Coming Out Jewish: Constructing Ambivalent Identities

Book Summary

"This book makes a crucial bridge between the newly emerging Jewish Studies and Cultural Studies that will be essential reading for critics in both fields as well as those concerned with issues of identity and multiculturalism." --Nick Mirzoeff, author of An Introduction to Visual Culture What does it mean to be Jewish in today's world? In his new book, Jon Stratton helps readers understand the nature of being Jewish as a racial and ethnic identity, addressing issues of migration, assimilation, diaspora and multiculturalism. He argues that Jewishness is being misunderstood in an increasingly non-spiritual and non-essentialist way. Weaving autobiographical material through a number of chapters, Stratton introduces his own experience of being brought up in a highly assimilatory household. He explores attitudes to Jewishness as expressed in cultural policy and in popular culture, considering the ambivalent place of Jews in Europe, the United States and Australia. Stratton discusses the place of Jewish thought within cultural studies, referring to theories of diaspora and identity developed by authors such as Ien Ang and Stuart Hall, and also writers for Jewish Studies such as Daniel Boyarin and Sander Gilman. Through his discussions of Jewish identity in various countries, he drives home the point of being an Othered people in a modern era. Chapters of particular interest and controversy include discussions on the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany and the development of the German nation state, and the Jewish origins of cultural pluralism in the United States. Like many Jews of our generation, Jon Stratton grew up in a family more concerned about assimilation than about preserving Jewish tradition. While he could easily 'pass' among non-Jews, he found himself increasingly torn between his fear of not belonging and a deeply-felt commitment to his family's past. Coming Out Jewish examines the unique challenge of constructing an identity amid the clash between ethnicity and conformity. For many Jews, the idea of full assimilation ended with the Holocaust. But the pressure to adapt to the mainstream, Stratton eloquently argues, remains powerful, especially for those with anglicized names, assimilationist parents, a history of recent immigration, or ambivalent experiences of themselves as Jews. With reference to the work of Daniel Boyarin, Ien Ang, and Homi Bhabha, among others, Stratton offers fresh analysis on a wide range of topics, including the Jewish origins of pluralism in the US, anti-Semitism in Germany, the Jewishness of sitcoms like Seinfeld, and the Yiddishization of American culture since World War II. More than a book about Jews and Jewishness, Coming Out Jewish smartly and accurately mines the Jewish experience in the West to give voice to the issues of migration, Diaspora, assimilation and identity that affect those, displaced and 'othered', around the world.

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