r”: so» ;,

One of the more frequently bandied-
about statistics you hear at this school
is that “Grinnell College is more than
one third Jewish." Even it we ignore
the grammatical nonsense of ﬁlls
claim and examine what people really-
mean—that more than a third oi Grin-
nell's students are Jewishithis State-
ment, like so many improperly used
statistics, can be grossly misleading.

As with most statistical illusions, the
deception is in the definition. of
course, we all know what kind of a
Jew comes to live in Grinnell, lowa
ior four years: one who is not terribly
bothered by the absence oi a
synagogue and the virtual absence of
Jewish community life. This is only
natural, and Grinnell’s Jews certainly
have no more (and probably much
less) cause to complain of isolation
than Grinnell's blacks, for example.
Yet the Jews of Grinnell are in serious
trouble, though isolation is not the
cause.

Isolation, in fact, has never deterred
Jews before. Rather, one finds Jewish
history bursting with examples of tiny
but dedicated isolated communities
ﬂourishing in remote areas of the
world. As long as the underlying coma
mitment and respect {or tradition re
mained, the Jews were indestructible,
even at the hands oi Hitler, Tor-
quemada, and the Roman empire.

That tradition, here in Grinnell at
least, is virtually dead. Despite all the
efforts of Rabbi Kasowitz or anyone
else, I am deeply certain that, in its
old form at least, it can never be
revived,

But if that last sentence has a tragic
sound to it, that can only be because
the reader misconceives the nature of
Judaism and Jewish culture. Certainly
it is sad to see Centuries oi European
Yiddishkeit go the ways of the Aztecs,
But given the rich literature and
other treasures it has left behind it is
surely rar less sad than the total loss
of Chinese Judaism in the Middle

November 9, l 979

open space/nathaniel borenstein

Reassessing Jewish roots

Ages, or the destruction of Solomon‘s
Temple. To the Western mind, routed
as it is in Christian pessimism, in the
belief that man as a tainted or im-
perfectible creature must fail, this can
only sound tragic, in the sense that all
human endeavor is tragic and doomed
to failure.

That such a View is alien to the
Jewish mind should not surprise
anyone, although i expect that it will.
The 400-plus ”Jewish” students of
Grinnell come, for the most part, from
successlul, assimilated families where
social success was almost the domir
nant ethical value. it is precisely such
Jews who, having rightly rejected the
“religion" of their parents (which was
in many cases the worst kind oi mix-
ture of Christian values and Jewish
ritual), have gone on to declare
religion itself outdated, useless,
supersh‘tious. absurd, irrelevant, or
any number of other things, without
any conception oi the underlying
realities of Judaism. (Many‘will quar-
rel wim me on this point, but, having
lived through them myseli, I remain
unconvinced that nine years oi weekly
Reform religious school and a per-
functory bar mitzvah give anything
like insight into the essence of
Judaism)

So. an impasse results. On the one
side is the entire body of Jewish
wisdom; deep, rich, mystical, and
often hidden. on the other stand the
Jews of Grinnell and millions like

SCHOLARS’

them~either completely apathetic or
vaguely intrigued, but without any
idea of how to explore those riches, ,
And although I may try to make. 0
think otherwise at times, I can on y
count myself among those mired in ig-
norance.

It was probably last year, when i
was on the ‘Grinnell in Israel’ pro» '
gram, that I became aware oi the ex» '
tent of my continuing ignorance 0 he
religion I rejected in seventh grad
So now, for instance, I go to Rablil .
Kasowitz’s class on Jewish mys ' '
not because I believe in it or see in
the means for Jewish Renewal, bi ,
because i am searching ior clues.
Clearly, Rabbi Kasowitz represents
more of the past than the future, he is
even clearly pleased by the fact that
the past lives through him. But if
Judaism is to survive now, as it has
[or 3000 years, by evolving rapidly to
meet the demands of the times, it can
not do so irom a position oi nearly
total ignorance of its roots.

It is (or this reason that I invite the
silent “Jews" of Grinnell to join me in
attempting to remove the quotation
marks from our name. This evening at
7:30 in Loose Lounge mere will be an
Oneg Shabbat after which we shall
discuss the Talmud, Rabbi Kasowitz’s
class on Chassidism resumes Sunday
at 3:30 pm. in Steiner 27‘ If these
terms are alien to you, that's all the
more reason to come. The “faith of
your iaﬂters" might just be more than
the religion of your parents. -

CONVOCATION .

featuring

TONI McNARON

University of Minnesota

“Canons of Literature”

11:00 a.m., Thursday, N0
Roberts Theatre

Come to this special event!

 

