What Does it Mean to be Jewish in the Age of Trump?

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Susannah Heschel,听Dartmouth College

Ruth Langer, Boston College

Mark Silk, Trinity College

顿补迟别:听October 16, 2018

Co-sponsored with the听Jewish Law Students Association听(JLSA)听at the听Boston College Law School.

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Abstract

With the election of Donald Trump and the increased visibility of the alt-right, anti-semitic language, stereotypes, and violence have once again entered mainstream discourse, experience, and news cycles. What does it mean to be Jewish and American? What does it mean to be Jewish in America now? Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College), Ruth Langer (Boston College), and Mark Silk (Trinity College), will discuss these and related questions.听

Speaker Bios

Susannah Heschel

Susannah Heschel听is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Her scholarship focuses on Jewish-Christian relations in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of biblical scholarship, and the history of anti-Semitism. She is the author of numerous publications including听Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus听(University of Chicago Press), which won a National Jewish Book Award, and听The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton University Press). Heschel is currently at work on a history of European Jewish scholarship on Islam. She has taught at Southern Methodist University and Case Western Reserve University, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Trinity College and the Board of Advisors at the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. Heschel received her听A.B. from Trinity College, her M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.听

Ruth Langer

Ruth Langer听is a professor of Jewish Studies in the theology department at Boston College and associate director of its听. She is also chair of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. She writes and speaks in two major areas: the development of Jewish liturgy and ritual; and Christian-Jewish relations. Her book,听听(Oxford University Press, 2012), combines these two interests, tracing the transformations of a Jewish prayer that was, until modernity, a curse of Christians. Most recently, she published听
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), an annotated bibliography of over 1000 entries of English-language studies of Jewish liturgy accessible to those from outside the Jewish Studies world. She also co-edited听Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue听(Eisenbrauns, 2005) and has published a long list of articles.听Langer received her Ph.D. in Jewish Liturgy in 1994 and her rabbinic ordination in 1986 from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. She is a graduate of Bryn听Mawr听College and a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Mark Silk

Mark Silk听is the director of the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and professor of religion in public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Silk served as editor of the听Boston Review听as well as a reporter, editoral writer, and columnist for the听Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is the founding editor of听Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. Silk's publications include:听Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II听(New York: Simon and Schuster) and听Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America听(Urbana: University of Illinois Press). Silk received his A.B from Harvard College and earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard University.

Event Photos

Mark Massa, S.J., Susannah Heschel, Ruth Langer, and Mark Silk.

From left to right: Mark Massa, S.J., Susannah Heschel, Ruth Langer, and Mark Silk. Also pictured are Jorge Mej铆a and Monica Orona (far right), two Boisi Center Undergraduate Research Fellows.

Mark Massa, S.J., Susannah Heschel, Ruth Langer, and Mark Silk.
Mark Silk

Mark Silk, the director of the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and professor of religion in public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Susannah Heschel and Ruth Langer

Susannah Heschel (right), Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and Ruth Langer (left), professor of Jewish Studies at Boston College and associate director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning.

Question from audience

Photos by MTS Photography

Event Recap

On Monday, October 16th, 2018, a group of distinguished scholars offered their thoughts on the condition of Judaism and lived Jewish experience in the United States under the current administration of Donald J. Trump. Moderated by Mark Massa, S.J., the speakers included Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College), Mark Silk (Trinity College), and Ruth Langer (Boston College).

The panelists first assessed connections between the election of Donald Trump and the contemporary resurgence of anti-Semitism in the Western world. Referencing historian Christopher Browning, author of听The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy听(2003), Heschel established a parallel between the antecedents to Germany鈥檚 mid-twentieth century genocidal program against its Jewish population and the presently contentious socio-legal landscape in the United States. Such a milieu, Langer observed, is characterized by political intolerance and economic disillusionment. Silk added that he felt 鈥渃onfused as far as American Jewry is concerned.鈥

The panelists reflected on the specifically political considerations associated with the lived experience of American Jews. Chief among these was the moral dilemma that Heschel referred to as a 鈥渃ompromise of conscience鈥: the question of whether Jews should defend Trump鈥檚 diplomatic support of Israel or, conversely, rebuke him for his installment of egregious policies such as child-parent separation. 鈥淎re we being hypnotized?鈥 she asked. Silk added that even Rabbis who make formal judgements against national political issues are beginning to undergo what Massa called a 鈥渜ualitatively new silencing of violences.鈥

Prompted by Massa, each panelist then engaged in an innovative mental exercise: to role-play a two-minute long Rabbinic sermon about America鈥檚 current affairs to a fictitious congregation. Heschel offered that she would urge listeners to 鈥済et beneath the politics of resentment鈥 and write an 鈥渆thical will鈥 of how they would like younger Jews to engage with politics.

During the question-and-answer session, audience members raised important points about the experience of ethnic minorities in the United States under the Trump presidency. One person broached the topic of Muslim-Jewish relations; some Boston College undergraduates (such as Boisi URF M贸nica Orona) and professors (such as sociologist Eve Spangler) weighed in on cross-racial tension at 糖心vlog直播平台. Most tellingly, one audience member issued a clarion call to American youth regarding economic disillusionment and civic disengagement: ask not 鈥渨hat is mine?鈥 but rather 鈥渉ow can I help?鈥

Read More

Books

Evan Kaplan, Dana, ed.听The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism. Cambridge Companions to Religion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Hertzberg, Arthur.听The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History.听New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.听

Nirenberg, David.听Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition.听New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.听

Nussbaum, Martha.听The Monarchy of Fear.听New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018.

Sarna, Jonathan.听American Judaism: A History.听New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.听

Weisman, Jonathan.听(((SEMITISM))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump.听New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2018.

Articles

Heschel, Susannah. 鈥淭he Slippery yet Tenacious Nature of Racism: New Developments in Critical Race Theory and Their Implications for the Study of Religion and Ethics,鈥澨Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics听35:1 (Spring/Summer 2015), 3-27.

Luce, Edward.听听听Financial Times,听March 21, 2018.

Other Media

The Jewish Americans: A Series by David Grubin.

In the News

In a听听from March, author and journalist Jonathan Weisman discusses the recent increase in Antisemitism in the United States. This rise has not gone unnoticed, especially by groups such as the Anti Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, but these groups increasingly appear to be standing alone as many do not raise their voices against this hate.

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