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Am I a Jewish American or an American Jew? What does the question mean anyway, and is there really a significance in the nuance of the term? In order to answer those issues, we must first take a step back…
From early on in our history, Jewish people loved the idea of tight-knit community. For anyone familiar with the story of Fiddler on the Roof, the people of the town lived in a small town with a large Jewish population, and for the most part lived and died in their small bubble. Indeed, the very idea of shtetl-life was that of an insular Jewish community without much interaction or even contact with the outside world. Some may look back and say that those people were living behind their times, shunning outside influences or were rejecting modernity, but a student of history will learn that in hindsight, the shtetl worked by preserving Jewish culture, traditions and continuity.
In the 21st century that we find ourselves in, most Jews in this world do not live the shtetl-life. In fact, we are probably the furthest thing from it. We are spread out to the far reaches of the world, and find ourselves in every profession, in every type of lifestyle. Educational opportunities are open to us, as are our choice of career and family paths – the same opportunities as people of other faiths, something our ancestors wouldn’t have dreamed of. Many would agree that we have truly evolved from the shtetl days, and that we are better off than our forefathers were in the old country.
However, as much as I too am a product of the modern world, I think that we have lost something in coming so far from our roots. Something that is so real, yet so hard to put your finger on and say exactly what it is that mattered so dearly.
So where are we now? I believe that regardless of your religious observance or affiliation (if any), our identity as Jews has become sidelined by, well, everything else. Our American pride, our busy lives. Everything that we have tried so hard to become in this country. We are millions of miles removed from that shtetl life that it is often hard to imagine identifying ourselves as a Jew first before anything else.
There is a stigma, I think, about being “too Jewish.” Singles are often out there looking for someone on their own observance level or less. People are more likely to become less religious than more. We are losing so many of our population to assimilation. And perhaps – just perhaps – there is something wrong with this picture.
I see the old country and America often as polar opposites. On the one hand, strong Jewish identity, adherence to tradition, but low sense of personal security or opportunities for growth. On the other, an endless buffet of options, the ability to attain the American dream, but with a very weak or weakening connection to our true heritage and roots. Perhaps it is time for the pendulum to swing again, and maybe we will find our self a space halfway between these two worlds – that of our fathers, and that of the future. Perhaps for me, saying that I am a Jewish American goes beyond an obvious identification. Perhaps I am taking an insignificant label and making it into something more for myself – a goal perhaps – of where I would like to get to. Perhaps it is the idea of identity that we have lost or we are losing – and can’t quite put our finger on exactly what it is. So as for me, I will say that I am an American. I am a modern woman. An adoptive parent. A college graduate. A thinker. A writer. A citizen of the world.
But I am Jewish first.
An excellent question! (An excellent blog entry too.) And while I applaud your conclusion, I believe you have selected exactly the wrong term to express the sentiment that being Jewish is first and foremost in your identity.
See, in the term “Jewish American,” “American” is the dominant noun, and “Jewish” is the modifier, and therefore, subordinate. So the term “Jewish American” actually means that you are American first and foremost, like all the other Americans, but you belong to the subcategory “Jewish.”
Conversely, “American Jew” places “Jew” at the forefront, and “American” is merely the modifier. If I say I am an American Jew, I’m saying that I am first and foremost a Jew, but I just happen to live in America.
That’s how I’ve always thought of it, and if you think about the rules of grammar (which is my obsession these days, so please forgive me if I sound like a wack) it makes sense to interpret it in this way. That doesn’t mean that all people understand this grammatical distinction, though. I imagine for most people, the terms are simply synonymous, if they think about it at all.