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Books: Make Mine a Martini
Matt Nesvisky
"Best Jewish Writing 2003," the second such annual collection, contains some fine reading. That said, something mildly hilarious is going on here. Every annual "best" series -- American poetry, essays, short stories and the like -- always reflects the personal tastes and idiosyncrasies of its guest editor. That�s to be expected. But this Jewish series ratchets up editorial individualism to new heights.
Consider the evidence. Nearly one third of the selections in the book�s 2002 edition were taken from Tikkun Magazine. Editor of that volume? Tikkun founder Michael Lerner. Now, how many Tikkun selections do you think appear in Arthur Kurzweil�s 2003 edition? Answer: none. Is it conceivable so much excellent writing appeared in Tikkun in one year and none the next?
Further evidence: How many of the more than 50 writers Lerner had in his edition of "Best Jewish Writing" appear among the 56 in Kurzweil�s collection? Answer: two. Is it conceivable so many Jewish writers -- Stanley Moss, A.B. Yehoshua, Robert Pinsky, Grace Shulman, to name a few -- produced excellent material in 2002 and failed to do so the following year?
Arthur Kurzweil, we�re told in a biographical note, is Jewish Interest Editor for the publisher of this book, author of guides to Jewish genealogy, a devotee of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and a member of the Society of American Magicians. Happily, Kurzweil has pulled some good articles out of his shtreiml for this year�s anthology.
The opening section, which deals with Israel, contains rather predictable arguments from the likes of Elie Wiesel and Joseph Alpher. But these are followed by two quite forceful essays. In the first, Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz imagines a space alien observing the current campus crusade condemning Israel as a vio-lator of human rights while no such campaign is underway condemning China, Iran, Burma, Libya, Serbia or a host of other countries. The space traveler can only conclude something is terribly wrong on American campuses. That wrong, Dershowitz declares, is called anti-Semitism.
An essay by Israeli journalist and historian Amos Elon then takes on what he calls the visionary deficiencies of Israel�s recent leadership. Founding figures like David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan, writes Elon, eventually recognized that ruling over Palestinians was simply inimical to the Israeli enterprise. This, says Elon, is what the nation�s current leadership refuses to see. Not everyone will endorse this view, but Elon sounds persuasive when he concludes: "The vast settlement project after 1967, aside from being grossly unjust, has been self-defeating and politically ruinous�. [It] has not provided more security but less." Those facts on the ground, Elon says, are what make the ground shake.
The section called "Current Issues" contains yawners -- promoting arguments we�ve heard over and over again -- like Blu Greenberg�s "Orthodox, Feminist and Proud of It" and David Saks�s "Only the Orthodox Can Avoid Intermarriage." But Lawrence Bush�s "Drugs and Jewish Spirituality" is decidedly fresh -- and decidedly disturbing -- not least because its author is open to a wide range of views on drugs. The Reconstructionist leader first recalls how early experiments with psychedelics -- his and those of several of his rabbi friends -- deepened their Judaism. Bush warns against the dangers of drugs, but also decries their criminalization. Finally, he says, drug-induced highs so well emulate the mystical experience so many American Jews desire that maybe we ought to acknowledge their usefulness.
Reform Rabbi Daniel Polish�s article on Judaism and capital punishment is an eye-opener. Despite the numerous Biblical injunctions declaring various acts as capital crimes, Polish maintains the Sanhedrin effectively abolished capital punishment well before the fall of Jerusalem.
Turning to "Religious Education and Practice," we find the highlight is Reform Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin�s "Ethical Kashrut," which argues that caring for the planet is very much a Jewish imperative. Coming in a close second is the highly original and stimulating essay on Jewish medi-tation by Reconstructionist Rabbi Sheila Weinberg: Her depiction of New York�s post-9/11 Ground Zero as a mysterious "nothingness" proves as moving to the reader as the actual site did to the author.
The "Jewish Spiritual Thought" section is notable for Adin Steinsaltz�s screed against sophistication -- make of that what you will -- while the one outstanding essay dealing with kabbalah is Cynthia Ozick�s biographical rumination on Gershom Scholem. The three pieces dealing with the Holocaust are hardly essential reading, but of the three dealing with the anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, the article by the controversial New York Rabbi Avi Weiss strikes me as especially moving, although his idea of what constitutes universalism may not be everybody�s. Both the innocent victims and the heroic rescue workers, Weiss concludes, constituted a "congregation of holy souls," leaving the rabbi with a "profound sense of Universalism�. Suddenly, all humanity had become Jews."
Of the eight poems Kurzweil believes are the year�s best, the best I can say is literature -- and poetry in particular -- is a matter of taste. Of Kurzweil�s three short story choices, it�s nice to see novelist Herbert Gold at age 79 still alive and kicking, even if his "Religion: Goy" is slight. But Israeli-American novelist Talia Carner�s post-Holocaust tale, "Empty Chairs," which begins most unpromisingly, turns out very affecting indeed. The final section, devoted to Jewish Humor, is unaccountably stale.
The year�s best Jewish writing? I�m not quite convinced. But editor�s personal predilections aside, it�s a welcome anthology -- and may the series grow and prosper.
Personal editorial choice also dominates "Lost Tribes," so perhaps it�s not surprising no writer appears in both of the anthologies under review. And it must be said the title of this original paperback collection of new Jewish fiction makes no sense. Twenty-five mostly young Jewish writers conscientiously exploring their common heritage in no way merit being labeled a lost tribe.
Equally puzzling is the anthology�s subtitle. These stories, almost all by Americans, certainly don�t come from the edge of mainstream publishing. Several offerings in fact are taken from recent bestsellers (Jonathan Safran Foer�s "Everything Is Illuminated," Myla Goldberg�s "Bee Season," Nathan Englander�s "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges").
So: Jewish fiction from the edge of what? Well, evidently from the edge of maturity. Almost all of these stories concern young protagonists (in college, yeshivah or adolescence, or even younger) and too many of their experiences are told in an earnest manner suggesting wide-eyed discovery. A dreary number of the stories include casual, throwaway references to nice Jewish kids� being familiar with four-letter words, sex and marijuana. But who is shocked and titillated? One can�t help thinking it�s the authors themselves, thrilled by their own transgressive daring.
The youthfulness of the writing usually means a springy energy, and that�s all to the good. But so many beardless boys and unlined girls -- youngsters with nothing yet printed on their faces -- do not make for an especially interesting collection of characters. These are people on the brink of life�s experiences. One repeatedly has the feeling it would be preferable to hear their stories some years from now, over a martini, say, rather than over a milkshake.
This is certainly why "Lost Tribe�s" opening section, "Love and Sex after Portnoy," is the least rewarding. None of the six stories here is particularly memorable -- and worse, none is particularly believable. In Nelly Reifler�s silly "Julian," for example, when an Orthodox adolescent is exposed to a porn magazine, "His armpits tingled." His armpits?
Ironically, the section called "Dreams, Prayers and Nightmares" is rooted in firmer fictional ground. Here the writers usually break free from their circumscribed surroundings and let their imaginations soar, often with wonderful results. Judy Budnitz�s "Hershel" is an Old World fantasy worthy of Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Canadian-born Aryeh Lev Stollman�s "Die Grosse Liebe" is a richly imagined and expressed meditation on the hidden history of an immigrant parent. A few of the stories wrestle with the Holocaust; not much gets pinned to the mat, but the wrestling is honorable enough. At the same time, this section contains the anthology�s only outstandingly bad story, Ellen Miller�s ill-conceived and grossly written campus caper, "In Memory of Chanveasna Chan, Who Is Still Alive."
As the title of the last section suggests, "Mystics, Seekers and Fanatics" mostly concerns modern young Jews trying to reconnect with their religion and culture. The exception is Simone Zelitch�s "Ten Plagues," an imaginative retelling of the Exodus story. Also notable is the aforementioned selection from Jonathan Safran Foer�s remarkably intelligent and entertaining "The Very Rigid Search," a story that eventually evolved into the best-selling novel "Everything Is Illuminated."
Editor Paul Zakrzewski, who has been a program director for Manhattan�s Jewish Community Center and host of a writers series at the East Village�s KGB Bar, provides a sober introduction to the collection, as well as statements from each of the authors.
Best Jewish Writing 2003 / Edited by Arthur Kurzweil, Jossey-Bass: 396 pp. ; $19.95 Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge / Edited by Paul Zakrzewski, Perennial: 548 pp.; $14.95
March 22, 2004
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