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PARTISAN REVIEW
distinguish themselves by dress or hairstyle, because they would consider
that pointless eccentricity. At most, they distinguish themselves unwitting–
ly. Why only unwittingly? Are they afraid to identifY themselves? Do they
not want to acknowledge being Jews? I can hear the accusing question.
But I never wear anything folkloristic anywhere. Actually, I consider even
my immediate material environment accidental. The environment does
not impede me in deeper thinking. I am loath to stand out willfully; I am
not a concretist-animist. I do not wear my religion or world view on my
person as an emblem. I have never worn any kind of badge in my lapel.
Most likely, secularization will continue; people want to dispose of their
free time themselves, and only occasionally to take part in collective church
services they feel are too long. They are reserved in their appreciation of
religious rituals, whose essence is that we obey, lower our heads before the
eternal, and bow frequently.
Jews come in as many kinds as there are people. What makes a person
a Jew is saying they are one. If they say they are, then this state of affairs
probably concerns them; they mull over it, even feel some commonality
with other Jews, living and dead.
It
is infrequent for someone of non–
Jewish origin to declare themselves Jewish. Every other definition is
uncertain, the only sure criterion of Jewish identity is if a person calls
him/ herself a Jew, and this is so even if neither mother nor father is Jewish.
Greater integration is good for Jews: they become one among many.
Mass anti-Semitism is not normal in the EU, because the different being
neighbors is increasingly normal. The relationship of worldly citizens of
big cities to religions resembles their relationship to national cuisines: they
enter alternately the restaurants of various nationalities, and do not eat the
same dish
(solet)
every Saturday.
Autonomist isolation is not in the interests of Diaspora Jews. It is not
to their advantage to descend from the major to the minor circuit, and to
develop a minority intimate culture (which possibly comes to require pos–
itive discrimination). A more fortunate choice is to validate their own
colors while being woven into the whole. Diaspora Jews have a stake in
local integration; the prophet Jeremiah already saw it this way and coun–
seled it. Jewish citizens living in various places wish to be a part of the
society and culture of their country-city. What does integration mean? It
means they respect the law, pay taxes, and participate in public life; they
speak the local language either as their native language or as a learned lan–
guage, they become familiar with the culture of the local majority, and try
to augment it. On the other hand,Jewish communities are loosely connected
