Welcome to Gaia! ::

To those of you who have been posting your answers in the last couple days; I appreciate your time spent, but I will not be using your answers. I may look them over out of pure interest, as this is a topic I chose personally, but my paper is complete and I am done with my semester.

Thank you again for helping me out; I appreciate it more than you know (for you likely have made my grade in this class).
At least one of you showed interest in reading the final product, so here it is. I'm not sure how easy it will be to read in the form of a single post, so if you want me to email you the actual word document, I would be happy to do so. Just let me know.

And, a warning: This can be considered very controvertial. I mean no offense, but it is highly likely that my paper will offend some of you.

The first chunk was written as a communal introduction by myself and three other women. After that, it's all my paper.
Anyway, thank you!!

The Jewish Nation
The Illogic Behind National ******** Nationalism: Why I Eat Pork Pizza During Pesach

Shara Neff

National Identity, Memory, and Culture: Introduction
Courtney F., Rachel K., Clio K., and Shara N.

-------Any discussion of national identity relies on some understanding of what constitutes a nation. However, the nation is an illusive concept that has been defined in numerous and contradictory ways. Perhaps the simplest way to approach a definition of nationhood is to describe what the nation is not. A nation is not state. Although national identity is often politicized, the nation is not, first and foremost, a political body. The nation is a social community, a sort of extended family, if you will, which “does not possess sovereignty” (Demiashkevich 69), whereas the state is a governing and governed body, internationally recognized to be a power in its own right. In many cases, the nation and the state do coincide, which leads to confusion between the two. Because, in these cases, “the cultural and spiritual qualities around which the national community cohered could be assimilated to the state” (Randle 54), it is assumed that the two naturally go hand-in-hand and that the political apparatus of the state constitutes the nation. However, it is more appropriate to refer to these entities as nation-states: the nation brought itself together to create a sovereignty, and that body is run to suit the needs of the nation.

-------Even in the modern era, when such nation-states are the norm, nation and state do not necessarily coincide. The United States provides an interesting example. Most of the population of the U.S. comes from families that immigrated relatively recently, and many of these people continue to view their countries of origin as dictating their true nationalities. It is therefore debatable whether the U.S. constitutes a nation or simply a state to which people of various nationalities submit for political, economic, or ideological reasons.

-------If the U.S. may be viewed as a trans-national state, there are also numerous “trans-state” nations whose people do not live in one single area (Satyendra). An example of one such trans-state nation is the Jewish nation. Though Jews do, today, have a state to call their own, they are by no means limited to Israel. Jews exist all over the world, partaking in their states of residence, yet they are still a unique nation.

-------National groups, then, are capable of existing outside of the framework of the state. Loyalty to the nation is more than loyalty to a government or a particular swath of ground. Instead, national loyalty is a response to the idea of the nation, an abstract construct that transcends geopolitical realities. But defining this concept precisely, and distinguishing national groups from the numerous other types of human communities, is a notoriously difficult task. One of the principle debates surrounding attempts to define the nation is that between primordialists and modernists. According to primordialists, the nation has intrinsic reality as an ethnic community (a community of common descent) that is linked by a shared history, language, culture, religious beliefs, and values (Bačová 36). Nationality is determined at birth and cannot be changed through will or acculturation. According to primordialists, communities that meet the criteria for ethnicity, and hence nationhood, have the right to "claim a state" (Bačová 37), presumably in their ancestral homeland.

-------Ernest Gellner, in his 1983 book Nations and Nationalism, summarizes the modernist position on nationalism. Gellner first offers two "makeshift, temporary definitions" (Gellner 7) of the nation. The first is the cultural definition: "two men are of the same nation if and only if they share the same culture, where culture in turn means a system of ideas and signs and associations and ways of behaving and communication.” The second definition is voluntaristic: "two men are of the same nation if and only if they recognize each other as belonging to the same nation," independent of any shared attributes they may possess.

-------For Gellner, the nation is a relatively amorphous concept and does not imply any intrinsic connection between members of a national group. Instead, it is a modern institution, created to meet the demands of modern industrial society. Industrialism, which led to the need for a pool of interchangeable workers, necessitated the emergence of states "defined by a shared culture, and internally mobile and fluid" (Gellner 56) and an end to local, clan-based ties. National cultures are created by the state, particularly the educational system, to impose a sense of cohesion. While a national culture draws upon ancient traditions, "it uses them very selectively, and often transforms them radically" (Gellner 55). The result is a fabricated culture, not a natural result of the shared experience of those who adopt it.

-------This purely modernist approach does not address the question of why some ethnic or cultural groups maintain their identity through centuries of oppression, while others die out or assimilate. The relative tenacity of some groups, according to Anthony D. Smith, stems from the possession of a core of "myths, memories, values and symbols" (Smith 15). This view suggests that while nations may not be primordial, neither are they entirely modern. Successful nationalist groups are those whose ingrained practices, myths, and values sustain them in times of oppression and form a suitable ideological basis for the creation of a nation-state.

-------Nations are thus modern constructions with historical roots. A sense of a shared past is central to national identity. Therefore, a common memory is crucial to the formation of a nation, as Ernest Renan argued in What is a Nation? (Renan 11, 19). According to Renan, national memory creates “a large-scale solidarity, constituted by the feeling of the sacrifices that one has made in the past and of those that one is prepared to make in the future” (Renan 19). National unity requires that people remember a past in which they acted as one and imagine a future in which they will continue to live a common life.

-------This collective memory, so central to national identity, is itself a complex notion, perhaps no easier to define than the nation itself. Broadly speaking, collective memory refers to the way social groups process and appropriate knowledge of the social past (Paez et al. 14 cool . This type of memory serves relevant social functions. Events that impact the lives of much of the population and produce extensive discussion are especially influential in the collective memory of a group, and the importance of these memories depends in part on the level of cultural upheaval caused by the remembered event. Both the formation and the maintenance of collective memories are important to the process of social remembering. The way that groups choose to remember and forget their history is both a social and a psychological process that impacts group unity and identity.

-------Collective memory differs from history in that it is a flow of continuous thought that “retains from the past only what still lives or is capable of living in the consciousness of the groups keeping the memory alive” (Halbwachs 80). History, on the other hand, is meant to be comprehensive and to preserve even the dullest of facts, including those unflattering to the historian's national group. While collective memory hinges on the idea of a continuous, unchanging group identity, historians give the impression that every idea, interest, tradition, event, and perspective is transformed from one period to another. Even if the same group exists in two different periods, they are considered to be separate entities with few connections to each other (Halbwachs 80). While historians contrast and distinguish past periods as equivalent and separate realities, the continuous development of collective memory is not broken by demarcations of decided change; rather, “the memory of a society extends as far as the memory of the groups composing it” (Halbwachs 82). As memories are preserved in the minds of the people in a group, they are continually reconstructed according to the present needs and goals of the group. Through a continual relationship with these memories, a group identity is created and perpetuated.

-------While significant historical events form stronger collective memories and contribute to the unifying process of collective memory, it is the group’s present circumstances that affect what events are remembered as significant. As a result of these contemporary influences, collective memory takes on a socializing nature. Because “memory is inextricably linked to social identity” (Paez et al. 169), collective memory allows people to have social identification on both an individual and a societal level. In this way, it plays a role in affirming the nature of a group and strengthening its bonds between present and past (Middleton and Brown). Collective memory also has the ability to adapt old images or facts to the beliefs and spiritual needs of the present (Paez et al. 157). In order to legitimize and unify a group, collective memory of the past must be continually reconstructed and reevaluated to better adapt to the group’s goals and needs in the present.

-------Collective memory, then, is an ideal means for creating and reinforcing national identity. However, shared memory is not a literal reflection of historical events. It is constructed and malleable enough to support the complex synthesis of old and new necessary to the creation of a modern nation-state. Because history does not always fit the nation’s needs, the national memory must be selective. This necessary selectivity explains Renan’s emphasis on the importance of forgetting as well as remembering in the formation of national memory (Renan 11).

-------The concept of the nation—its memories and identity—creates the entities that are associated with it—the existence of a “people” that constitute it and the state that represents it. People do not coalesce into nations because they are inherently united by destiny or blood. It is the idea of the nation that unites the people into a community. As Benedict Anderson asserts, the nation “is an imagined political community” (Anderson 6). However, as Anderson argues, the invention inherent in the formation of nations does not imply that the idea of the nation is a falsehood. The creation of national communities is not a deception but an expression of human creativity.

-------Though nations may be imagined communities, they are very real in the influence they exert over their members. The idea of the nation has become crucial to a sense of identity for both groups and individuals. Once large groups of people began to merge their local identities into strong national communities, the nation came to be viewed by many as the default mode of human organization. Those outside of the national framework had no way to define themselves. The idea of a group without a state, or an individual without a strong national identification, came to be seen as "suspicious, if not almost pathological" (Bačová 30). Eventually, all of these groups either assimilated into other nations or created themselves as new nations, using their shared memories as unifying forces.

-------Moreover, the nation-state is the basic unit of the contemporary political framework: no other socio-political entity is capable of exerting comparable power (Gellner 5). This reality explains the proliferation of nationalist movements, which include a range of anti-colonial, separatist, and Diaspora movements. A people without a nation-state lack access to autonomy and political legitimacy in the modern era and so become a defenseless minority vulnerable to persecution. With the advent of the national framework, some such minorities attempted to declare themselves part of the new system of nation-states, often in response to a denial of rights by established nation-states, as in the case of the German rejection of the Jews. The Jews and other such groups demanded “the right[...]to determine [themselves] an independent state” (Randle 53) so that they would have a say in their rights and privileges. For this to occur, it was vital that such minorities re-cast their collective memories in a nationalist mold, that they transform old religious, tribal, or linguistic identities into nationalist ones. This required a reworking and an affirmation of group identity and uniqueness. In other words, “identity is[...]made manifest[...]in particular during [these] struggles of minorities within nations or the struggles of nations against imperialist invasion” (Glassie 240). Anti-colonial or diaspora nationalisms thus provide examples par excellence of the way cultural memory is revitalized, transformed, and exploited to create a national identity.

- - - - - End Communal Intro - - - - -

-------As we stated in our communal intro, the nation is a social, not a political, entity. It is often mistaken as such but, for the purposes of this argument, I will clarify: the nation is a community of people with a common background and common hopes for the future. As Renan was astute enough to point out, this common background, filled with common struggles and beliefs, brings people together in their lives and activities. However, this concept of the nation has not always existed as it does. People assume that the nation is a natural, ever-lasting and always-being notion; this concept that “national identification is somehow so natural, primary and permanent as to precede history, is so widely held,” but this is not the case (Hobsbawm 14). The idea of the nation is a child of the Enlightenment, and it is possible for people to move from one nation to another; if the nation was such a permanent creature, this would not be possible.

-------Still, despite the capability of moving from one nation to another, it is indeed a necessity to possess a national identity. It is impractical, and likely impossible, at this point to exist without such a community; while avoiding a norm may not, in all cases, be a legally punishable offense, a lack of conformity causes rifts between people and peoples. There are few, if any, examples of people who can become and remain companions if they cannot find some common thread between them, even if that thread is merely their difference from others. These common threads pull people together, letting them share their experiences in such a manner that they exist more as the group and less as the individual.

-------The Jewish nation is no different. How do we create ourselves as a nation; what common threads do we find? Jews do, indeed, share a common history; the early part of this history is recorded in the Jewish holy book, the Torah. Even as new histories have been written for Jews, the Torah remains with its ancient past, offering the perception that “the group always remains the same, any changes must be imaginary” (Halbwachs 86). With such a feeling, the view of Jews as Victim persists constantly; the Holocaust was some sort of repetition of the Egyptian Exodus, and proves that we are hated everywhere and by everyone – excluding ourselves, of course. This is our “living history,” creating and recreating itself, permitting “the recovery of many old currents that have seemingly disappeared” (Halbwachs 64). We keep ourselves trapped in a moment in time; or rather that moment seems to have followed us through the millennia. We are still in Egypt, “uninterested in the contemporary events that engross” the current era (Halwachs 63); Hitler and Mel Gibson are just examples of Pharaoh, oppressing us constantly. Jews have become so trapped in this mindset that it is as though we can only claim our past by living it in our everyday lives.

-------Many things bring us to live and remember this common history. Our families educate us about Judaism and Jewish history or, if we are not born into the religion and culture, a Jewish community educates us and brings us into itself. We are capable of remembering only by “situating [ourselves] within the viewpoint of one or several groups or several currents of collective thought,” and so we live in the midst of Jewish life to recall our shared past (Halbwachs 33). We are always looking from this viewpoint because we are schooled from childhood to do so. Even those of us who would otherwise avoid the Jewish community are often forced back into it by outside pressures: Jews in World War II Germany considered themselves Germans first, and were still forced to be Jews. We are what we are, not necessarily because we choose to be so, but because we are created as such by others – other Jews, non-Jews, the entire world around us.

-------Why is this? Why do we have this connection to an entire community that spans the world? These questions are not easily answered, though they do bring up many more questions. After the creation of Israel, post World War II, the notion of the Jew ‘spanning the world’ seemed to disappear; suddenly, Israel was it. Somehow, we are all centered there. Why is this? There is often such a deep connection that non-Israeli Jews feel for this so-called homeland, whether or not we have ever visited the place. Many American Jews, for certain, maintain an idolatrous vision of what Israel is and we stake a claim to this as-of-yet unknown land. By doing this, American Jews are putting ourselves in the shoes of Israelis without actually knowing what life in Israel is like; there is an urge to connect with an experience that does not actually belong to us. Why must we share a common memory between us? Why are we forced into a common group, whether or not we want to partake in this group? We are always considered separate, sometimes by others, but most often by our own admission. We are different, somehow, and that places us in a corner. It does not allow us to be a part of the nation-states or states in which we reside; we are other. Which are we first – to whom do we owe our loyalty – Israel, a place that, for many of us, is more fantasy than reality, or the US, where we live and interact with our friends and family? Why is it so difficult to be both, equally?

I. Education
-------From an early age, we are taught about our shared history as Jews. These events are ingrained in us to the point that we often forget we ever learned them; instead, they are a part of us, something that originates within our very beings. We lived these experiences, despite the fact that all of them occurred long before our lifetimes; in our Passover seders, we phrase the recitations of the stories so that we imagine ourselves as slaves in Egypt and claim rights to the experiences of our ancestors. As a whole, we have existed throughout history, and we lose ourselves as individuals. Even if we think we are being individuals, our “agreement with those about us is so complete that we vibrate in unison” and share thoughts, emotions, and opinions that truly belong to the group in general (Halbwachs 44). I am a Jew, I am not Shara. That is the unconscious mentality that is taught, and not only in Jewish society. It is a common theme throughout history to eliminate the individual in favor of the masses. In the US, Americans segregate ourselves into little boxes of conservative or liberal and Democrat, Republican, or Third Party Member, and only our governmental figureheads get some sort of individuality – so long as they represent the group. This insidious plot has become so normative that we barely even realize it is happening.

-------American Jews are no exception; we read the Torah, or at least are taught the stories it preaches. We remain part of the whole, which is now centered in Israel – Israeli Jews are somehow more Jewish – because we learn about our homeland. We ‘remember’ what Israel is like, and we will always imagine it as it is described: the land of milk and honey. Some time, far back in history, We left Our imprint on Israel, and that imprint will never disappear; therefore, Israel was, is, and always will be Ours. It is as though we cannot exist without Israel, even though Israel as it is today has existed for less than a century. Israel is a place that, it seems, only Jews can properly appreciate, as it “has a meaning intelligent only to members of the group” and that meaning is our very existence (Halbwachs 130). As long as Israel remains, we are still alive and vibrant.

-------The attachment to Israel is interesting because, though Israel is a holy place, it is not merely religious Jews who feel a connection to this place. The religious ideals that Israel represents still affect non-practicing Jews. That this place is ours and was promised to us by a greater being is a powerful concept, one that greatly influences most American Jews. The fact that we can say that the “land of Israel is partly mine, simply by virtue of the fact that I am a Jew” is mind-boggling in its intensity (Epstein). If I so chose, I could travel to Israel, set down my bags, and declare myself an Israeli citizen, purely based on my Jewish heritage. We are taught that Israel is the “birthplace of Judaism; it’s the ‘Holy Land,’” and that “it would be an amazing experience to go to such a holy place” (Cindy). Amazing. Though Israel is unfamiliar to us, we are taught from infancy that it is our birthright to live in this place and that we should never forget this right.

-------This information seems to originate from the Torah and Talmud, but it is often not directly from these sources that we receive our lessons. Rather, when we attend religious schools or synagogue, our teachers shape our views. Religious schools and synagogues are miniature communities, places to feel comfortable and at home. Many religious schools, because they are quite often private institutions, are “relaxed, and small, very small,” which induces a close-knit and trusting atmosphere (Yakovlev). We are taught in them from books, yes, but we are also given a semblance of first-hand experience; “In Hebrew School, we took field trips to a few Holocaust museums, and no matter how many times I go, I cry for days every time” (Cindy). We become the victims of the Holocaust, and suddenly every Jew Hitler tortured and murdered is our mother, grandmother, brother, uncle. These feelings are expected of us – we need to take them to heart in order to grasp exactly what is being put on display for us to internalize in our learning process.

-------We are urged to take part in this community feeling and remembrance. Many of us do not outright choose to join it, but go to such assemblies because our “parents took me, and my closest friends went” (NN). As children, we are not considered (and often enough rightfully so) sentient enough to choose our life-paths, and so we follow in the steps of our parents and guardians. Our families are part of the community, and so by default we are, as well. These places are necessary, then, for our common education, and they encourage us to socialize within the group. In order to truly encourage this development of entrance and participation in the Jewish community, we are often required to attend synagogue if we want to attend “Sunday school and their Bar/Bat Mitzvah Prep classes” (Weber). A bar- or bat mitzvah signifies a child’s coming of age into the Jewish community and so is, for the religious sects, a valuable experience.

-------While my own parents allowed my sisters and myself to choose whether or not we wanted to have a bat mitzvah, it is standard in most Jewish families for the children to have one. Our parents have great influence on who we become and where we go in life. I am Jewish because my parents raised me as such. Had I been raised Christian, it is quite likely that I would today be a Christian. The way we are raised has strong bearing upon what does and does not make sense to us, and it is most often close family (such as parents and siblings) that hold the greatest influence.

-------This community centrality is vital to the Jewish nation. In order to maintain our history, we must have “enough points of contact so that any remembrance they recall to us can be reconstructed on a common foundation” (Halbwachs 31). We need to remember our past together in order to remain a solid entity, and so we come together as a community (often smaller communities, such as synagogue congregations, extended family seders, and other holiday celebrations) to learn and share the stories in the Torah and Talmud. Only when we remain together can we manage to let the history of the Jews live on.

-------It seems as though the creation of smaller communities would cause rifts in the Jewish nation. While this does happen, Jews somehow still pull ourselves together into a massive group. In order of importance, our nation’s communities are: Jew, Jew of such country, Jew of such province in such country, Jew of such section of such province, and Jew of such synagogue in this place. Because we are somehow inherently different, this grouping is not so difficult; our smaller communities make sure that we grow up knowing that we are Jews, above all else we may try to call ourselves.

-------This knowledge further encourages us to seek out a Jewish community. Since other cultures do not understand our own (without extensive study, as we have received growing up), it is difficult to discuss our culture with someone who is not Jewish. Communication between members of a nation is incredibly important to its continued survival, and so it is also inherently important that we seek each other out (Hobsbawm 3). Cindy, one of the American Jews I interviewed, said to me: “As stupid as it sounds, I had a friend join one [Jewish organization], and she doesn’t go to my school, so it was a place to talk to her.” When thinking about this, it does not sound stupid at all. Humans are pack animals, and we desire association with other humans like ourselves. We have been raised in a society that stresses differences between people (Democratic/Republican/Other; Jew/Christian/Other; Black/White/Other; etc.) and this makes us even more likely to look for ‘our own.’ That’s one of the reasons why another lady I interviewed, Ms. Bearden, does not attend synagogue; while she “would really love to attend,” she is not familiar with the community there and “going by myself . . . is hard.” As she converted to Judaism, she was not inducted into the community from birth and so does not automatically have those connections; however, she does still desire them.

-------The desire for a common ground on which to stand with our fellows is impossible to escape. Even outside the Jewish or American communities we are taught to keep to our groups and shun outsiders. Why else is it so difficult for the new kid on campus to fit in? He has not yet found his common thread and so is left drifting and alone. Yet, when we find this common ground, it is like being brought home and welcomed into the arms of someone close to us. We “love the feel of being in my homeland, of being surounded [sic] by my people” because it seems safe (Yakovlev). No one wants to be the outsider in the presence of a group; it is lonely and incredibly difficult to get by.

-------Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Jews are constantly encouraged to date the Nice Jewish Boy or Girl. It does seem, however, that this reasoning is faulty, as there are more common threads between people than just their Jewishness or nonJewishness. I might find interest in someone, not because of their religion, but because of their taste in literature or their political affiliation. There are an unlimited number of connections to be found between people. Despite this, the conflict of religion seems to be vitally important and, if we are to keep the Jewish nation as such, it is very important. My own grandmother, when I was a child, warned my sisters and myself that she would not attend our weddings if our spouses were not Jewish. True, she did not hold up to her word in this case, but the threat was not entirely idle; families encourage intra-Jewish relations as much as possible. I cannot count the number of times my mother mentioned a “Nice Jewish Boy” to me, seemingly offhandedly. It can be very covert in its influence.

-------Indeed, had I been part of a Jewish community that consisted of more than the four or five other Jews at my school, it is possible that I would have heeded her advice and looked for a Nice Jewish Boy or Girl. As it is, more than one of the American Jews I interviewed had responses relating to the desire to “marry a Jewish guy to avoid conflicts with religion” (Cindy). It is incredibly interesting how surreptitious our teachings are. It is in the semantics we use in every day life. When Cindy mentioned her hope to avoid religious conflicts, she also specifically said that being part of a Jewish community “helps me meet people.” This is not overtly saying that goyim [non-Jews] are not people, but it is promoting in-group relationships. There is an unspoken ‘my’ or ‘our’ before that word, “people.”

-------That ‘our’ returns us to the notion that we are encouraged by these specific beliefs and knowledge to find others with whom we share these things. We are driven by a need to assimilate into a group with which we have common understanding. This is one of the reasons that Israel is such a unique idea for us: “So many people there are Jewish, and except for Muslims, etc., it’s basically a Jewish state” (Cindy). Being able to walk about freely, practice our religion freely seems to be a new concept for us. In a Christian-based society like the US, this is a novelty. Here, we have to “attend synagogue in order to learn among others who love learning about my Jewish heritage, to pray among those who are also seeking connection with the divine, and to meet with those who are part of my community” (Epstein), whereas in Israel, the “hub of Jewish culture” (Bearden), we are the norm. For a nation that looks at its history and only sees oppression and victimization, this is strange and new.

II. Outside pressure and rejection from other cultures
-------This victimization that we see in our past is always associated with our present. The past and the present mesh together, almost as though they are the same time period. More than two thousand years ago, Egyptians grouped us as a Jewish other; less than one hundred years ago, Europe did the same. No matter where you look in time, Jews are grouped by outside forces, whether or not they want to be, and this pressures us to feel a connection with each other. Since ‘everyone else’ denies us community, we must make it for ourselves. This pressured connection is one that has brought us together again and again through the ages and it is the most common topic among Jewish communities. We are oppressed; we need to come together because no one else will support us. This is a frequent thought among us: “I side with the Jews. If fellow Jews don’t side with Israel, who else will?” (NN). Because we have been banished or excluded repeatedly, we have a ‘take care of our own’ mentality.

-------Once we come together to perform this mentality, we need to designate a safe place to go where we cannot be prodded into ghettos or ousted altogether. This single, safe haven is Israel, our homeland. The creation of Israel after World War II was “good in that since there was no Jewish state one should [have been] created at that point. It was bad in that it should have been created before” (HWN). Though we are a seemingly separatist group, we do not take entire responsibility for not creating Israel before the Second World War. That does not stop us from placing a claim on that land, though, for “we only want our tiny strip of beach, desert, and mountains”; “The rest of the world can HAVE the rest of the world,” as far as we are concerned, so long as we get our safe place (Epstein). The existence of a separate and independent Jewish state where Jews are the majority is such a novel idea to us, but it gleams with its importance because the idea is central to our history.
------- “Throughout history, the Jews are continually blamed for everything, and
-------made the scapegoat for all problems. I just think there should be a place of
-------refuge from all of that; it would have helped in World War II, especially
-------since Jews didn't have many places to go” (Cindy).
With this homeland, we have a place to turn when there is no place else. Supposedly, though we call it a Jewish state, it is not even so much that we want Israel only for ourselves. “We don’t want purity, which actually just means exclusion. We want inclusion. We just want to know that we, ourselves, are safe within our own borders” (Epstein).

-------Because we have a history of being oppressed (the Egyptian Exodus, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian Pogroms, etc.), we pull ourselves together to deal with rejection. We constantly remind ourselves, our peers, and our children of the horrors that we, often not personally (though we act as though it is so), have gone through – thus transferring these experiences. Since our history is a living, transferable history, we automatically assume that the histories of others are, as well. Many Jews today hold a grudge against Germans because “the German people did not do enough to resist the Nazi’s [sic] which led to the deaths of all the family on my mothers [sic] side except my Grandparents [sic]” (Weber). Though today’s German generation is not the same as the Holocaust generation, it is assumed that there is no difference. We presume that we can completely recall “a remembrance of an event that did occur, but of which we have kept no impressions, merely by reconstructing a historical conception of it” and we take these remembrances to heart (Halbwachs 69-70).

-------We are united because we take these occurrences to heart. American Jews most often have no direct involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but we directly identify with it in any case, because we are one being experiencing things together through time and space. We side with our Israeli brethren because we fear that “if Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations put down there [sic] weapons, there will be no more conflict in the Middle East. I think that if Israel puts down her weapons, there will be no more Israel,” and without Israel we are desolate (Epstein). We return to our largest community, Jews as a whole, and take personally each attack against what is “us” as Jews, forgetting and ignoring our other country affiliations.

What are some of the problems with all of this?
-------While it is true that the nation is an important aspect of life today, there are many illogical notions behind its creation. There are conflicting opinions circulating throughout the assumed homogeneity of this rationalism and rationality, which are vastly overlooked. Jews consider ourselves one people, but we are far from united as such. Israel is supposed to represent our community, our own nation-state, yet we are not centralized there. In fact, most American Jews, though we want Israel to remain ours, have never been to Israel; many are unsure if they even want to go at all. We want Israel, but we do not want to deal with any of the negative aspects that come with such a desired piece of land. America is too comfortable for us to give up, so we assert our right to both: we should have all of the comfort of living the standard American lifestyle while still holding a solid claim on Israeli soil. During holidays and at seder dinners, it is common to toast by saying, “Next year in Jerusalem.” It is a hope that, though we are not all together now, we can join together again in this place that is supposed to be of peace and safety as an enormous and happy family. Holidays, times when families are meant to come together and celebrate or mourn, bring forth education such as this. Because we are not currently in Israel, we are to hope that we will one day be in our homeland. What is stopping us now? Israel exists, we can drop everything and go there, but for some reason we remain.

-------The conflict in Israel between Arabs and Israelis is one of the primary negative features of Israel that keeps American Jews away. We demand Israel, but we p***y-foot around the issue of how we get it. Before it was created as the Jewish state it is today, Israel was not ours. Though it is by no means difficult to recognize that the UN “had no right to give away land that was occupied by other people,” we still think that “t was fine, because we got it back” (Bearden). Even if we have a biblical claim on the land, forcing people out of their homes is a bit extreme. We understand this, but generally gloss over the subject; instead, we focus on the fact that Palestinians are trying to take Israeli land now and forget that we (or the UN in our place) took it from them before. It is far easier for us to go back to our identity of Victim than for us to look at what we are doing wrong. The violence that is a constant threat in Israel is not entirely because of Palestinians; war takes more than one active participant.

-------Honestly, I completely understand the fear of the violent exchanges between Arabs and Israelis; anyone would be a fool to want to rush head-first into such a dangerous situation. Still, to hold such a strong claim on a land to which some of us do not even want to visit, let alone live in because we “would be way too afraid” makes very little sense (NN). Why not let the Israelis keep their claim on Israel, instead of making one ourselves if we have little intention of actually going to Israel? Can it really be so easy to love a country to which we have never been and, were we to go, we would be constantly aware of “the threat that Israels [sic] neighbors can just attack,” especially when “the last thing I would want is to be stuck in Israel during fighting”? (Weber). If we are not with a country through its hard times, it is a stretch to say that we really stand with it at all. American Jews feel that they have the right to take all of the good parts of having a Jewish state without having to deal with any of the bad.

-------We are loath to suffer any more for something of which we, as a people, have dreamed for millennia. Why? Because we, as Americans, have that option. We do not have to move to Israel when we can sit in our comfortable middle-class homes, surfing the internet and watching television. Ms. Bearden outright said to me:
-------Israel isn’t really a place I desire. I hate hot weather, the conflict would be
-------too much for me and my family to have to worry about, and I'm just so
-------used to the American south, even the Yankee states will be a culture shock
-------for me. I just would much rather stick with America.
She is not the only American Jew who feels this way. We are comfortable here, where we are known by our communities; where we have our families; where we grow up and become the people we are. We are American, not just Americanized. This is our home.

-------It is important to note this, as well as the fact that we often differentiate between Israeli Jews and ourselves. We associate ourselves with America because that is what we know. Many of us are “very patriotic person” who “love my country [the US]” (Yakovlev). We may love Israel, and we may often consider ourselves Zionists, but there are those of us who believe that Zionists are “normally Israelis themselves” (Bearden). Since we are obviously not Israeli, it would make sense for us to not have such a strong relation with a country not our own. Yet, we still force ourselves to stand out from American culture, despite the fact that we may even happily consider ourselves American. Another young man I interviewed, Mr. Weber, told me that he is “more towards stopping the assimilation of Jews into other societies (like America),” but went on to say that “I am American and I like America . . . While I may not agree with everything they do, I do love my countries [sic] support of Israel” (emphasis added). The contradictions in our formation as a complete Jewish nation abound, and we still do not notice them! We are taught to be Jews, but it is impossible to be only that; humans are complex, multi-faceted creatures and cannot be clumped into a single box.

-------Israel is our museum. We do not necessarily want to live there, but we want it preserved as ours. Even if we have never been there, the prospect that we can go there is enough. We want to remain safe in our own upper-middle class lives in America, while still having the idea that, if the violence in Israel suddenly stops and living there will be a piece [read:peace] of cake, we can go there. We want it, but we do not want to have to fight for it ourselves. It is easy to say that I deserve Israel because I am a Jew, but what have I, personally, done to deserve an innate right to a plot of land? What have any of us in America done? We are not in Israel living day-to-day, fighting to remain in a country that we truly love – taking the bad with the good. We do not want to deal with that; we want it handed to us on a silver platter with a dash of apology on the side. Though our people have been victimized since the dawn of our records, we do little else but complain and we wait for someone else to fix things for us. Life does not work that way, life is not fair, and it is foolish to expect otherwise.

-------American Jews feel that we have earned Israel as a second home, a plan B should all else fail. We share the Jewish identity with all other Jews, whether they are in Israel, in America, or elsewhere. We constantly keep ourselves guarded, sure that another Holocaust is going to show up on our doorstep, and so we keep our set of spare keys to a country mostly unknown to us – just in case. Yes, these anti-Semitic others disconnect us from their societies, but we do just as much damage; by being constantly on our guard and setting up an independent nation-state specifically for ‘our people,’ we reinforce the notion of ourselves as a separate entity. Humanity remains an incredibly separatist species, and it is this separatist way of life that forces us to fight against each other. Nationalism is merely an expression of this ‘group individuality’ on an ethno-political level.

-------Though there is not necessarily a good and also feasible alternative, it is important to realize that things are as they are because we, humanity, make them that way. We allow ourselves to be grouped into specific sections and then we are discriminated against just as we discriminate against others. Pretending that separatism and xenophobia are either imagined or obsolete historical concepts merely fuels the spread of their influence. It may be that there is no solution to this constantly escalating cycle, but ignoring it is anything but helpful.

Name: Cindy
Gender (Biological and identity, if different): Female
Age: 15
State of residence: MO

Highest form of education:
_X__ Some high school
____ High school degree/GED
____ Some college
____ 2-Year College degree
____ 4-Year College degree
____ Advanced degree _________________
____ Other ______________

If you are currently out of school, when did you graduate?
____ Less than 1 year ago
____ 1-5 years ago
____ 5-10 years ago
____ More than 10 years ago

What is your occupation? If you do not currently have one, what do you plan to become?
__X_ Student
____ Professional
____ Homemaker
____ White collar
____ Blue collar
____ Other ____________

Did you ever attend a religious school?
_X_ Yes, it was a Jewish school
____ Yes, it was not a Jewish school; it was a __________ school
____ No

Did you ever attend synagogue?
____ Yes, but I don’t anymore
_X__ Yes, and I still do
____ No

With what Jewish denomination do you identify?
____ Orthodox
____ Reform
_X__ Conservative
____ None [purely culture-based identification]
____ Other ___________

You: (choose one)
__X_ Were born and raised Jewish
____ Converted to Judaism

You can: (check all that apply)
_X__ Read Hebrew
_X__ Write Hebrew
____ Speak Hebrew
____ Understand Hebrew (Learning to speak, understand, and write better currently)

Do you speak any Yiddish?
_X__ Yes
____ No

Have you had a bar/batmitzvah?
__X_ Yes
____ No

Is your father Jewish?
_X__ Yes
____ No
If yes, was he born into the religion, or did he convert?
_X__ Born into
____ Converted

Is your mother Jewish?
__X_ Yes
____ No
If yes, was she born into the religion, or did she convert?
__X_ Born into
____ Converted

Is your paternal grandfather Jewish?
_X__ Yes
____ No
If yes, was he born into the religion, or did he convert?
_X__ Born into
____ Converted

Is your paternal grandmother Jewish?
_X__ Yes
____ No
If yes, was she born into the religion, or did she convert?
__X_ Born into
____ Converted

Is your maternal grandfather Jewish?
_X__ Yes
____ No
If yes, was he born into the religion, or did he convert?
__X_ Born into
____ Converted

Is your maternal grandmother Jewish?
_X__ Yes
____ No
If yes, was she born into the religion, or did she convert?
_X__ Born into
____ Converted

In what country was each of these people born?

Mother:
_X__ USA
____ Other Country: ____________
Father:
_X__ USA
____ Other Country: ____________
Paternal Grandmother:
_X__ USA
____ Other Country: ____________
Paternal Grandfather:
_X__ USA
____ Other Country: ____________
Maternal Grandmother:
_X__ USA
____ Other Country: ____________
Maternal Grandfather:
__X_ USA
____ Other Country: ____________
Mother’s Paternal Grandmother:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: Russia?
Mother’s Paternal Grandfather:
__ USA
_X_ Other Country: _Russia
Mother’s Maternal Grandmother:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: England
Mother’s Maternal Grandfather:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: Czechoslovakia, I think? (Wasn't called that when he was born there; that area is part of Czech today)
Father’s Paternal Grandmother:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: Russia
Father’s Paternal Grandfather:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: Russia
Father’s Maternal Grandmother:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: Hungary
Father’s Maternal Grandfather:
____ USA
_X__ Other Country: Poland

(I'll double check on the backgrounds; it's been a LONG time since I've asked about that, and I could have sworn I was more Polish. sweatdrop )
Have you ever been to Israel?
____ Yes
_X_ No

Do you want to go to Israel in the future?
_X__ Yes!!!
____ No

Do you want to live in Israel?
_X__ Yes (Possibly; still deciding)
____ No

Do you have family currently residing in Israel?
____ Yes
_X__ No

Have any members of your family (living or deceased) ever resided in Israel?
____ Yes
_X__ No

What type of connection do you feel with Israel?
____ None
____ Weak
____ Average
__X_ Strong

What is your opinion of Muslims?
Strongly Dislike - - - Dislike - - - No Opinion - - - Like - - - Strongly Like
X; Each one is different, thus I'm neutral
What is your opinion of Palestinians?
Strongly Dislike - - - Dislike - - - No Opinion - - - Like - - - Strongly Like
See above
What is your opinion of Christians?
Strongly Dislike - - - Dislike - - - No Opinion - - - Like - - - Strongly Like
See above
What is your opinion of Germans?
Strongly Dislike - - - Dislike - - - No Opinion - - - Like - - - Strongly Like
See above
What is your opinion of Americans?
Strongly Dislike - - - Dislike - - - No Opinion - - - Like - - - Strongly Like
The majority (though NOT all) are fat, stupid, and lazy. I'm not really proud to be American. xp
Do you consider yourself a Zionist?
_X__ Yes
____ No

Are you involved in any Jewish organizations (ie: Hillel, B’nai B’rith, etc.)?
____ No
_X_ Yes - Please specify what organization(s): _NFTY, Temple Youth Group, BBYO

If yes, how long have you been involved?
____ Less than 1 year
__X_ 1-5 years
____ 5-10 years
____ More than 10 years

Do you think the creation of Israel after World War II was a good idea?
__X_ Yes
____ No

What’s your primary source of information about events in the Middle East?
_X__ Newspaper
____ Magazine
____ Television
__X_ Other: Internet

How often do you watch/read news about the Middle East?
____ Less than 1 hour a week
__X_ 1-5 hours a week
____ More than 5 hours a week

How knowledgeable do you consider yourself on current events in Israel and the Middle East?
_X__ Not knowledgeable
____ Somewhat knowledgeable
____ Very knowledgeable



Are you willing to answer a few more in-depth questions? Sure

If you are, how might I contact you? Email or pm
Preferred contact information: cindysol1@earthlink.net

Hope this helps! Good luck! 3nodding

Name: Kari (Last name withheld for personal reasons)
Gender (Biological and identity, if different): Female
Age: 18
State of residence: Louisiana

Highest form of education:
High school degree

If you are currently out of school, when did you graduate?
N/A

What is your occupation? If you do not currently have one, what do you plan to become?
Student

Did you ever attend a religious school?
Yes, it was not a Jewish school; it was a Christian school.

Did you ever attend synagogue?
Yes, and I still do

With what Jewish denomination do you identify?
Reform

You: (choose one)
Converted to Judaism

You can: (check all that apply)
Read Hebrew
Speak Hebrew
Understand Hebrew

Do you speak any Yiddish?
No

Have you had a bar/batmitzvah?
No

Is your father Jewish?
No

If yes, was he born into the religion, or did he convert?
N/A

Is your mother Jewish?
No

If yes, was she born into the religion, or did she convert?
N/A

Is your paternal grandfather Jewish?
No

If yes, was he born into the religion, or did he convert?
N/A

Is your paternal grandmother Jewish?
No

If yes, was she born into the religion, or did she convert?
N/A

Is your maternal grandfather Jewish?
Yes

If yes, was he born into the religion, or did he convert?
Born into

Is your maternal grandmother Jewish?
No

If yes, was she born into the religion, or did she convert?
N/A

In what country was each of these people born?

Mother:
USA

Father:
USA

Paternal Grandmother:
USA

Paternal Grandfather:
USA

Maternal Grandmother:
USA

Maternal Grandfather:
USA

Mother’s Paternal Grandmother:
Other Country: Germany

Mother’s Paternal Grandfather:
Other Country: Russia

Mother’s Maternal Grandmother:
USA

Mother’s Maternal Grandfather:
Other Country: Mexico

Father’s Paternal Grandmother:
USA

Father’s Paternal Grandfather:
USA

Father’s Maternal Grandmother:
USA

Father’s Maternal Grandfather:
USA

Have you ever been to Israel?
No

Do you want to go to Israel in the future?
Yes

Do you want to live in Israel?
No

Do you have family currently residing in Israel?
No

Have any members of your family (living or deceased) ever resided in Israel?
No

What type of connection do you feel with Israel?
Average


What is your opinion of Muslims?
Like

What is your opinion of Palestinians?
No Opinion

What is your opinion of Christians?
No Opinion

What is your opinion of Germans?
Like

What is your opinion of Americans?
No Opinion

Do you consider yourself a Zionist?
No

Are you involved in any Jewish organizations (ie: Hillel, B’nai B’rith, etc.)?
No

If yes, how long have you been involved?
N/A

Do you think the creation of Israel after World War II was a good idea?
Yes (actually undecided, but I would have to say yes, more than no, because I definitely believe that Israel should be there, but it could have been created a different way)

What’s your primary source of information about events in the Middle East?
Newspaper
Television

How often do you watch/read news about the Middle East?
1-5 hours a week

How knowledgeable do you consider yourself on current events in Israel and the Middle East?
Somewhat knowledgeable

Thank you all!
The results have been posted.

A very interesting perspective that I haven't thought about before- thank you for posting it. Very well-written, too!