Wednesday, December 01, 2010

The Problem With Funny Jews

Jews who are funny, who have the flare of the comedian in them, the smart, clever and flippant variety, are a problem. For them, the case usually is, the most funniest topics and situations they can make fun of are....Jewish ones.

Now, I am not against making fun of one's self, or family or the whole gantzeh tribe. But when Howard Jacobson, author of “The Finkler Question” which won this year’s Man Booker Prize, takes on Hanukkah, with expected results, it is all so disappointing.

In his Hanukkah, Rekindled, written in Dublin of all places, he makes this point:-

...But how many Jews truly feel this narrative as their own?...Hanukkah — at least the way it’s told — struggles to find a path to Jewish hearts...it doesn’t quite feel authentic.

Isn’t there something a touch suspicious, for example, about our defeating the Syrian-Greek army? It lacks equivocation...Exodus played to our strengths. Similarly, Esther — who had married out of the faith, remember — turning the tables on Haman. In our best stories, we lose a little to gain a little. We use our heads. Trouncing the Syrian-Greeks sounds worryingly like wish fulfillment...

Of course, being a galut Jew, it doesn't occur to him that it is not wish fulfillment but motivation to fulfill our national responsibilities and obligations. Heaven forbid that Jacobson should think of the IDF in this context, not to mention (he is British, you know) the Irgun, Lechi or Palmah.

A Jew a soldier? A hero? A brave, self-sacrificing individual? And tens of thousands of them now? Jacobson can't be proud of that so he puts down the who thing with a smirk.

And he adds,

...The cruel truth is that Hanukkah is a seasonal festival of light in search of a pretext and as such is doomed to be forever the poor relation of Christmas. No comparable grandeur in the singing, no comparable grandeur in the giving, no comparable grandeur in the commemoration (no matter how solemn and significant the events we are remembering...those Hasmoneans — who sound too hot for this time of the year — don’t have a chance of engaging our imaginations.

So what’s to be done? Either Hanukkah should merge with Christmas — a suggestion against which the arguments are more legion even than the Syrian-Greek army — or it should be spiced up with the sort of bitter irony at which the Jewish people excel.

Irony?

Mr. Jacobson, that even isn't sardonic wit.

It's a manifesto of the League of Trembling Israelites who are embarrassed by their own kith and kin and our heritage and tradition.

^

3 comments:

Suzanne Pomeranz said...

Just for those who think that Jesus was not Jewish and for those who think the Christmas celebrations came first - they did NOT as they were created from the annual birthday celebrations of the Sun God Mithras who was born on, ready?, December 25th. "Emperor Constantine ... merge[d] the cult of Mithra with that of Christianity that was developing much. He declared himself a Christian but at the same time maintained his ties to the Mithra cult. He retained the title "Pontifus Maximus" the high priest. On his coins were inscribed: "Sol Invicto comiti" which means, commited to the invincible sun. This new blend of the two faiths, he officially proclaimed as Christianity." It was in "313 A.D., [that] Emperor Constantine declared December 25th to be the birthday of Jesus (December 25th was prescribed earlier as the birthday of Mithra, by emperor Aurelian)." http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/mithraism.html

But - take a look at this: John 10:22-23

New American Standard Version
At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of (A)Solomon.

New International Readers' Version
Then came the Feast of Hanukkah at Jerusalem. It was winter. Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Porch.

Juniper in the Desert said...

I have always regarded Jacobson as a kapo Jew, and the proof is in this award.

Anything snide and antisemitic garners rewards in the English "literary" world! Putrid!

Nate said...

As I wrote in the comments section when I read this dreadful piece:

I'm sorry, but this article seems to completely miss the point of the holiday, while along the way demonstrating a lack of knowledge about how its celebrated by the vast majority of Jews. How can the author state with a straight face that Chanukah has a "the lack of presents"? Every American Jew knows how to taunt their Christian neighbors: "I get eight presents to your one!"