I recently published a review essay of Cynthia Baker’s fine book, Jew. It was originally published in Quest: Issues in Contemporary Jewish History 13 (August, 2018), and is reproduced below. I recently tried an experiment with my undergraduate class. “I know,” I told them, “that many of you would identify yourselves as Christian. What if, when I called on you, instead of using your name, I simply said, ‘Christian’?” The students looked slightly bemused. They agreed that it would feel a little odd but not offensive, and a few even ventured to say that they might vaguely like it. “Okay,” I continued, “I know that many of you would identify yourself as Jewish. What if, when I called on you, instead of using your name, I simply said, ‘Jew’?” The students were not at all bemused and shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. This they would not like at all, whether they were Jewish or not. Why did my students act that way? In Jew, Cynthia Baker sets out to answer that question. My students had their own answer: there are negative historical resonances to being called a Jew. Yet further discussion again landed us in confusion: the same person who […]
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