In the Wilderness: Reflections on American Jewish Culture

The notion of culture advanced by Clifford Geertz (1973) is deemed inadequate to describe US Jewish culture. Rather than interpreting this culture as attempting to dissociate itself from historical Jewish discourse, it is contended that contemporary Jewish cultures are, to an extent, willingly influ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Jewish social studies 1998-10, Vol.5 (1/2), p.25-39
Main Author: Eisen, Arnold
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American literature
Assimilation
Communities
Cultural Identity
Cultural Maintenance
Ethnic Groups
Ethnic Identity
High culture
High literature
History and sciences of religions
Israel
Jewish Americans
Jewish Cultural Groups
Jewish culture
Jewish identity
Jewish literature
Jewish peoples
Judaism
Modern and contemporary Judaism
Sociology, ethnography
United States of America
Wilderness
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Summary:The notion of culture advanced by Clifford Geertz (1973) is deemed inadequate to describe US Jewish culture. Rather than interpreting this culture as attempting to dissociate itself from historical Jewish discourse, it is contended that contemporary Jewish cultures are, to an extent, willingly influenced by historical Jewish culture. Moses Mendelssohn's (1783) discussion of Jewish culture illustrates three dominant themes in Jewish history: pluralism, fragmentation, & voluntarism. Although Israeli Jewish culture is posited as an alternative to US Jewish culture, the former is characterized by inescapability & discontinuity. Using Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's (1965) account of the two biblical creation stories, it is maintained that Judaism cannot survive unless it is distanced from mainstream US society & maintains its Otherness. J. W. Parker
ISSN:0021-6704
1527-2028
0021-6704
DOI:10.2979/JSS.1998.5.1-2.25