Thread by @SethAMandel

Absolutely sparkling essay by @b_judah on something I've thought about so much while reading modern Jewish American fiction. Ben puts it into words so perfectly: American Jewish writers are bored by their lives and experiences unherd.com/2021/06/how-am…

I'll add one thought to @b_judah's phenomenal piece, which is that the obsession with Israel by the *characters* in these books takes the form of pilgrimage and redemption. Israel is the escape, Israel is the answer. And yet, this is from Zionism-agnostics in many cases!

For example: Nathan Englander's protagonist in KADDISH DOT COM. Both protagonists follow that route in Nicole Krauss's FOREST DARK, leaving their very successful emptiness for Israel. Same with Cherise Wolas's THE FAMILY TABOR (a better version of Krauss's book). plus--

arguably same for Bethany Ball's WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE SOLOMONS, and definitely the same for Jonathan Safran Foer's book HERE I AM, which was terrible but makes this point about soggy American Jews' (often secular) admiration for Israel, for which they hate themselves even more.

There's also a bit of mussar in this. Is this why I'm so obsessed with uncovering every detail about the Jewish Legion, in which my great-grandfather served alongside the great dramatic characters of Jewish history that Ben refers to--Ben-Gurion, Jabotinsky, Ben Tzvi, Margolin?

The personal connection I feel to that story is stronger than anything else the American Jewish experience can offer, though it is an American Jewish story: my ggf's door that Ben-Gurion knocked on was in Ohio, not Palestine or the Pale.

And yet it's also a good example of the way all roads lead to Zion. It's an American Jewish story in the service of the longer story of the unfading hope. It all comes back to a David Bezmozgis quote, which I think also attests to the issue @b_judah is addressing:

“The Jewish future is to be found in Israel. The Jewish past in Europe. Where in this equation is North America? Neither the future nor the past. Which begs the question: What kind of literature can be made of a place that, for Jews, represents neither the future nor the past?”