Oh, to use “appetizing” as a noun! Oh, to remember sunny summers spent splashing on the beach at Coney Island. Oh, to have a knish do for me what a madeleine did for Proust — unleash a torrent of memories, except instead of tortured and French, mine are warm and borough based. A violin fiddles in the background; Mayor Ed Koch plays the role of Tevye. Oh, to have been born a New York Jew!
Sure, I’m happy enough to have been born a suburban Chicago Jewess. But right after college I moved to New York — Brooklyn, actually (for the accent!) — convinced then, and to this day, that there is just something more Jewish about New York Jews. Something ineffable, enviable. But is it true? Are New York Jews the chosen chosen? Or am I just a self-hating Chicagoan? And while we’re at it: How can one Jew be more Jewish than another Jew, nu?
“Most Jews feel that someone else is more Jewish than them,” a reassuring Rabbi Irwin Kula said when I confessed my New York complex. “I can’t tell you how many people come up and tell me, ‘I’m not — something.’” Usually they worry they’re not religious enough, said the rabbi, who is president of CLAL — The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. But my problem, he discerned, is that I don’t feel ethnic enough.
That’s exactly it! Where I grew up there were plenty of Jews, but for better or worse, no one has ever dubbed suburban Chicago “Hymietown.” In New York, Jews are practically born in borscht. From babyhood they’re swimming in ethnicity, from bagel stores to Brooklyn’s Boro Park to Broadway — so much that they don’t even notice. And they’re always just a subway ride away from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, our ancestral gateway to America.
“I do think of New York as the ‘homeland,’” Doreen Orion said. “Russia and Poland — not so much. I’ve never been there, and my grandparents didn’t exactly get a warm send-off.”
A New York-raised Jew, and author of the travel memoir “Queen of the Road” (Broadway, 2008) Orion recently visited Israel, where friends told her she’d feel at home instantly.
She didn’t. At all. “New York Jews and Israelis are totally different animals,” Orion said. “But the falafel was amazing.”
The falafel almost proves her point: Israel is a modern country filled with Jews who have adapted to the Middle East. They left behind their old names and some of their old recipes, too. What could be less Orchard Street?
When I asked him his views on New York Jews, author Douglas Rushkoff wrote in an e-mail, “In my book, ‘Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism,’ (Crown, 2003) I [say that] many American Jews consider Israel the heart of Judaism. They write checks to Israel where they assume the ‘real Jews’ are doing whatever real Judaism is.” He went on: “But people in New York City don’t have quite that problem, because we see our own city reflecting Jewish values. New York is where European Jews came not just during the Holocaust, but during every holocaust.”
With so many Jews so eager to resume their uprooted lives, a great miracle happened here: Rather than Jews becoming assimilated to New York, it went the other way around: New York assimilated to the Jews. That’s why comedian Lenny Bruce could declare: “It doesn’t matter, even if you’re Catholic. If you live in New York, you’re Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you are going to be goyish if you’re Jewish.”
“I think it’s the concentration that allowed Jews to shape a certain part of New York life,” social media consultant Elaine Bloom said. “The way things slow down around the Jewish holidays. The way every coffee shop offers matzo during Passover. The way so many people who are not Jewish understand a few Yiddish words, and use them.”
“My Italian neighbors in Queens knew that the best thing to bread fish with was matzo meal, so they’d come over to borrow some if they ran out,” said Rabbi Michael Shevack, who has since relocated to Pennsylvania. In New York, “your identity as a Jew and your identity as an American were fused, and you couldn’t get that elsewhere.”
Aha! That is the identity I always craved: The one where Jewishness and Americanness — and funniness and a certain pushiness and love of fatty meat — all got blended together. And crazy or not, I’ve spent my adult life stuffing myself with that mixture, like a human kishke.
I’m writing for the Forward, right? I go to a synagogue where they serve herring. My sons are named Morry and Izzy! Come on — mah-jongg may still elude me, but does that mean I am forever to remain a mild-mannered Midwest miss? “Fuhgeddaboutit!” as they say.
And as I say now, too.
Lenore Skenazy is the author of “Who’s the Blonde That Married What’s-His-Name? The Ultimate Tip of the Tongue Test of Everything You Know You Know — But Can’t Remember Right Now” (Penguin Group, 2009).
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Thanks for this article. It made me think a lot more about how Jewishness and Americanness can coincide. I wonder - do you think Jews who aren't from the USA would feel more comfortable in New York or in Israel? Where is your conception of ethnicity coming from - is it dictated by American Popular culture, and if so, what does that imply?
As an Addendum, I quote another article in the forward about sustainable Jewish delis that I just read:
"Adelman and Levitt’s position is clear: What American Jews think of as the authentic Jewish deli is an ossified construct based on post-World War II ideals of abundance that had little to do with how Jews ate in early 20th-century New York, let alone in the Old World.
That mile-high, fatty pastrami sandwich served at Katz’s or the Carnegie Deli? American, not Jewish, they say. Jewish cooking a century ago was all about thrift, seasonality and resourcefulness. Every part of the animal was used; portions were small; tomatoes were served in summer, and beets in winter."
"The way so many people who are not Jewish understand a few Yiddish words, and use them." Yes, it's really nice and pleasant to hear the non-Jewish New Yorkers say a few words in Yiddish. But let's face it: Generally, the New York Jews only know those same few words in Yiddish. "Jewishness and Americanness... all got blended together". Well, yes, that is true to some extent, but it would seem that that the Americanness is the MUCH more significant component in this blend - just as it is elsewhere in the American Diaspora.
I understand that this article is meant to raise a smile about the Jewish experience in NYC. Indeed, it is a delightful article, and I smiled from beginning to end. However, I find it to be a terrible disservice to Jewish public to pretend that assimilation is not a fact of life. "Rather than Jews becoming assimilated to New York, it went the other way around: New York assimilated to the Jews". Sorry, that is simply not true. There are many, many committed Jews in NYC, and there are impressive institutions of Jewish life there. Yet, as elsewhere in America, most Jews in NYC are uninvolved in Jewish community life and quite (Jewishly) illiterate.
Lonny - There are so many programs that are meant to bring Jewish youth to Israel. The logic behind these educational programs is that there is some very special quality about Jewish life and society in Israel that could leave a life-changing impact on the Jewish visitor. I can't think of a parallel educational structure that would bring Jewish youth to New York with the philosophy that a mere ten-day visit will leave an important or even a life-changing impression on one's Jewish identity. So, I'm quite certain that there are non-American Jews who come to NYC to study in yeshivah or to study at the JTS, and the experience is important. But, the Land of Israel with its Biblical heritage is an essential element of the Jewish civilization, and its Hebrew language is the historic medium of Jewish creativity. It is quite strange that anyone would even raise the question if NYC is in the same category of Jewishness.
A good read, but possibly a bit short-sighted. Even the BBC and The Times [London] use Yiddish words which have becomes part of standard English. In London's Golders Green district, also known as Frankfurt-on-Thames, thousands of people are 100% Brits and 100% frum at the same time. Strictly Orthodox schools that top national league tables for exam results and strictly Orthodox professionals are quite normal.
When a cousin from Tel Aviv stayed with us we went to shul Shabbos morning and on the way home passed a thousand other Orthodox shulgoers coming and going to and from various kiddushes, Bar Mitzvahs, aufrufs etc. I said cheerfully he must feel like being home in Tel Aviv, to which he replied that in Tel Aviv you see far fewer shuls and shulgoers! In Golders Green Road traffic is minimal, unlike Shabbos in Tel Aviv.
"The falafel almost proves her point: Israel is a modern country filled with Jews who have adapted to the Middle East. They left behind their old names and some of their old recipes, too."
Well, half of them did. The other half are indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (and some are from various Asian countries). Jewish culture is multi-faceted, including kubbeh, t'bit, tajine, hot pots, curry and wat, not just borscht.
Wow, how stunningly short-sighted and closed-minded. Not every Jew is a New York Jew, or wants to be. The land of every Ashekanzi Jewish stereotype? Thanks, but no thanks.
It's exactly this type of thinking that makes Jews who don't fit this stereotypical image feel unwelcome and un-Jewish. We didn't all come out of shtetls. I never ate knishes growing up - I don't think that makes me any less Jewish or American.
The Golders Green example is a great one. So too is the Syrian Jewish community in New York. I suspect they don't speak Yiddish and they don't eat knishes.
Hey Lenore, you're right! Without New York's Jews there would be no sterotypes! I much prefer being a Jew in the northern Chicago suburbs where no one decides my Jewishness or my Zionism. I am such an oh so proud Jew and although my father z"l was a New Yorker, I have always been grateful that he chased my mother back to Chicago. I do love New York, but puleeze!
As a Canadian Jew from a moderately-sized city, I've always felt estranged from New York AND Israel as sources of identity. For me, the unique marker of Judaism is precisely that there is no spatial "heart" of the religion: rather ours is a portable homeland we carry within. Moses was neither American or Israeli.
Benjamin, my friend, you are so right, it is the land within.
It's unproductive to take polarizing stances, as in either Israel or New York is more Jewish or one defines what it means to be Jewish.
What is true, however, is that New York is an incredibly important part of Jewish and Jewish-American history, culture and religion. We hold New York Jews at this higher standard precisely because they came to or come from this specific place.
i still think that if you want to get to the heart of american jewish identity, you need to experience new york.
but i don't think it's the end-all and be-all of american jewish identiy
This discussion is another example of the pointless debate about Jewish "authenticity" (or all authenticity for that matter). Since, fortunately, there is no Jewish Pope with central authority to define who is a Jew, no government or journalist is in a better position than anyone else to resolve this question. Personally, I think that a)self-identification with the Jewish people; joined with b)acting on the basis of Jewish values mean far more than living in a particular place. Thus a New Yorker who was born to Jewish parents but has no connection with the civilization other than using Hebrew or Yiddish phrases and eating bagels is not a Jew, but an Alaskan who is in the process of converting and sends solar ovens to Darfur is someone who by their actions is Jewish.
Unfortunately, there are, in New York, in Israel, and in lots of other places, "papal" arbiters of outward piety who fiercely ignore the 'gute neshumeh' at a time when grouping together would be healthier for the Jewish People and our continuity. Values endure, piety not so surely.
Benjamin - Your example of Moses ("neither American or Israeli") wasn't really thought out so clearly. Moses leads the children of Israel to the Promised Land. He is PUNISHED by not being allowed to enter the Land - although in the final scene of the Torah (Deut 34), he gets a wonderful view of the entire country before departing this world. So, if you want to negate the centrality of the Land of Israel in Jewish consciousness by claiming that we have a "portable homeland" - well, you'll have to bring some example from the modern world of Jewish debate. Any personality and any book of traditional Jewish life will be totally focused on the the Land of Israel as home.
Having left NYC over sixty years ago,and going back infrequently, but never losing the city's Jewishness, the comments appear to be much to serious!
It was presented in a light humorous vein. Give the writer a break! Those of us who return to Jewish New York periodically are rejuvenated and excited by the going ons and commotion of this great city. This article was not meant to be a religious dissertation.
New York City forever!!!!
Sigh..I'm so glad I came on aliya from NY 11 years ago. I don't regard Bklyn as more "Jewish" (personally, I hate using the term Jewish as an adjective), as I regard it as more shtettled. It mirrors the livelihoods of Jews in Eastern Europe in the 20's and 30's before the Nazis terrorized Europe. Unfortunately, many were way too comfortable and wouldn't even imagine that anything like a holocaust could ever happen to them.
The land of Israel is home to the Jews and for the Jews. Nowhere else.
As anon pointed out, this article only serves to reinforce the stereotype that "real" Jewishness is Ashkenazi-centered. You do a disservice to those of us whose experiences do NOT reflect Eastern/Northern European Jewish culture.
Joel - I didn't sense in this article that "real Jewishness is Ashkenazi-centered". The author seems to be bragging that her sons have such Jewish-sounding names (Morry and Izzy). Once upon a time, Jews had names like Moshe or Yitzhak. When they arrived in NYC, Moshe became Morris and Yitzhak became Isadore. In other words, there was an attempt to keep away from obviously Jewish names. That was not "real Jewishness", and it is so ironic that names meant to hide one's Jewish identity should be redefined today as Jewish-sounding. Most obviously, "Jewishness" was expressed in one's language. A distinctive language is an obvious sign of a Jewish society that has its own cultural point of reference. It doesn't really matter if one is from an Ashkenazi background or from the Arab world or from the Ladino experience. Jews in America have long abandoned all such symbols of distinctive Jewishness. Some of the haredim maintain a Yiddish-language society, and the Israelis maintain a Hebrew-speaking world. The rest of the Jews are not even aware of what they have lost, and most of them probably don't even know how to write their own names in Hebrew script. I couldn't imagine that such a dismal reality would be seen as "Jewishness" in NYC or anywhere.
Well, I can tell you that growing up Jewish in the south (60's-70's) makes a trip to New York feel like a visit to the old country. And although I visit often, I am always terribly homesick for the place that I have never lived but consider my 'real' home: New York. Shalom, y'all!