Kesher Talk

Arguing in New York. I haven't experienced the supposed New York monoculture that Anne Applebaum is talking about, but I hang out a lot with somewhat observant Jews, many of whom are under 30, and their politics are not uniform. I wouldn't go so far as to assume any of them would admit to being Republicans, but quite a few of them were for the Iraq war and are not optimistic about the Road Map.

At BJ you would get dumbfounded stares for supporting the war. I remember Purim in their huge supplemental sanctuary surrounded by "candles for peace," having to sit through a pudgy balding Peter Yarrow singing "Blowing in the Wind" (with all these greying hippies eating him up) (I know these people are my age, but I haven't liked PP&M since I was 12, okay???) before I could fulfill the mitzvah - unlike most shul-related duties, incumbent on both genders - of hearing the megillah. And they started later than all the other shuls in the neighborhood - which is why I went there, I admit it, I was lazy - so if I left everyone else would have been finished already.)

But sometimes they hit just the right note, when they are not trying to be PC, or at least being subtle about it. Their Tisha B'Av services last summer were lovely: they wove some contemporary readings in with the chanting of Eicha, everyone sat on the floor in the dark with candles (which is traditional), and it worked.

The problem of "alternative" or "experimental" rituals is you never know what you are going to get. The problem with "traditional" rituals is you always know what you are going to get. There should be a brocha for being here in New York in the dawn of the 21st century, where you can move the slider along that scale to just about where you want it. But even in a mid-size Bible Belt city the Jewish choices are nothing to sneeze at.

posted by Judith @ 6/24/2003 07:49:59 PM