Religion - Jewish Culture
Secular Jewish culture embraces several
related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities
of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of
individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of religious
Jews working in cultural areas not generally considered to be connected
to religion.
Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been
called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which has made the
job of drawing a clear distinction between Judaism and Jewish culture
rather difficult. Furthermore, not all individuals or all cultural
phenomena can be easily classified as either "secular" or "religious"
In many times and places, such as in the ancient Hellenic world, in
Europe before and after the Enlightenment, and in contemporary United
States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some
sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically
religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from
the interaction of Jews with others around them, others from the inner
social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to religion
itself.
Medieval Jewish communities in Eastern Europe developed distinct
cultural traits over the centuries, but beginning with the Enlightenment
(and its echo within Judaism in the Haskalah movement), many
Yiddish-speaking Jews in Eastern Europe saw themselves as forming an
ethnic or national group whose identity did not depend on religion.
Constanin Măciucă writes of "a differentiated but not isolated Jewish
spirit" permeating the culture of Yiddish-speaking Jews. This was only
intensified as the rise of Romanticism increased the sense of national
identity across Europe generally. Thus, for example, Bund members — that
is, members of the General Jewish Labor Union in the late 19th and early
20th centuries — were generally non-religious, and one of the historical
leaders of the Bund was the child of converts to Christianity, though
not a practising or believing Christian himself.
Defining secular culture among those who practice Judaism is difficult,
however, because the entire culture is entwined with religious
traditions. (This is particularly true of Orthodox Judaism.) Gary Tobin,
head of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, said of
traditional Jewish culture, "The dichotomy between religion and culture
doesn’t really exist. Every religious attribute is filled with culture;
every cultural act filled with religiosity. Synagogues themselves are
great centers of Jewish culture. After all, what is life really about?
Food, relationships, enrichment... So is Jewish life. So many of our
traditions inherently contain aspects of culture. Look at the Passover
seder—it’s essentially great theater. Jewish education and religiosity
bereft of culture is not as interesting."
Politics and morals
Even in religious Judaism there is much room for a range of political or
moral views; this is only more so for secular Jews. However, even Jewish
secular culture is often strongly influenced by moral beliefs deriving
from Jewish scripture and tradition. In recent centuries, Jews in Europe
and the Americas have traditionally tended towards the political left,
and played key roles in the birth of the labor movement as well as
socialism. While Diaspora Jews have also been represented in the
conservative side of the political spectrum, even politically
conservative Jews have tended to support pluralism more consistently
than many other elements of the political right. Some scholars [2]
attribute this to the fact that Jews are not expected to proselytize,
and as a result do not expect a single world-state, which differs from
the beliefs of many religions, such as the Roman Catholic and Islamic
traditions. This lack of a universalizing religion is combined with the
fact that most Jews live as minorities in their countries, and that no
central Jewish religious authority has existed for over 2,000 years.
(See list of Jews in politics, which illustrates the diversity of Jewish
political thought and of the roles Jews have played in politics.)
"Jewish" professions
Some professions have traditionally been considered particularly
"Jewish," partially as a result of historical cirumstances. These
include:
Banking
In most of Europe up until the late 18th century, and in some places to
an even later date, Jews were prohibited by Roman Catholic governments
(and others) from owning land. On the other hand, the Church, because of
a number of Bible verses forbidding usury, declared that charging any
interest was against the divine law, and this prevented any mercantile
use of capital by pious Christians. As the canon law did not apply to
Jews, they were not liable to the ecclesiastical punishments which were
placed upon usurers by the popes. Christian rulers gradually saw the
advantage of having a class of men like the Jews who could supply
capital for their use without being liable to excommunication, and the
money trade of western Europe by this means fell into the hands of the
Jews. However, in almost every instance where large amounts were
acquired by Jews through banking transactions the property thus acquired
fell either during their life or upon their death into the hands of the
king. This happened to Aaron of Lincoln in England, Ezmel de Ablitas in
Navarre, Heliot de Vesoul in Provence, Benveniste de Porta in Aragon,
etc. It was for this reason indeed that the kings supported the Jews,
and even objected to their becoming Christians, because in that case
they could not have forced from them money won by usury. Thus both in
England and in France the kings demanded to be compensated for every Jew
converted. The result was the stereotypical Jewish role as bankers and
merchants.
Science and academia
Also, the strong Jewish tradition of religious scholarship often left
Jews well prepared for secular scholarship, although in some times and
places this was countered by Jews being banned from studying at
universities, or admitted only in limited numbers. Even into recent
times Jews were little represented in the land-holding classes, but far
better represented in academia, the learned professions, finance and
commerce. The strong representation of Jews in science and academia is
represented in the fact that at least 167 Jews and persons of
half-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize, accounting for
22% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2004.
Literary and artistic culture
In some places where there have been relatively high concentrations of
Jews, distinct secular Jewish subcultures have arisen. For example,
ethnic Jews formed an enormous proportion of the literary and artistic
life of Vienna, Austria at the end of the 19th century, or of New York
City 50 years later (and Los Angeles in the mid-late 20th century), and
for the most part these were not particularly religious people. In
general, however, Jewish artistic culture in various periods reflected
the culture in which they lived. See Jews in the Visual Arts, Jews in
Literature and Journalism.
The level this has reached at times can be gleaned from a 1925 New York
Times" article on Yiddish theater. "...Yiddish theater... is now a
stable American institution and no longer dependent on immigration from
Eastern Europe. People who can neither speak nor write Yiddish attend
Yiddish stage performances and pay Broadway prices on Second Avenue."
This article also mentions other aspects of a New York Jewish cultural
life "in full flower" at that time, among them the fact that the
extensive New York Yiddish-language press of the time included seven
daily newspapers. [Melamed, 1925]
Literature
Jewish authors have both created a unique Jewish literature and
contributed to the national literatures of many of the countries in
which they live. Though not strictly secular, the Yiddish works of
authors like Shalom Aleichem (whose collected works amounted to 28
volumes) and Isaac Bashevis Singer (winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize),
form their own canon, focusing on the Jewish experience in both Eastern
Europe, and in America. In the United States, Jewish writers like Philip
Roth, Saul Bellow, and many others are considered among the greatest
American authors, and incorporate a distinctly secular Jewish view into
many of their works (See Jewish American Literature). Other famous
Jewish authors that made contributions to world literature include
Heinrich Heine, German poet, Isaac Babel, Russian author, and Franz
Kafka, of Prague.
Yiddish theatre
The Ukrainian Jew Abraham Goldfaden founded the first professional
Yiddish-language theatre troupe in Iaşi, Romania in 1876. The next year,
his troupe achieved enormous success in Bucharest. Within a decade,
Goldfaden and others brought Yiddish theater to Ukraine, Russia, Poland,
Germany, New York City, and other cities with significan Ashkenazaic
populations. Between 1890 and 1940, over a dozen Yiddish theatre groups
existed in New York City alone, performing original plays, musicals, and
Yiddish translations of theatrical works and opera. Perhaps the most
famous of Yiddish-language plays is The Dybbuk (1919) by S. Ansky.
Music
Jewish musical contributions also tend to reflect the cultures of the
countries in which Jews live. Some music, however, was unique to
particular Jewish communities, such as klezmer in Eastern Europe. See
also Music of Israel.
Dance
The hora is the name of a circle dance in Israel and other countries.
(This same name applies to the circle dance that is the national dance
of Romania.) In Yemen, where Jews were banned from dancing publicly,
forms of dance evolved that are based on stationary hopping and
posturing, such as can be done in a confined space.
Food
Jewish cooking combines the food of many cultures in which Jews have
travelled, including Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Spanish, German and
Eastern European styles of cooking, all influenced by the need for food
to be kosher. Thus, "Jewish" foods like hummus, stuffed cabbage, and
blintzes all come from various other cultures. The amalgam of these
foods, plus uniquely Jewish contributions like bagels, tzimmis, cholent,
and matzah balls, make up Jewish cuisine.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_Jewish_culture
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