At the meeting of the Mid-West Interfaith Network on Wednesday, October 26th, Eva Coombes gave a presentation on some personal experiences of being Jewish. One was her own experience and the other was an account of a talk given by Tomi Reichenthal, a Holocaust survivor, who visited Limerick recently.
What is it like to be a Jew?
It’s a very personal thing. No two Jews feel alike about it. I can only give you my point of view.
To me: very traumatic. The gruesome images were with me throughout my childhood, although I did not seek documented knowledge about the Holocaust till much later. Every year at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is not supposed to be a sad day, though a solemn one, the same drama unfolded. In the afternoon, the memorial service necessitated that all who still had both parents living had to leave the synagogue. Only orphans remained for ‘Yizkor’, the prayer for the dead. When the gates reopened and we could return to our mums and dads, we were struck by the terrifying spectacle of our parents, their faces red and bathed in tears, as if something truly terrible had happened. I always figured that the Angel of Death had appeared and dished out punishments of untold magnitude.
In the 90s most people assumed that the Jewish people was an ethnic entity. That was before Shlomo Sand wrote ‘the Making of the Jewish People’ and generalized the view that it was the result of intense proselytism around the Mediterranean in the early centuries of the Christian Era, which would more plausibly explain why Jews looked so different from each other and so much more like those who lived around them in the various countries where they originated from.
Chassidim, Mitnagdim, Reformed, Liberal, Bundists, Poale Tsion, Revisionists, Zionists of the left, right and centre, anti-Zionists, be they religious (Naturei Karta, Satmar) or secular, humanistic and universalist, argue vociferously with each other. Events that mattered for the Jews and operated a paradigm shift were the passage of Napoleon, from Poland to the Greek islands (and the emancipation of the Jews which he proclaimed), the Dreyfus affair, the White Coat trials in Moscow, quite beside pogroms, the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel.
I thought my father was a fibber when he told me: Kirk Douglas is a Jew; Paul Anka is a Jew, etc. You get the idea. Here I would like to quote Lenny Bruce (quoted by David Landy, 2011:51):
Dig. I’m Jewish. Count Basie is Jewish, Ray Charles is Jewish, Eddie Cantor is goyish… Marine Corps—heavy goyish… If you live in New York or any other big city, you’re Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you’re gyish, even if you’re Jewish… Pumpernickel is Jewish and as you know, white bread is very goyish… Negroes are all Jews… Irishmen who have rejected their religion are Jewish. Baton twirling is very goyish.
And further, Bernard Ollman (2005:62) explaining why he wants to resign (as if it was possible):
To this I would add: Noam Chomsky, Mordechai Vanunu and Edward Said are Jewish. Elie Wiesel is goyish. So too are all ‘Jewish’ neo-cons. Socialism and communism are Jewish. Sharon and Zionism are very goyish. And who knows if this reading of Judaism were to hold, I may one day apply for readmission to the Jewish people.
We had a blue/white box, ‘the blue box on the mantlepiece’, for donations to the Jewish National Fund (Landy, 2011:79). Putting money in the box, in David Landy’s words, ‘was contributing to the planting of trees and the ‘redemption’ of the land of Israel. My Dad did not share with me his political itinerary. He supported Israel, because it meant nobody could hunt him again like a rabbit or a beast of the field, as during WW2.
My Mum was the only one who gave money to the rebbe’s envoys when they visited our town. The rebbe being the head of the Lubavitsch yeshiva… She would be surprised to see today the Jewish Talibans that her money helped bring about. She rebelled against the orthodox way of life. After Hitler, her pet hate was the kosher butchers. It angered her that they should levy a tax on the food she was at pains to put on the table.
‘Judaism melds ethics and morality with ritual and civil law into the total code of behaviour contained in the Torah. The sayings of the Fathers maintain a tradition and must be considered as much part of the Torah given to Moses on Mt Sinai as the Ten Commandements.’
Teshuva, Tefila, Tzedaka:
(Study of the Law, Temple worship, Justice/Charity)
Hospitality to strangers, providing for brides, visiting the sick, tending to the dead
Alms giving: Women received help before men, relatives before strangers, and members of the local community before outsiders. A person could receive temporary help even if they owned property. They were not required to sell land or possessions to secure food. Also, a traveller stranded without support could receive assistance even if he had money at home. The poor could be maintained but could not become richer by receiving assistance. The rabbis encouraged those receiving aid to become self supporting: “Even a wise and honoured man should do menial work rather than take charity.”
Sensitivity to the feelings of the poor is an important aspect of gemilut chasidim. Care was to be taken not to bring embarrassment or shame to the recipient. Rabbinic traditions even permitted deceiving a poor person who was too proud to receive charity into thinking the aid was a loan.
Maimonides, an early Jewish scholar, listed eight ways of giving, each progressively more commendable: 1) giving sadly; 2) giving less than needed, but gladly; 3) giving after being asked; 4) giving without being asked; 5) giving without knowing who the recipient is; 6) giving without the recipient knowing who gave; 7) giving with neither the recipient or giver knowing who the other is; 8) helping the poor establish their independence by loan, hiring them to work, or teaching them a trade.
~ ooo~
The short version:
In one word as in one hundred, if, like me, you are too impatient and neurotic to listen to long explanations, here is the gist of Judaism as explained by Hillel to a candidate to conversion who would only hear what he could say while standing on one foot:
What is hateful to you, don’t do to other! The rest is commentary, go and google it, sorry, study it.
~ ooo~
Happy Deepawali. May Good triumph over Evil, and let us see what the end of Kalyug may bring…
Eva Coombes
Limerick, 26/10/2011
Tags: childhood, Holocaust, identity, Interfaith, Judaism, oneness of humanity, philosophy, stories, Yom Kippur
Generation Holocaust Survivors. I think it is interesting because at a time when it seems that nobody entertains any hopes of a shared solution in Israel, while observing in awe and sometimes horror what is happening in the neighbouring states, there are still women trying to maintain contacts at the interfaith level. It is not particularly heart-warming but it represents a ‘slice of life’ and rings true, graveyard humour and all. I have changed the names.
Mid-West Interfaith Network 