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Jewish World Review June 3, 1999 / 18 Sivan, 5759
WE ARE, WE ARE TOLD, now living in an age of globalization, where everything and everyone
is connected to everything and everyone all around the world, which,
in itself, is now connected by a great Web. And that, for the most
part is good, will mean more freedom and more options for most
people. And that, for the most part, is good.
But also a challenge.
For while we're all getting swept up in this new interconnected
Internet world where clothing stores sell books and banks sell
insurance and you can buy almost anything without going into a store
at all, there is a danger that what is sacred to us can get also get
swept up in it all. And that's bad. Which is why all of us, but
especially the Jews among us, must be careful.
Jews make up a tiny
percentage of the world's people. And so are among the people most
easily swept into the great homogenization that is taking and will
take place. We've already seen signs of that in Israel which is
becoming less Israeli everyday. Indeed, someone who hasn't walked
through Jerusalem lately would be shocked to find how much it is
beginning to resemble Broadway. There are malls, malls everywhere,
the bigger the better. Downtown, there is McDonald's and Burger King
and Tower Records and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Blockbuster Video.
This isn't about the Americanization
of Israel, about which much has been written and about which too many
have whined. It's about the bigger picture. It's about recognizing
the need to buttress our sense of Jewish culture. For this time, the
threat is not a loud one, but a quiet one, this time no one is
forcing but we are volunteering. This time, the danger isn't
destruction but fading away. Getting lost in, getting caught up in
the great new world.
We've been masters at keeping separate from the
old world, being part of and yet keeping apart from it, on hanging on
to our identities. Something we've known from the very beginning is
the key to our survival. Why did we manage to stay a people even
during the hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt? Not because of
lectures or theories or books. Because we continued to give our kids
Jewish names, we continued to wear clothes that made it clear what
tribe we were from, we continued to speak the language of the Jews.
Simple. Profound. Something to remember today. For we've already seen
signs in American Jewry of being caught up in, being swept away by
this new world.
But this time, it has nothing to do with hate, but
acceptance. This time it isn't because we have no choice, but because
we have so many choices. This time, it isn't because we are being
forced to remember who we are but because it is so easy to forget.
This time, it isn't because we are being kept out, but because we are
being let in.
I do not want to set the clock back, do not in any
way believe, as some Jews perversely do, that Judaism thrives best
when things are toughest outside for that forces us to embrace the
inside.
No. I am happy we are living in the times we are, think we
can most fully be who we are in a time of openness and choice and
freedom. But we must careful, for there is nothing tougher than
maintaining old traditions under new circumstances. And the
circumstances the world, and Jews, are in are unlike any ever. It
reminds me of nothing so much as the heartbreakingly sad stories of
concentration camp survivors immediately after the war.
Having
endured starvation for so long, many ran out of the camps and began
voraciously eating the potatoes and other things brought by American
and Russian soldiers. Their stomachs simply couldn't handle it and
they died.
We should partake, but carefully, wisely. To turn away, to reject is
insane, stupid, harmful. But to grab with both hands can be equally
destructive.
And to not remember who we are and what we are all about
and what our priorities must be can turn what could be a golden time
for us into something less
03/28/99: Things go better with Judaism?
Partake from the feast --- but don't gorge
By Joseph Aaron
The area just outside the Old City walls will soon host a movie
theater and shops. And throughout the city, high-rises are on the
way. In the city holiest to us. And so you can imagine what's going
on in such less than holy cities as Tel Aviv, which is now more
Manhattan and Paris than Israel.
Don't get me wrong. The freedoms American Jews have are
a tremendous blessing. The virtual elimination of anti-Semitism is
something to rejoice over. That society is so open to us, that we
have so many options is something we should be grateful for, take
full advantage of.
Having food is good, having options is good. The key is
how much, how fast, when, what. To those survivors, the potatoes and
herring seemed like a lavish banquet. For Jews today, the world
literally is a lavish banquet, all open to us, all out there for us,
all seductive and appetizing. But not all is good for us, not all
will serve the goal of nourishing our Jewish souls and Jewish lives.
JWR contributor Joseph Aaron is Editor of
The Chicago Jewish News. Send your comments to him by clicking here.
03/09/99: Having seichel
03/03/99: One thumb --- way up
1/12/99: Thank G-d!
12/31/98: Judaism, Inc.
11/19/98: My kind of folks
