As a child growing up at camp and in youth group, a popular question was, “are you a Jewish-American or an American-Jew”? The question, of course, was not to challenge us to a grammar debate, but to determine which defined you: American or Jew. . . Jewish identity programs and discussions, for kids and teenagers, are plentiful. We strive, at camp, at Religious School, and with youth groups, to enable our children to not only understand their legacy as Jews, but to help them explore how they feel about it. As much as our children are able to explore the question in safe, pressure free environments, adults are faced with this question in very real terms, as we raise children, and make job decisions, as well as other major life choices. We ask the question-I would guess, most often, subconsciously: Does Judaism inform my life choices? If so, how? The question and debate of how we feel and experience our Jewish identity is one which is still very real. If we were asked the direct question: What does Judaism mean to you, and how does it shape your life? We may find it is not so easy to answer.
Abigail Pogrebin, in her book, Stars of David: Interview with Prominent Jews, tackles the subject of Jewish identity through penetrating and entertaining interviews of prominent Jews from movie stars to scientists to musicians to journalists. In the prologue, Pogrebin writes of her desire to put together this book: “I found myself looking at public figures that happen to be Jewish and wondering how Jewish these people felt. It occurred to me that we might share a kind of figurative secret handshake-not just pride in the heritage and endurance of the Jewish people, but uncertainty about what it means to be a Jew today. Was their ethnic and religious identity crucial to them, incidental to their lives, or meaningless?
Of course, the fact that they agreed to be interviewed provides a moment of interesting discussion. For even if they consider themselves entirely secular, the fact that they were open to the interview does state, at the very least, that they publicly acknowledge their heritage.
It should come as no surprise that many of the interviewees spoke openly of their assimilation, their outward rejection of Jewish practice and study, or of their comfort with their ignorance. In a review by the Jewish Press, Jason Maoz wrote: “In fact it's hard to think of a recent book that comes close to this one in conveying the assimilation and alienation that defines 21st Century American Jewry - particularly the movers and shakers in the world of entertainment, business and media.”
Maoz is pointing to a number of interviews in which Pogrebin honestly writes of rejected faith; discomfort with Jewish tradition, and significant distance from anything besides cultural-bagels and lox-identity. For example, the creator and former executive producer of 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt, told Pogrebin, “I don't call myself anything.”
I must admit, however, the book was strangely addictive. Even with the narratives that made me feel sad, or frustrated, I was able to learn about the ways that Judaism has influenced a constituency that I rarely see. For example, Mike Nichols, director of The Graduate, describes his arrival, as a child, in New York as a refugee from Germany, in the 1940's, and how that informed his identity. Pogrebin writes, “So what kind of Jewish identity results from being raised with Jewish guilt but no Jewish customs? Does Nichols connect in any spiritual way to being Jewish or is it heritage that moves him? 'Certainly heritage', he answers. 'Religion? I would have to say, no.'”
Pogrebins' interview with Gene Wilder-I must admit, a personal favorite actor of mine-reflects Pogrebins' sensitivity to the uncertainty of what it means to be Jewish today. “ I'm going to tell you what my religion is,” Wilder announces, leaping to the point. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Period. Terminato. Finito. I have no other religion. I feel very Jewish and I feel very grateful to be Jewish. But I don't believe in God or anything to do with the Jewish religion.” Pogrebin, disappointingly, did not push Wilder to explain how he felt Jewish, but rejected Judaism at the same time. And yet, I wanted Pogrebin to ask Wilder: so, then how do you work, within yourself, to make sense of the fact that Judaism is both a culture and a religion? Can one reject the religion, entirely, and still retain the cultural heritage? Can it be true that one does not need, at all, the other? Perhaps, one day we will be treated to a follow up interview!
Many others also purported that their Jewish heritage is simply cultural, not spiritual. Aaron Brown, news anchor with CNN, believes his experience with anti-Semitism as a young child definitely informs him as an adult: “I understand better than more people what it means to be an outsider.” Yet, when it comes to observance, according to Pogrebin, “Brown says, unequivocally, ' I don't do organized religion.' Ironically, his wife, Charlotte, does. She converted from being Presbyterian and is now more strictly Jewish than her husband ever was.” Their child, Gabby, is being raised a Jew, but as Brown stated, “not for theological reasons. I found that if Gabby, our daughter, was going to experience any of the prejudices of being Jewish, she also ought to be aware of proud and joyful history.” Brown's connection to history, over spirituality, especially given Brown's brushes with anti-Semitism as a child-is no surprise.
Placing the interview with Joan Rivers into a category defies possibility, much as she herself defies any true definition, except, perhaps, diva extraordinaire! Listen to this paragraph: “First of all, we're the chosen people, and I like that we're continuing; I don't want it to stop. If these people have struggled thousands and thousands of years, it should not stop with me . . And I love going to Temple-I love Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah. And then when Hanukkah's over, I do the biggest Christmas tree you can imagine! But I love the Jewish tradition. On Passover, I look forward to doing my meal. I love when you break the fast on Yom Kippur. She fasts? No. Never have. I don't think God cares.”
Through this, Pogrebin notes, Rivers does not see the irony and/or humor within her remarks. Rivers is not alone in these interviews in the way she practices-but she does offer, not surprisingly, the best delivery of her summation.
I want to share one more interview with you. This interview touched me deeply, and I believe is an example of Pogrebins' best work within the volume.
Steven Spielberg is an internationally known filmmaker who gained deep appreciation and acclaim for his unprecedented movie about the Holocaust, Schindler's List. In just one anecdote from a beautiful interview, Spielberg speaks about the making of Schindler's List. He chose to hire Germans to play Nazis, and Jews, often Israelis, to play Jews. About that choice, he wrote, “Because it's in my nature, I think- especially in a story about the Holocaust-to be able to commiserate and tell the story of members of my own race. . . In fact, I unfairly developed an attitude about the German actors playing the Nazis . .. I was giving them an attitude: I would happily talk to the Israeli actors about anything they wanted me to talk about [but not to talk to the Germans]. And then one day we had Passover . . and we invited the whole cast and crew to come. The Israeli actors all came in and sat around me with haggadahs, and then all the German actors came in. . and the Israeli actors took the German actors and shared their haggadahs with them; they took them through the entire seder. And I sat at the head of the table and I just cried like a baby. . . And I apologized to a lot of the actors the next day when we began shooting again. The fact that the German actors took it upon themselves to come to a seder and sit with the Israeli actors and learn about the holiday was an epiphany for me.”
Spielberg's honesty, and candor in sharing this all too human story, touched me deeply. I believe he showed his Jewish identity strongly-not only in having the courage to make the movie-but in having the courage to grow with it's making as well.
All in all, Pogrebins' book is highly readable, and a bit addictive. It can be depressing, and frustrating, but it does offer interesting insights into the powerful question of Jewish identity. And through it, I found that I began asking many of these questions of myself. As Pogrebin writes in the Epilogue: “I started this book because I was genuinely curious about how being Jewish-that unique amalgam of ritual, Israel, Holocaust, matzo, Torah, and Seinfeld-sits with people who live public lives, who are among America's success stories. But every person I spoke to made me look at myself: my childhood, my children, my marriage, my faith or lack of it, my education or ignorance, my connection or indifference. Every one of these conversations was a prick at my conscience.” I hope, that, when you read the book, you too, will use this book as a way to deeply explore questions of your own Jewish identity. Like Pogrebin wrote, so honestly: let this book be for us a motivator and an instigator into a deeper consultation of our own Jewish identity.
Amen.
E-mail Rabbi Bergman Vann
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