“The market really screwed me this week. I lost a fuckin bundle” my buddy shared crabbily as we left the synagogue. Clearly the last two hours of praying, sermon listening and Jewish identity appreciating was no match for the world outside the stain glass windows. My friend’s ability to leave Shule and simultaneously switch heroes from Moses to Gordon Gekko reinforced a suspicion I’d been avoiding: Attending synagogue wasn’t a part of our Jewish identities, it was all that remained of our Jewish identities. Everything else was Woody Allen films and brisket sandwiches. Those might be expressions of Jewish pride, but they’re hardly meaningful legacies to leave to your kids.
The synagogue remains the closest thing to a pure, meaningful Jewish experience, and it still can’t pack enough spiritual punch to elevate post-service conversation beyond "poorly performing stocks". I found myself questioning why I still bother with this routine. Was it the spiritual high? The sense of community? There are drugs with the potency to provide a longer lasting high (so I’m told). Perhaps I should attend a Phish show and kill two birds with one stone.
The great irony about Jewish history in that generations of persecution meant that Jews stuck together. Sometimes reluctantly. Sometimes proudly. Nonetheless, when you take away people’s basic rights like citizenship, owning businesses and property, practicing religion publicly and label them enemies of the state, those people tend to stick together. Take away the restrictions and legislated bigotry and Jews want nothing more than blend into their societies. For better or worse, integration and assimilation go hand in hand, after all, each of us only has so much time and energy to dedicate to our respective interests, so ultimately something’s gotta give. Religion, more often than not becomes its own sacrificial lamb. It’s neither profitable, logical, liberating (in the common sense of the word) nor sexy. From an ad guy’s perspective, that’s a hard sell and recent assimilation statistics underscore this point.
I certainly don’t want to revisit a history that my ancestors could barely muster the composure to recount. Nor would I ever turn my back on thousands of years of rich history and tradition to become an invisible piece of my environment. Perhaps two meaningful hours in the synagogue is better than none.
