Imagining Jewish Authenticity

Ken Koltun-Fromm

Description

Exploring how visual media presents claims to Jewish authenticity, Imagining Jewish Authenticity argues that Jews imagine themselves and their place within America by appealing to a graphic sensibility. Ken Koltun-Fromm traces how American Jewish thinkers capture Jewish authenticity, and lingering fears of inauthenticity, in and through visual discourse and opens up the subtle connections between visual expectations, cultural knowledge, racial belonging, embodied identity, and the ways images and texts work together.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Visual Authenticity in the American Jewish Imaginary

Section I. The Anxiety of Authenticity in Image and Text
1. Seeing Israel in Bernard Rosenblatt's Social Zionism
2. Seeing Things in Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath
3. Seeing Food in The Jewish Home Beautiful and Kosher by Design

Section II. The Embodied Language of Visual Authenticity
4. The Language of Jewish Bodies in Michael Wyschogrod's The Body of Faith
5. The Language of Gendered Bodies in Adler's Engendering Judaism
6. The Language of Racial Bodies in Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz's The Colors of Jews

Conclusion: Imagining Jewish Authenticity in Every Generation
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Rituals
• Jewish Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Judaism
• Religion
• Practice

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 28 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253015792
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

IMAGINING JEWISH AUTHENTICITY
IMAGINING JEWISH AUTHENTICITY
V ISION AND T EXT IN A MERICAN J EWISH T HOUGHT
Ken Koltun-Fromm
Indiana University Press
Bloomington Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2015 by Ken Koltun-Fromm
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences- Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Koltun-Fromm, Ken, author.
Imagining Jewish authenticity: vision and text in
American Jewish thought / Ken Koltun-Fromm.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01570-9 (hardback : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01574-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01579-2 (ebook)
1. Judaism-United States. 2. Jews-United States-Identity.
3. Jews-United States-Intellectual life. 4. Metaphor. I. Title.
BM205.K648 2015
296.0973-dc23
2014027403
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
For my children: Ariel, Talia, and Isaiah
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Visual Authenticity in the American Jewish Imaginary
SECTION I . The Anxiety of Authenticity in Image and Text
1 Seeing Israel in Bernard Rosenblatt s Social Zionism
2 Seeing Things in Abraham Joshua Heschel s The Sabbath
3 Seeing Food in The Jewish Home Beautiful and Kosher by Design
SECTION II . The Embodied Language of Visual Authenticity
4 The Language of Jewish Bodies in Michael Wyschogrod s
The Body of Faith
5 The Language of Gendered Bodies in Rachel Adler s
Engendering Judaism
6 The Language of Racial Bodies in Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz s
The Colors of Jews
Conclusion: Imagining Jewish Authenticity in Every Generation
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
It has become an unspoken obligation among us all to sit at the kitchen table for dinner each evening, so long as we are present at our home on the Haverford College campus outside of Philadelphia. One evening our youngest son, alert to his Jewish day school upbringing, asked this question: what is the holiest thing in the world? Naomi and I knew the right answer, or the answer Isaiah imagined he was supposed to hear from us. I obliged, and told him Torah was the holiest thing, but Naomi said what first came to my mind: family.
I tend to see the world as ever widening circles of family: some closer, others farther away, and still others barely visible but nonetheless present. Indeed, in all honesty, I am inclined to understand my Jewish heritage and my Judaism in this way too. I also recognize my obligations to others in these terms, and I have been blessed to feel that commitment from them as well. This acknowledgment is but a small reminder that so many friends have become family, and so many of my family have become dear to me. My circle is strong because it is becoming ever so expansive.
The students at Haverford College are exceptional, and it is a distinct honor to be in the classroom with young adults who cultivate intellectual integrity and creativity. Diane Tracht is one of those students who, from her very first year here, have courageously challenged my views, and her progressive, fearless but ever compassionate voice has deeply influenced my own. Aaron Madow worked tirelessly as my student research assistant to analyze the journal The Maccabaean and to become an important colleague as we developed greater understanding of American Zionism. Madiha Irfan read this entire manuscript in full, and offered important critique and helpful suggestions that have found their way into this book. But far more than all her extensive work, I remember most fondly our discussions about religious practice and belief. I imagine we will continue these conversations as she becomes a colleague in religious studies. Miriam Pallant rechecked all my endnotes and quotations, itemizing numerous errors and offering sage advice about how best to correct them. She brought a sense of order, coherence, and thoughtfulness to this book and to my approach to Jewish Studies. And I am deeply appreciative for all my students from the Jewish Images class in the Fall 2012 semester. We discussed many of the issues that I have explored here in Imagining Jewish Authenticity, and their insightful comments have textured my own analysis. A heartfelt thank you to all.
My colleagues here and elsewhere have enlarged my familial circle in ways that I find all too humbling. Friends in the Religion Department at Haverford- David Dawson (now President of Earlham College), Tracey Hucks, Terrence Johnson, Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Anne McGuire, Jamel Velji, and Travis Zadeh-have made this college feel like a second home to me. Their support and collegiality inspire me, and I have learned from them how to be a teacher-scholar. At various times I have ventured outside the comforting walls of my own department to discuss my work with colleagues and friends, and their voices have been strong and encouraging. I owe a special gratitude to those who participated in the Hurford Center faculty seminar with me on Material Culture-Hank Glassman, Darin Hayton, Laura McGrane, Jessie Shipley, Ruti Talmor, and Travis Zadeh-and to my colleagues in the Philadelphia Works-in-Progress group in American Judaism, especially Beth Wenger and Lila Corwin-Berman who have tirelessly coordinated our meetings. Colleagues from afar-Mara Benjamin, Zachary Braiterman, Jeremy Dauber, Nathaniel Deutsch, Arnold Eisen, Leonard V. Kaplan, Ari Y. Kelman, Akiba Lerner, Shaul Magid, Noam Pianko, and Rabbi Carnie Rose-have all listened to me criticize, expound, argue, and debate this book and more. I am truly fortunate to have colleagues like these as close friends.
Janet Rabinowitch and Dee Mortensen of Indiana University Press and copyeditor Joyce Rappaport have been remarkably supportive throughout this process, and though saddened at Janet s recent retirement, I am nonetheless grateful that Dee has taken over this project with all the graciousness that Janet has shown throughout her editorial leadership at the press. All of my authored works have been published at Indiana, and I treasure this relationship. Portions of chapter two appeared in Vision and Authenticity in Heschel s The Sabbath, Modern Judaism 31, no. 2 (2011): 142-65, and a good deal of chapter four appeared as Authenticity, Vision, Culture: Michael Wyschogrod s The Body of Faith, in Thinking Jewish Culture in America, ed. Ken Koltun-Fromm (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014), 285-312. I am grateful to Oxford University Press and Lexington Books for granting me permission to reproduce the material here.
Much of what I experience and know about family has come from my spouse, Naomi Koltun-Fromm. I have learned from her what it means to be a loyal friend, a supportive partner, a compassionate listener, and a caring child to ailing parents. This book, as so much else, finds its home in our dedication and responsibility to each other.
Finally, but most decisively, I dedicate this book to our three children: Ariel, Talia, and Isaiah. As I state in the introduction to this book, I do not defend, much less construct a notion of Jewish authenticity. But if I were a bit more adventurous, and so did indeed offer a more normative approach to authentic personhood, I know it would have something to do with Ariel, Talia, and Isaiah. They embody the future I believe in, and I dedicate all that I can to them.
Introduction
Visual Authenticity in the American Jewish Imaginary
In the 1960s and 1970s, the makers of Levy s Rye Bread ran their now recognizable poster campaign of Native, Chinese, Irish, Asian, and African Americans zealously devouring their leavened product. Levy s slogan- You don t have to be Jewish to love Levy s! -utilized the presumed knowledge that some Americans do not look Jewish. These Americans could certainly enjoy Jewish cuisine, but they could not become what they ate. Yet to Toni Eisendorf, then a young adult living in New York City, these advertisements offered a very different vision of Jewish identity. When asked to explain her attraction to Judaism after negotiating various Christian and public schools as a youth, Toni recalled the visual impact of Levy s advertisement campaign:

The first ad I saw, in a subway station, had a little Black boy. I remember seeing this ad, and the way I interpreted it was that you don t have to be White to be Jewish. That made me feel so good for some reason. I actually felt relieved. 1
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, in her The Colors of Jews, retells Eisendorf s story within her own account of a multiracial Judaism. 2 For Kaye/Kantrowitz, Toni helpfully disentangles the black-white binary that too often situates black on the other side of Jewish experience, just as it presumes a white Jewish identity. But one need not read Eisendorf s story as political commentary, or even as a feel so good narrative of belonging to recognize the confluence of visual clues and claims to authenticity. Eisendorf sees a more genuine Jewish presence in Levy s poster