By Randall Radic

Right now, there are approximately 13.2 million Jews scattered throughout the world.  Of that number, 1,506,000 reside in Europe; 5,393,000 in Israel, and 5,275,000 in the United States.  In other words, there are almost as many Jews in the U.S. as there are in Israel.  What is even more remarkable is that Jews constitute only 0.2% of the world’s population.  Yet their impact on world politics and world history is vast.        

The ‘Jewish Experience,’ that is, what it’s like to be a Jew in a non-Jewish world is difficult for non-Jews to comprehend.  Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that Judaism is not merely a religion, it’s a “way of life.”  Which is to say being Jewish is not simply a matter of race or religion, it’s much more.  It’s a –ness, which is a noun-forming suffix meaning the condition, state or quality of being something.  It’s Jewishness, which is a state, quality or condition of mind. 

Another difficulty is the mystique surrounding the word ‘Jew,’ which is spiritual in nature, reaching its fingers deep into the Christian consciousness.  For any Christian raised in a Bible-believing denomination was taught that Jews are God’s “chosen people.”  An appellation that is hard to shake off.

It’s all such a mystery.

Which is why Lila Berman’s new book – Speaking of Jews – is important.  For it is the historical account of how Jews explained “being Jewish” to non-Jews in the United States.  And as Berman points out, as they explained themselves, their very explanations forged their identity as Jews.  In other words, they became their explanations.  Which means that their explanations were designed more to educate themselves as to who they were, than to educate their audience. 

Jews spoke of themselves so they would remember.  Remember what?  Not to forget what it is to be a Jew.

Jewish rabbis and intellectuals invented a way of articulating Jewishness to the American public.  And this articulation demonstrated that Jews were part of and vital to the American way of life.  Jews were not different, standing outside of American culture.  In fact, according to the rabbis and intellectuals, the exact opposite was true:  the presence of Jews had a substantial correlation to the overall health of the culture in which they resided.  Jews were open-minded and valued self-expression, and, because of their persecution throughout history, Jews tended to be self-reliant and highly adaptive.  They knew how to network, mobilize resources, and create their own organizations. 

For all of these reasons, the presence of Jews added to and improved civilized life. 

Put simply, the goal of explaining Jewishness to non-Jews was survival.  The persecution that permeated Jewish history made survival central to what it was to be a Jew.  Later on, though, this survival took on a different hue.  The rabbis and intellectuals were so successful in their explanations that intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews threatened the survival of an identifiable Jewish race. 

The Jewish response to this new survival crisis is spoken of in the last chapter of Speaking of Jews. 

Berman, who is a Professor of Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University, has an easy way with the English language, which is a reviewer-ish way of saying she doesn’t write like an egghead.  Her prose is not dry and dull and boring, which, given the subject matter, would be an easy trap to fall into.  Berman avoids this pit by treating her material as a story – a story about real people trying to find a way to spell out who and what they are.

Lila Berman has written a delightful and enlightening book.  A book about “blood, God and community.”  Once the reader comes face to face with those three ideas, he or she is given a glimpse at what it means to be a Jew.

On the Read-O-Meter, which ranges from 1 star (pitiful) to 5 stars (grand), Speaking of Jews accounts for 5 stars.  It’s a book that both Jews and non-Jews will enjoy.

Lila Corwin Berman is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies and Mal and Lea Bank Early Career Professor in Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity (University of California Press/ 2009) By Lila Corwin Berman

Randall Radic is a former Old Catholic priest. After a midlife crisis, he spent time behind bars. Today, he has emerged a changed man.  As the author of  Gone To Hell: True Crimes of America’s Clergy (ECW Press/ Oct 2009), Radic aims to warn the public of the sins committed behind the walls of churches every day.  Randall Radic is also author of A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murderers and Snitching in a California Jail.

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