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Oct

23

Jews Like Me


That’s, as in, “Jews, who feel like I do about a lot of things.”

Example #1, from The Moderate Voice comment section of my guest column there, posted yesterday, this passage in particular:

Jill – As a fellow Jew in America I don’t find my religious minority status to be any bother at all. All my Christian neighbors are nice people and quite tolerant and understanding. My children attending public schools had no problems with Christmas pagents or carols. To me it’s no different from being a Minnesota Twins fan in NY Yankee land.

The only time I feel like a minority is with fellow Jews. I have spent most of my Life as Conservative but my views on a just peace of the Palestinian conflict drove me out of the congregation. Being described as a self-hating Jew and questioning my attachment to my religion led me to a quiet Reform Temple.

I have 35 relatives living in various settlements on the West Bank and I have been an annual visitor to Israel for the last 41 years. My peace views make me unwelcome in settlement synogogues. Too many Jews make me feel like I am not Jewish enough since I am the only one in my extended family not making aliyah.

Example #2 from JewishJournal.com’s interview with investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh (particularly the bolded parts, my emphasis):

JJ: Having grown up in a Yiddish home, the son of Polish and Lithuanian immigrants, how would you describe your Jewish identity?
SH: Vague. I like a lot of the historical stuff; I’m agnostic about the religion. But I certainly understand the power of faith, and I wish the American Jews could talk more to some of the Israelis I know and see how open-minded they are about many issues American Jews are not. There is tremendous diversity in Israel. Here the stuff of conversation ends up in a bloody fight; there you can discuss anything.
My [three] children chose: Some went through the bar mitzvah process; some did not. I’m a believer in you do what you want to do. For me, my Jewish heritage comes mainly in literature. I identify very strongly with the Saul Bellows and Philip Roths of this world. But it’s so irrelevant that I am Jewish when I write about Jewish issues. It really is for me. It’s just like it is irrelevant what my personal opinion is on things.

JJ: I was going to ask if your being Jewish has in any way affected your coverage of Israeli politics, particularly security?
 SH: No, no. It gets me in more fights.

JJ: The book “The Israel Lobby” just came out. How would you characterize Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s assessment of the power of the pro-Israel community?
SH: You can’t touch them in terms of being anti-Semitic. They are realists. They are from the realists’ school. I haven’t read the book, but it’s not either/or, either support Israel or don’t. It’s: try and use the tremendous support and relationship we have to modify their behavior more than we do. But this government and that relationship [with Israel] is really profound, and it is just very secretive between us and Israel. It is not transparent, and that is not healthy for anybody.

Where are Jews like this here in Ohio?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:49 pm October 23rd, 2007 in Jewish, Judaism, Religion 

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