[Cz-L] "melting pot", an unfortunate term perhaps?

It seems to me that Bruce and Ya'akov, in their recent exchange, are
really talking about the same issue even if it is a bit obliquely.
The word "Melting" in "melting pot" may conjure different images
for Yaakov than for Bruce, and as it did for those in Czernowitz and
elsewhere who shared their interpretations: to Ya'akov's cohort it
may suggest giving up one's identity, fusing oneself into the "other"
--- an interpretation that would indeed worry Jews during times when
fighting for one's survival as an individual and as a people leads
some to hold tenaciously onto their form of Jewish identity, fearful
of losing it and desperate to preserve it. "Melting Pot" evokes the
perceived dangers of assimilation. Certainly from one viewpoint there
was a threatening example of many good Jews who during the build-up
to WWII and afterward felt it safest to change surnames, and to adopt
other religions or dilute their own practices. The progroms and the
holocaust heightened the experience of Jews and Judaism being at
risk, and people reacted differently to that experience. Even today
there are many who see Judaism at a vulnerable point when it may feel
to them essential to hold on tight to our own boundaries. At such
times they might absolutely be reinforced by Rabbis and by parents in
the teachings of separateness, of the need to keep apart, whereas for
others the same vulnerability points to dialogue and attempts at
community to preserve understanding and respect for Judaism. This
divide is evident even now among American Jewry). For Jews of either
persuasion, during such times in Czernowitz as well as elsewhere,
defining the "other" through disparaging nicknames and epithets was
but one way to proclaim and assert (if only among ourselves) one's
own distinct identity, and "assimilation" has a different aura.

So, even though I myself did not live in Czernowitz then, nor since,
I can hear from others on our List that there were both realities on
the ground at the time: many Jews lived in harmony as respectful
neighbors and as co-workers with non-Jews of all stripes. At the same
time, the growing dangers of antisemitism would have reinforced among
others (possibly according to levels of orthodoxy) the sense that
certain biblical teachings (or, according to interpretation,
mandates) of separate-ness were necessary to the survival of Judaism
at all. If I am correct, then Bruce may actually be looking for
anecdotal evidence on both sides in order to understand from your
various perspectives what it was like for you and your family to be
Jewish in Czernowitz once upon a time, and the use of epithets is
just one measure of that. The degree to which your family felt
included, assimilated, in the larger Czernowitz world is another.
That would include Ya'akov's perspective, no matter how it was
informed by religious teaching, and no matter who does or doesn't
celebrate Shabbat then or now.

We come back to that term of "Melting pot". Especially in America it
has ideally meant loosening cultural boundaries sufficiently to allow
people from all over the earth to find enough common ground for
everyone to live peacefully and productively in the same country. It
doesn't have to mean giving up one's familial and cultural identity
-- as recent American movements have reminded us. It doesn't have to
mean losing oneself and becoming the "other". It doesn't require
epithets to define "us" vs. "them". But tell that to someone who has
been taught otherwise by either traumatic personal experience or by
mentors they trust.

I propose that it might be better to revise the term and to use
"Melding Pot" instead, which suggests living side by side, sharing
space, and building whatever conjoined cultural norms one chooses. If
one were assured of melding instead of melting, we vs. them epithets
might not be necessary, at least now and in some parts of the world,
and the negative interpretation of "assimilation" might be unnecessary as well.

[Note from Moderator: From - Jessica Attiyeh]

 from Bruce:
> It's a discussion about whether
>pre-WWII Czernowitz was really a melting pot, and
>to what extent did people of different faiths and
>backgrounds get along and respect each other....

>... to what extent do all the derogatory
>Yiddish terms directed at people of various
>nationalities reflect the feelings of the Jewish
>population at large.

 From Yaakov:
> We Jews were taught not to
> >assimilate with the other nations (chukat HaGoyim)....
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Received on 2008-07-11 19:52:56