yesterday's survey

[cellio]

Ok, here's why I asked (and why I didn't rewrite some of the bad options on the survey as it was given to me).

There were 16 students in the class, and as it was the first session, we did brief introductions. Three of my classmates identified themselves as converts (two in process, one completed). Eight made it obvious that they grew up Jewish (varied observance levels). For the other four it wasn't clear (this not being a focus).

After we answered the survey we shared our results. None of the four known converts ranked either "support Israel" or "know Jewish history" in the top five. All of the eight (known) Jews from birth did. I was curious about whether that difference would show up with a broader sample. (The class' top five, overall, were: ethics (13), history (11), God (11), Israel (11), and marriage (10). The following did not show up on anyone's top five: havdalah, friends, sukkah -- everything else got at least one vote.)

The LJ data set does not emphasize supporting Israel, but those of you raised in Jewish homes did strongly vote for knowing Jewish history. The other group also gave it a high rank (not top), though not quite as strongly.

Here are the ordered results:

Jewish background (N=18):

• history: 13
• ethical life: 13
• marry Jewish: 10
• seder: 8
• synagogue: 7

• Shabbat: 6
• repent at HHD: 6
• tzedakah: 6
• kashrut: 5
• Israel: 4
• God: 4
• Channukah candles: 3
• festivals: 1
• friends: 1
• pray daily: 0
• havdalah: 0
• sukkah: 0
• sexual values: 0

Non-Jewish background (N=8):

• ethical life: 7
• seder: 6
• Shabbat: 6
• history: 5

• festivals: 3
• God: 3
• marry Jewish: 3
• tzedakah: 3
• synagogue: 3

• kashrut: 2
• pray daily: 2
• Israel 2
• Channukah candles: 2
• friends: 1
• repent at HHD: 1
• havdalah: 1
• sukkah: 0
• sexual values: 0

I have more to say about my own thoughts on these (and other) core values, but it's going to have to wait.

I realize belatedly that I probably shouldn't have included my own answers above (I filled out the poll to make sure it was working). My answer were (in order): ethical life, seder, Shabbat, marry, God. Dropping those out doesn't drastically alter the list above. (According to y'all minus me, Shabbat, history, and seder all rank together at 5, and festivals, tzedakah, and synagogue are slightly more important than God and marrying Jewish.)

Comments

[siderea]

I'm not in the demographic under consideration so I didn't participate, and while I couldn't begin to speak to its Judaism-promoting-merit in comparison to much else on the list, I must say, from a memetic-engineering standpoint, I've been reasonably impressed by the way that history is used in Jewish culture to propagate itself. I was very struck by the first seder I attended how the narrative is adamantly told in the first person plural: we fled Egypt, not they fled Egypt.

Nothing even vaguely similar has ever been done in any Christian church service I've attended (which is odd, when you think of the whole "for us" trope around Christ's sacrifice) or neo-pagan circle. In those faiths, when past events are discussed the actors are always "thems", even the "our people in those days" are "thems". But apparently in Judaism, they're "us".

That's really powerful, psychologically, for instilling a sense of investment in the story and in the people.

[cellio]

I was very struck by the first seder I attended how the narrative is adamantly told in the first person plural: we fled Egypt, not they fled Egypt.

Yes, that is deliberate and, I think, very important. The haggadah says that each of us must feel as if we personally came out of Egypt, so they use that language. It had an interesting effect on me: I'd been to several seders and always felt kind of twitchy at the "we" stuff 'cause I was an outsider and they didn't mean me -- and then one year I didn't, and that was the beginning of a fascinating journey. (Seven weeks after that seder, at a Shavuot torah study (tikkun), I casually said "we" with respect to Sinai, then said "heywaitaminute..." and went off to find some rabbis to talk to.)

[siderea]

Well, there you go: that's what the importance of Jewish history to the survival of Judaism means to me. It's not about knowing some facts, it's about knowing those are now your facts. In Judaism and in Jewish culture(s), knowing who you are -- and what you are -- is about "knowing where you came from".

[cellio]

I did put the seder in my top five, because it transmits (that particular part of) history in a compelling way. Maybe what's driving it for me is that history qua history isn't a factor for me, but finding ways to integrate it so people connect with it is. In other words, book learning about the history of the Jewish people doesn't mean squat; identifying with it does. (Within limits; some people fixate on the past at the expense of the present. But that's true in any group with a history.)