Gray felt klipped kippah1/9/2023 ![]() In Stars of David, a recent book of interviews with Jewish luminaries, New Republic editor Leon Wieseltier wrote, “I can respect heresy, I can respect alienation…. But the upcoming birth of my first child has me asking why I’ve turned away from the accumulated wisdom of my forefathers-and wondering if returning to that wisdom might make me a happier man, a better man, a good Jewish dad. So far, all I’ve found is hunger and crushing tedium. I married a Jew, and I suffer through Yom Kippur services nearly every year, seeking some sort of community and belonging. I’m a pick-and-choose Jew, and for the most part, I’ve chosen not to pick.īy now I’ve outgrown Santa’s lap. Judaism for me has always been a buffet where you decide to celebrate the feast of Passover but not observe the Fast of Gedalia you give your son a bris, but not a bar mitzvah. For years I neutered my family’s last name, chopping it in half to form Pape, somehow unaware of the papal connotations. I’ve even worked for minimum wage on Yom Kippur. In school, I slavishly dated Ukrainians, Latvians, Czechs, and Croats to the exclusion of Sarah, Rachel, and Esther. As a child I sat on Santa’s lap and hunted for Easter eggs. (Or at the very least, one who’s trying to improve.) And for the first time in my life, I want to be called a good Jew. But now, at 35 years old, with one book of fiction under my belt and a couple manuscripts in the can, I’m on the verge of having a son. I’m also a skinny Jew, an arrogant Jew, a neurotic Jew, an erotic Jew, and even a dirty Jew-at least I’ve been called each of those names more than once in my lifetime.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |