The Jewish Intellectual Situation

This is a fabulous essay written by the editors of n+1 on the current proliferation of Jewish literary magazines, and their value and influence over what Jews are talking about and how we are trying to be seen right now. To paraphrase, Heeb is the juvenile and rebellious Jew trying to start a fight with anyone religious, Guilt and Pleasure has been unable to talk about anything of significance about the Jewish people or the current conflict and seems to be resting on the laurel that "while Jews may appear slouchy and neurotic, we're actually undeniably fabulous," Nextbook (while employing a great number of talented Jewish writers) is shackled by its mission to only write essays about Jewish thought (as if Jewish thought appeared in a vacuum where goys did not exist) and everything else is too provincial to warrant critique ("provincial" being the favored word of anyone trying to sound smart in a literary magazine).

The essay ends on an excellent note, and one I've felt since forever: that if, as a people oppressed, the Jews are not able to stand up for the oppressed everywhere, we have completely forgotten what it means to be a Jew. These endlessly self-referential magazines, with their self-revering tone, are too hypocritical and riddled with internal contradictions to survive very long.

No good can come of it, but maybe this: That our nationalism—racism, even—finally allowed unfettered expression on these American shores, will burn itself out as its contradictions become clearer. No one can look at Heeb, or the "Superjew" and "Yo Semite" T-shirts, without feeling ashamed—even if that magazine and those T-shirts are themselves products of that feeling of shame and are meant as a rebuke to it. The greatness of this people was also that it once believed its experience of oppression to be a universal one, and its fortunes tied to all those who are oppressed. There are many ways back to that belief, including through ethnic particularism, if one wants to find that way. Otherwise secular Jews deserve to become like people of Scottish descent: to wear yarmulkes twice a year like kilts, and toot shofars like bagpipes, calling no one back to righteousness.