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ed to Jewish causes, pro- Israel causes,
but it was a very defensive Judaism —
fighting against Israel's enemies, against
Soviet persecution of Jews."
Even if he had pretty much aban-
doned the only way of life he had known,
Professor Dershowitz still lived as if he
were under siege — a state of being that
he sadly acknowledges is common in the
Jewish experience.
'We had a very Jewish home. There's
Jewish art and Jewish music. My chil-
dren went with me to Auschwitz, Israel
and Russia. My kids were imbued with
it, but it was a Judaism against our en-
emies."
A Judaism for its own sake is what
Professor Dershowitz is after.
But he doesn't quite know what that
means. Take his son, for example.
Despite his upbringing in a cultural-
ly Jewish atmosphere and the fact that
he is a "fairly committed Jew," Jamin
Dershowitz failed to appreciate the im-
portance of marrying another Jew. He
did, however, follow in his father's foot-
steps by becoming an attorney.
To Jamin, Professor Dershowitz said,
love took precedence over faith.
"His love was more important than
his Jewish values. He wished he had met
a woman who was Jewish — that
would've been more convenient. For me,
I could never have made a decision to
marry a non-Jewish woman because
Jewishness was central to my life. My
passions are Jewish. You walk into my
home, and it is a very obviously Jewish
home. I lead a very Jewish life, and I
wanted to lead it with somebody like-
minded."
Professor Dershowitz's wife, Carolyn
Cohen, a Ph.D. in neuropsychology, is
on the Harvard faculty.
Yet, the intermarriage of his son, for
example, did not make Professor Der-
showitz re-examine his lapse in faith.
Today, his family keeps kosher "in our
own manner." He doesn't go out on
Friday night or work on Saturday.
"It's not because God told me
not to," he said. "Judaism told
me not to. I suspect for many
of the great Jewish people
throughout- history, Judaism
was more than a God. I
would never try to prose-
lytize or cause doubts, but
for many Jews, Judaism
has gone beyond theolo-
gy:,
In The Vanishing
American Jew, Profes-
sor Dershowitz, 58,
gropes for a definition of
being Jewish that goes
beyond theology. Is it
character? Is it educa-
tion? Is it diet? He's not
quite sure, except he be-
lieves America would be a
lot poorer without the con-
tributions of-Jews individual-
ly and collectively.
"If we let Judaism die, it would
be the first time that it would be
within our control. If we lose our Ju-
daism now, we can't blame it on the
goyim. It'll be our fault." ❑
The Diaspora Dilemma
Alan Dershowitz's latest book, The Vanishing American Jew, decries the erosion
of the American Jewish community but celebrates Jewish secularity.
ew people could win in a debate against Alan and even riveting, it is untenable. Quite simply, he wants
it both ways: He celebrates the virtual disappearance
Dershowitz. He's just too wily.
Yet, he has offered an argument in his latest of institutional anti-Semitism in this country but ar-
book that might heap ridicule on a law school gues that Jews should resist melting into the pot. He
acknowledges that Jewish identity has historically been
student.
The outspoken Harvard Law School professor has defined by persecution and believes that absent that
persecution, Jews can still remain a vital force as a pop-
written an elegant and arguably important book with
ulation.
His solutions? Affiliating with a synagogue, go-
The Vanishing American Jew , an alarmist look at the ing to Israel and providing a Jewish education.
rapidly assimilating American Jewish community.
. Professor Dershowitz's greatest fear is that the ul-
Professor Dershowitz doesn't believe the com-
tra-Orthodox community will be the only Jew-
munity can survive much into the 21st century
ish community that thrives into the next
REVIEW
unless Jews become much more concerned
century. And while he acknowledges that its in-
about tlir demise. He believes Jews need to
sularity allows it to thrive, that insularity is un-
appreciate their faith and their heritage — not as
relics but as realistic ways of living. He believes they acceptable to him.
"I'm not writing for the fervently Orthodox, because
need to in-marry and to have more children — not be-
cause of the historic oppression and rejection by the out- they have solved their problem of Jewish continuity,"
side world but because being Jewish is a wonderful he said in a recent interview. "I am writing for the rest
of us who can't or won't."
thing. He says it over and over again.
Professor Dershowitz himself was raised in an Or-
And while the professor's argument is impassioned
F
thodox home, attended religious schools, and even lived
in an Orthodox fraternity in college. When he had his
first child at 25, he realized he was not a spiritual per-
son.
But he never rejected Judaism as a way of life. Pro-
fessor Dershowitz supports Jewish political causes, fills
his house with Jewish books, music and art, and open-
ly talks about his Judaism at Harvard, whose faculty
members are generally embarrassed by religion.
Yet, his eldest son married a non-Jew, a point that
occupies at least a chapter in The Vanishing American
Jew. The professor offers no explanation for his failure
as a Jewish parent. In fact, Jamin had everything a
Jewish kid should have: a great education and loving
parents.
That, then, is the heart of the dilemma. With the
tremendous mobility that has occurred in the last half
of the 20th century, Jews will out-marry and will choose
to have fewer children. It's a part of being free. ❑
-Julie Edgar
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