266 Lynn Davidman
some preconceived notion that to be Jewish one must follow a recipe – one ounce of
law, two tablespoons of text, a pinch of tradition, some values and voila! While cre-
ating individual identities in the postmodern world is always a highly complex and
ever-changing process, creating an identity as a Jew may be particularly complicated
by the question of what Judaism actually is, a religion, ethnicity, culture, or history.
Thus, creating an identity as a Jew is never achieved through a formula in contrast say,
to the identities established in identity transforming organizations such as Alcoholics
Anonymous.^4
Nevertheless, the popularization of Jewishness, through the mainstream media,
especially and through consumer culture in general, means that America itself offers a
variety of ways to be Jewish without affiliating with a synagogue. Here, for example,
I am referring to widely viewed movies on Jewish life and identity such as Spielberg’s
Schindler’s List;Shoah; or Streisand’s performance inYentl; popular literature by writers
such as Chaim Potok; and various memoirs exploring newly discovered Jewish roots,
as well as the availability of Hallmark cards to mark every Jewish occasion. Similarly,
the prominence of Israel in daily news in America also offers a way of identifying as
a Jew without any particular affiliation or engaging in traditional religious practices.
These popularized ways of expressing “Jewishness” are etched into the very notion of a
multicultural nation – one that, at least in some ways, values differences and tolerates
and even encourages, identity politics. Living in a post-Shoah age also has a significant
impact on contemporary Jewish identity and the ability to call oneself a Jew without
belonging to a larger Jewish community. Jews today are aware that they would have
been persecuted as Jews by the Nazis despite their lack of affiliation with institutional
Judaism, and this knowledge creates the possibility for a new category of Jewish identity,
independent of traditional Jewish observance or institutional participation.
Thus, there is an intricate dynamic going on for my respondents. On the one hand,
they have to do the personal and cultural work of fixing their identity in a coherent
way that allows them to make sense of the contemporary disruption of religious and
ethnic cultures. On the other hand, they are also exposed to other identity making
tools – through movies, books, articles in the press, political ideologies – all of which
give them, in a sense, a “cultural tool kit” (Swidler 1986) that aids them in creating a
Jewish identity.
The Jews I am studying are establishing and creating some form of connection
with their roots. Although my respondents do establish their identification with the
history and culture of the Jewish people through some of their lived religious prac-
tices, they themselves see their practices as ethnic, cultural, and familial and not re-
ligious. In trying to understand the meaning, practices and establishment of “lived
religion” among Jews, I am taking what my respondents say about what they are doing
at face value and avoiding the debate about functionalist vs. exclusivist definitions of
religion.
In this chapter, I illustrate the various ways that my respondents create ethnic as op-
posed to what they consider “religious” identities by weaving together certain practices
that they can define as historical, cultural, or familial, with a sense of Judaism as an
(^4) In reference to AA, however, even here it is important to note that individuals can, and do
deviate from the prescribed blueprints. Modern and postmodern identities, in general, are
difficult to construct in narratively coherent ways.