora” helped the Jews to survive.

In the film, people who lived in Israel claimed that living in Israel was finally returning home and it was good thing to leave the Diaspora community behind. As an American Jew who lives in the “Diaspora,” this claim confused me. Let me first clarify: I love Israel, I think there is something very special about the majority of the population being Jewish, and I think it is an important part of the future survival of the Jews. However, the modern country of Israel is only sixty years old. When Israel was created, people who had lived in the Diaspora created it. And they took their different customs from their differing Jewish communities and created a new Jewish Israeli culture. Some of these Jews lived in Islamic lands, some in Christian lands, and some in lands where they were the only Jews in the whole country. Their customs were influenced by the surrounding cultures; many of these Jews “Judaized” the cultures around them to create a Jewish identity that fit into their communities. When Israel was created, all these different Jews had to create a new unified Jewish identity. For example, the Modern Hebrew language is spoken in the manner Sephardic Jews speak it, with the pronunciation on the second syllable. But, the Modern Hebrew language also had words that were influenced by Yiddish, from the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The Diaspora Jewish community, with all their differing customs, created the current culture of Israel. Israel is a Jewish melting pot.

As an American Jew I am the most comfortable with my Diaspora community, America. Even though Israel is the homeland of the Jews, my customs are influenced by American culture. Woody Allen is a symbol of Jewish humor, bagels are a part of Sunday brunch, and when I buy chicken, I like the package to say Empire on it. I have “Judaized” my surrounded culture and in turn have helped to “localized” my Jewish culture. I have been a part of this process and do not believe that it is a bad thing to live in the Diaspora. Being raised in America, it is my homeland, especially since I have actively participated in the culture processes; I feel a strong connection to my Diaspora community.