Dartmouth College professor Shaul Magid gave the Annual Critical Spiritualties and Global Judaisms Lecture this year, speaking about Jewish-American identity and how it has evolved over time. During his lecture in the Cultural Center Theater on Thursday, Feb. 27, the distinguished professor of Jewish Studies sought to answer the question of what American Jews want in a post-cultural society, in which culture and religion are self-defined rather than derived purely from one’s heritage.
Nearly 170 people attended the lecture, including many students. The event was hosted by the Hofstra Cultural Center, the department of religion and the Jewish studies program.
“[As a non-Jew,] I feel like all we really cover is the Holocaust and that’s it. Learning about experiences besides the Holocaust will be enlightening,” said Raven Davis, a freshman English major. Davis said she attended hoping to broaden her knowledge of issues that Jewish-Americans face.
Other attendees were members of the community interested in the topic, as well as those concerned for younger generations of American Jews.
“There’s a lot of anti-Israel sentiment,” said Joel Reiter, a semi-retired doctor. Most recently, Trump passed an executive order in December 2019, allowing the federal government to interpret Judaism as a race or nationality as well as a religion. According to the White House, the Associated Press reported that the order targeted antisemitism on college campuses.
“I think it was a lot of smoke and mirrors,” said Magid about the executive order. “It was misinterpreted by the New York Times, which got people freaked out. It wasn’t really a big shift; it didn’t really change anything.”
In the lecture, Magid furthered his take on American Jews’ position in politics. He said that historically, Jewish Americans have advocated for civil rights and generally supported progressive political movements. However, many young Jewish Americans today do not know where they fall on the political spectrum.
“Liberal Jews find themselves caught between their support of Israel and their progressive ideologies.”
Graduate student Shaina Bakshi cited the recent polarization of American politics, saying, “that’s why Jews don’t know where they stand on the political spectrum.” Bakshi also said that according to the horseshoe theory, far-left movements and far-right movements eventually start to assimilate because they share many characteristics. One characteristic both sides share is antisemitism.
Magid answered his original question, “What do American Jews want?” very simply in his lecture: “The Jew wants to be part of a complex ecosystem called humanity.”
