Ser judío es ahora determinado por lo que uno hace
- 42% consideran que tener un buen sentido del humor es una característica del ser judío
- 19% consideran que ser judío requiere seguir las tradiciones religiosas
- 43% consideran que hay que “preocuparse” por Israel
- 73% consideran que es esencial recordar el Holocausto
- 69% consideran que ser judío requiere llevar una vida ética y moral
- 56% consideran que ser judío requiere el trabajar por justicia e igualdad para todos
- 49% consideran que ser judío requiere ser intelectualmente curioso
- 13% consideran que ser judío requiere saber hebreo
- 42% relacionan el tener un sentido ético y humorístico de la vida con la herencia del Yiddish
We’re the Jon Stewart People
By Dan Friedman
True or not, Eskimos are famed for having 40 words for snow: Jews on the other hand have Yiddish — a whole language for being funny, featuring a vowel combination that is synonymous with hilarity. Comedy, shmomedy.
That turns out to be handy because Jews — at least American Jews who don’t have to worry about anti-Semitism either violent or genteel or about existential threats to their country — now value humor more highly than observance of Jewish religious law. Never mind Rabbi Susan Silverman and her quest to pray at the Kotel, let’s embrace the far more authentically Jewish jokes of her cross-wearing sister.
According to the massive Pew survey out today, 42% of American Jews think that having a good sense of humor is what it means to be Jewish. That’s about the same as the 43% who think you need to care about Israel but more than twice as many as those who think you need to observe Jewish law (19%).
It’s good that those 42% do have a good sense of humor because they can have a chuckle at the 34% of American Jews who think that believing Jesus was the messiah is compatible with being Jewish. Denying the Inquisition and refusing to bow to a millennium of Christian oppression is so passé. Dying for your beliefs is so Old World, so quaintly European.
Which is not to forget all those European deaths. 73% do say that “remembering the holocaust” is essential, as is “leading a moral and ethical life” (69%), “working for justice and equality” (56%) and “being intellectually curious” (49%). It’s a shame that Rabbis Akiva and Hillel were so caught up with their whole religious thing because their teachings about Leviticus 19:18 (that’s Vayikra, for the 13% of American Jews who can understand Hebrew — and for those who can, eizeh shtuyot!).
oigan
y a nadie se le ocurrio que lo esencial es haber tenido una madre judia?