Jew(ish): A primer, A memoir, A manual, A plea
What does it mean to be Jew(ish) in 2020? Caught between tradition and modernity, between a Jewish family and a non-Jewish son, Matt Greene ponders the big questions concerning identity, religion, family and Seinfeld.
When his son was born to a non-Jewish mother, Matt began to consider the upbringing he'd put behind him--the sense of not belonging, the forbidden foods, the holidays that felt more like punishments. There are more types of Jew than there are bagel fillings, and for every two there are three opinions. But if you're not a black-hatted frummer, if you're allergic to groups, if you observe but don't believe, or you don't observe at all, does that make you less Jewish?
In this wide-ranging series of essays, at turns irreverent, insightful, urgent and iconoclastic, Matt considers what might loosely be termed 'the modern Jewish experience', and asks what it means to be anything in a world obsessed with the self and the other.
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Community Reviews
In the beginning this was like listening to storytelling from one's father of grandfather. It was enjoyable and you wanted to 'hear' more... As it progressed though, some parts were more like getting a history lesson (more challenging to stay focused as the interaction felt earlier seemed to become more dictation and less social connections).
This is very timely! It's interesting to note that what seems like hatred against people isn't just United States, but seems to be a worldwide problem.
I enjoyed the author's conversational writing style. Though the beginning was more so than later. As he progressed to tell of his journey it started slipping into historical biography making some places more text-bookish than personal experience, but still a reading journey worth the effort.
It makes you look beyond just what it means to be who you are now, but how you came to be and not just that history tells us these awful horrible things have happened, but to feel what it's like to experience them from the outside can never be what it's like to experience them first-hand no matter who tells the story... Jewish it's not just about being a Jew versus being Jewish, it's not about religion versus culture...there so much more to it than breaking it into individual components and yet it's also not the sum total.
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