Blood is in scare quotes above mainly because I’m a sociologist and a historian, and I shudder every time I read something that claims a cultural identity is in the “blood.” Of course this has echoes of Hitler and fascism generally, but our notion of genetic or biologically inherited culture, of “owning” cultures or ethnicities because of our parentage are deeply problematic, not just politically, but empirically. Culture is learned and contextual, and is basically a tool of human interaction.
I have a deep compassion and understanding for the Jewish language of ancestors and heritage. I get it. I understand why that language exists and why it circulates. But I also see so many dangers inherent in a language of inherited culture.
Yesterday I bought a used copy of Martin Buber’s collection of essays on Judaism. I was excited to read it because Buber’s I and Thou was transformative for me when I was an undergraduate. But I didn’t even make it half way through the first essay. Buber argues that there are only two things to be said of turn of the century judaism (presumably in Germany), and that is that it’s a religion and that it’s a nationality. He rejects the possibility that early 20th century German Jews were actually religious, because they don’t have a direct encounter with the divine principles, and turns to a three page long explanation of the connection of Jews to each other through their blood, and that their shared blood makes them a nation (he even goes so far to argue that nationhood requires common blood, a horrifying notion from our perspective 100 years later).
The blood language…was there something in the water in Germany? Seriously. I was pummeled by the deep historical irony of a Jew making that argument. But I was also deeply saddened. I need to read the rest of the essay to see where Buber is going with this. But as someone on the path to conversion, reading this blood language yet again (the first time I read it was the Orthodox scholar I have talked about before (see Gelerntner)) knocked me back.
Again, I get it. Completely intellectually, sociologically, historically, and culturally. But it leaves me completely speechless and baffled as to where to take that. I have a sociological/historical response, but I’m not sure how helpful it is for my personal experience of choosing Judaism as my community and spiritual path.
I have a long post on Jewish Identity that I’ve been working on for about a week, and it will tie in to this, but my idea of Jewish Identity comes from a normative position, what I think Jewish identity should or could be, and I take an adamantly anti-essentialist tack.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
teku
Becoming Jewish 
All I can think is, there has to be something that informs identity, beyond what’s between an individual’s ears. But the external identity markers all tend to wig me out ever so slightly. It would be nice to encounter something that I *wanted* to embrace as part of my identity. All I keep doing is shedding things; at what point do I acquire new and/or better ones? This is a very interesting path you’re on. XO
I’ve really been struggling with ‘identity’ lately, writ large, not just in the religious/jewish context. In my professional life, I’ve been working on figuring out what identity actually is. We talk about it as a central piece of life and our ‘humanity’, but I’m no longer sure. I’m not saying identification doesn’t happen, just that it’s a problematic category of analysis.
A piece of identity is always how other people treat you, which means that regardless of what’s in our heads or hearts, others will impute labels/categories onto you. Or in this case, refuse to treat you as if you belong to a category that you have chosen.
Sorry to wax academic about a personal topic. I’m trying to reconcile my sociological/critical study of identity as a social process with my personal experience of a major breaking open of my own ideas about myself.
Your comment also gave me a bit of clarity about something that’s been happening to me, in terms of shedding pieces. You know what is weird is that as I’ve gotten older, I think like you that my identity has really simplified as I’ve gotten closer to understanding and knowing myself at my core. Even this process of converting to Judaism is something that feels like it’s happening out of my core and on my own terms.
“Or in this case, refuse to treat you as if you belong to a category that you have chosen.”
I can totally see this. Remember ye olde Seinfeld (there is one for every situation, particularly the jewish ones lol) about his dentist converting just so he could tell jewish jokes. And then he talks about how “our people have been struggling for 3,000 years, Jerry.” LOL. It’s funny from the outside, but if the dentist were actually an earnest seeker wanting to care about that identity, it’s clear that there are Very Old Barriers in place. Blood-filled ones, as you aptly point out.
Meh. Buy yourself a part-time yarmulke and a chaim pendant and have at it. I would out-yiddish the jews any day of the week and twice on Shabbat. THEY ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME AND I CAN BE JEWISH IF I WANT TO. 😀
Seriously, though, maybe push yourself beyond your Goyische comfort zone and well into the Chosen People zone and see where your balance is. In the end, it’s whatever you want it to be, IMO. As the child of converts, I have seen the assimilation difficulties within a culture that heartily lusts after converts; I can only imagine the difficulty breaking into that old-Jews club. Break through the Goyische glass ceiling! 😀 xx
Marisa’s dad converted to Judaism recently. His rabbi told him that one of the things that makes a person Jewish is if their first concern is Israel in current events. I don’t know about that.
I still say find a coffee klatch. Maybe if you get enough food, drink, culture in your system it will count.
As you know, I’ve tons to say on the topic, but why not throw this one into the mix:
There’s always what Lenny Bruce said: if you’re from New York, you’re Jewish. Not from New York, clearly not Jewish (I paraphrase)…
LMAO! Nothing like Lenny Bruce to bring things into crystal clear perspective.
Just curious. Which essay is it of Buber’s where he talks about the common blood?
Great post. The only thought I have to add is one from Rabbi Daniel Weiner, in response to hearing there are genealogy companies out there offering to “test you for the Jewish genome”:
“It’s ridiculous to test for Jewishness. We’ve been all over the world. We have every people’s blood in us and everyone has our blood in them, so the meaning of the term “The Jewish Race” is meaningless. And if you remember, the only people who have been really interested in making us into a race have been those who want to ghettoize us or kill us” (slight paraphrase].
The Buber piece was “Judaism and the Jews” from 1909 (?). I have since read a few more pieces from the collection, which covers 1909-1918, and another grouping from after he came to the U.S. in the 1930s. He left behind the blood language literally in the very next essay, wherein he starts talking about Judaism as a spirit, an ethic, an encounter with the divine (see the quote in the sidebar above).
I have a slight problem with Rabbi Weiner’s quote in your comment. I accept it whole heartedly as a normative, that is, as a position we should hold as modern, liberal Jews. But witness the Ultra-conservative rabbis attempt to take over conversion law in Israel this summer; or look at medieval Jewish law regarding Jewish community boundaries; or 18th century Hasidic writings on who is a Jew and who isn’t.
Historically, it *is* accurate to say that Jewish thinking about ethnic boundaries was most often in response to hostile pressures from outside forces, but it is simply not accurate to say that discussions of jewish “race” came only from enemies. Indeed, *everyone* in germanic europe was talking about races and blood in the late 19th century. It was the zeitgeist.
Back to Rabbi Weiner’s point. The value, for me, is not in his historical claim, but in his moral claim. Jews should *not* build racial** boundaries and should resist essential language in building their community bonds.
**(all claims to racial purity are false empirically anyway, not just because Jews are so mixed with so many different peoples; but all *humans* are historically mixed peoples)
I’m new to your blog, and am so far enjoying it very much. I’ll be a regular reader.
I agree that the belief that “Jewish blood,” or genetic inheritance, conveys Jewishness from generation to generation is, while unfortunately prevalent, very wrong. If it were accurate, we wouldn’t still be wringing our hands over the “Who/What is a Jew?” question after 2,000 plus years! I’m as surprised as you that Buber stumbled into such a fiction! (But I’m also pleased to read that he seems to have abandoned it after a short time.)
I prefer A.B. Yehoshua‘s conception of Jewishness as a “double helix of religion and nationality” that “created another element – free, imagined, and virtual.” Quoting Yehoshua at length:
Many thanks, Hyena.
For those following this thread, there’s a short article on Huffington Post today that may be of interest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-golin/whos-a-jew-redefining-jew_b_682124.html
Thanks for the link. I’d not heard the buzz about Amare (linked from Golin’s HuffPost piece), either! As a fan of his, I find that story fascinating!
As for the earlier comment about the rabbi who believes prioritizing Israeli news makes you a Jew…yeah, that’s simply silly…though I do head to the NY Times Middle East section before any other, so I must be in!