Comments on: Otherness – that’s so Diaspora

By: DK

DK — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 23:13:30 +0000

I would like to believe that I could find alienation and ambivalence in any community I was raised in, but that might just be the universalist talking.

By: Last of the Jewish Niggers

Last of the Jewish Niggers — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:21:50 +0000

I feel most Jewish when reflecting on my antipathy for Christianity and Islam.

By: Jewschool » Blog Archive » Seriously, Who Are You Talking About?

Jewschool » Blog Archive » Seriously, Who Are You Talking About? — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 02:21:23 +0000

[...] And then on Jewlicious today, one commentor, on a thread following a swipe from Laya at one of our contributors, writes: I think that�s what�s missing from the new �hipster� Judaism is any knowledge of – or interest in – Torah. Talk about missing the forest for the trees. But I am hopeful that unaffiliated young Jews with no Jewish background who attend, say, a Heeb shock-value Purim party, may start to feel Jewish for the first time in their lives, and for some this could lead to increased interest in Jewish learning and observance. [...]

By: laya

laya — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 23:14:48 +0000

Thanks everyone for the comments

We are a people, and an odd one at that. obviously we are different and we are challenged with our unique mission

The fact of our difference, our otherness is not in question. What I am arguing is that if that undefined difference and othererness is the essence of our uniqueness, well, that’s just lame.

By: DartingMistress, Jerusalem

DartingMistress, Jerusalem — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 22:27:58 +0000

those apples remind me of my tu b’shvat fruit parties…

come join my latest party over at my place…

By: Sarah N

Sarah N — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:59:38 +0000

Hey Jobber, no dissing VJ. We can’t all be Jewlicious… and what does the rest of your post even mean?

By: Jobber

Jobber — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 20:40:17 +0000

Oh no not VJ, what is the LA based > U ought to bring back Charlie Warrady, I was addicted to that Radio progrms.

By: Sarah N

Sarah N — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:00:51 +0000

Laya, darling, you are now part of the establishement. I have put your article up on virtual jerusalem. Front page, loving it… For some reason your article made the whole content managment system go wonky but it was worth it. Go check it out virtualjerusal...

By: Jobber

Jobber — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:26:42 +0000

Esther, I believe you have to have a leap of faith w/ the Israel thing. I too held your view about it in the past, but I finally ‘got’ Israel a few years ago.

The same behavior that you focuses on would occur w/ American Jews as well. I know this bec. I work in a restaraunt and I see all kinds of shennanigans by Americans Jews, some w. Kippot.

So please do not prejudge the entire people.

By: esther

esther — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:10:03 +0000

Laya, wonderful and thought-provoking post, and other people, great comments.

You all know I have a love/hate relationship with Israel (love the country, sometimes hate the people, like last night at a local event when several burly Israeli men felt they didn’t have to wait on line for sushi like everyone else and pushed me quite hard). And as far as my religious self is concerned, that’s in flux right now, whether I were to be in Israel or anywhere else.

But as for identity, I want to draw what i think is an important distinction: we, as am kadosh, are definitionally separate from everyone else. The question is how we translate that into our individual circumstances. Living in smaller communities, we are forced to define ourselves by what parts of society we opt out of, how we differ from the others who surround us. In the bigger communities, like my New York, even though there’s a large community of the different, within that group there’s so much difference on the micro level that we have to find ways to define ourselves, not for ourselves but in order to explain ourselves to others in a way that they’ll understand. And then, of course, there’s the issue of labels. And don’t get me started on that.

Identity is complicated. Even saying you identify as a Jew will provoke the question of “what kind of Jew”? Or at least it will in the contexts I’ve visited.

I’ve sometimes wished I could strip away the Jewish part of me and uncover my “true identity,” but have since realized that the Jewish part of me is the core, and all the rest is commentary and accessories. Important commentary and accessories that bring out the shimmering, prismatic highlights of me, but still, the core is Jewish.