i-rant

On an airplane on my way from ATL to Las Vegas

What do you believe – on being Jewish from a mixed background. Is it your culture, a religion, inspired or required?
Reading Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler I’m remembering the stories I have read for years, as Bruce did to start the journey – wondering if they were history or myth, fact or fiction. On page 184 he finally confronts the “main character” God. Up until this point he has been covering historical figures like a news reporter tracing clues and places, situations and opinions. Between Sa el-Hagar and the Suez Canal – on the journey to the parting of the Red Sea he recants Gods change from working through people in the bible to a direct commandment that we observe Passover to remember the Exodus.

Now I’m back to my persistent discontent with Judaism, Not the Judaism of the Reform movement to some extent, but tradition. If Reform is inclusive – making it more of a religion then a culture. If it is what I once learned of Napoleon’s nationalistic command to the French Jews – If you are Frenchmen first and Jews second, then you are free to stay. A nationality within a nationality doesn’t work – it breeds jealousy, exclusion and hatred. It prevents a leader from total control as well.  And this may be the biggest problem for Jews through history – the same force that has held the culture together, the religion together, is the same force that has made so many to hate the Jews. For most cultures do not allow for both – most countries controlled their people with Religion.

So for me this is my biggest source of discontent. For so many Jews – bloodlines are important. Most will say it is to combat assimilation – and the eventual disappearance of the Jewish people and faith. Some gentiles say it is an arrogance and source of exclusionary power designed to consolidate wealth and power – a wealth and power within each society they live that is a club few really can join. I have the bloodline – it’s thin but it is valid. My mother’s mother was a ‘purebred’ Jew – if that makes sense. My father is a ‘purebred’ Greek – if that makes sense. But how can it make sense – how can it be possible or probable. All cultures blend, my mother’s father is Italian – or Sicilian, really. He is the only of my grandparents that is living. He will tell you that no one from Sicily really knows what being Sicilian means. And that is my point – and my problem, and my pleasure. Any one of these people could be mixed from any other culture of the world. My love of of God and Judaism comes from my heart, what I have read in Torah and the teachings and laws of these stories. Do I believe them all to be true, does it matter what tribe I am from? It upsets me when I am asked – “Charanis, is that Saphartic?” It’s a test, a hidden probe of validity. Maybe, maybe not. I am what I am…I believe what I believe…
Greeks (Charanis):
Grandpa was directly from Limnos, Greece – an island not far from Turkey
Grandma’s ancestors are from Sparta, but from Main, USA
Italians (Capizzi):
Grandpa’s parents came from Sicily and surrounding islands.
Jews (Waldman):
Grandma’s parents came from Hungary
Wandering Eastern-European Jews could and probably did come from Mesopotamia originally, or fled form Spain or traveled from Greece. They could have been Jews in the land of Israel or what was Israel occupied by first Greeks, then Romans, then German Crusaders, then English Crusaders, then they finally (having enough) left and traveled north. They could have intermarried during the Greek Empire, Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire. They could have thrived under the Ottoman Empire and practiced Judaism all the while the Moslems built their culture and power. They could have been silent Jews during the inquisition and fled after; or, powerful Jews in the Holly Roman Empire or Germanic Kingdoms handling the money for the royals because good Christians didn’t do that. Maybe they had latched on to Alexander as he marched through Asia from Persia and stayed in what is now Hungary. Maybe a Jewish princess married a Greek warrior in Alexander’s army, convinced him that there was only one God and settled in for marriage and babies and life as it has been lived in a nuclear family for millions of years.
Sicilians living on the islands off of the tip of ‘the boot’ were also people of the sea. Through history they have lived under the rule of Greeks, Romans, North Africans, Arabs – whoever took their ships to this land and saw the beautiful beaches or mined the marble and pumice and said – this is for me. These were strong people with an unmatched survival mentality. They took the gods of the Greeks, then the Romans, then the God of the Germans who embraced Roman Catholic Church built from a crumbling empire revived as the Holly Roman Empire split from the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps a Greek sailor from an island in the Aegean or a Jew from the land of Israel boarded a ship and landed in Sicily. Perhaps a daughter of a Greek soldier in Sparta fed up with the oppressive colony culture of that city stowed away on a trading ship to Sicily. Perhaps this daughter and that sailor married because they were both people of the world with a common spirit; the spirit that draws any man and woman together – to live, to love and to build a family.
Greeks in Sparta were strong willed and relentless fighters. The colony-mentality of the Spartans thought as a unit, freedom was freedom from choice. Resources for the common good were gained through power and war. Needs were – well, “Spartan” and goals were basic and focused.  The Athenians had the deep thinkers and politicians that discussed all matters of great importance and fought wars with the Spartans and other city-states until all resources, solutions and eventually their young men were exhausted. Not so different then our country and the Arabs?
Greeks of the islands were the People of the Sea in many historica texts and biblical stories. They could have been from Troy, Turkey, Asia Minor or Greece. It all depends on the time and place in history. What I do know is that I felt very comfortable sitting on a patio at a bar in Lemnos sipping coffee and talking philosophy with a complete stranger. Turkes, Greeks or misplaced people from Crete – This is the stuff of Homer. The Greeks in the Aegean were people of the sea. They traveled to the coast of Egypt during biblical times, and Turkey (Troy) during the time of Odysseus. They left soldiers and settlers everywhere. They joined forces with the Athenians and eventually the Mesopotamians under Alexander. The Greeks conquered all of eastern Asia, Eastern Europe, and yes Sicily. Alexander took it further east to Persia and Israel. Any one of these people I have described were all a part of this same Greek culture under Alexander’s Empire and could have met at any point in history.

So I am my own culture – it is a powerful story and a common thread to what is common among all of us. Humanity is the act of living, loving, traveling, growing and gaining. Most of all it is a faith in the future, a desire to grow and know. Know what makes things go. Know what makes things as they are. It is human to wonder and it is human to recognize greatness. There are so many things about life that create the desire to know what could possibly be behind it all. The idea that this is one big accident is fathomable but unlikely. The idea that we know right from wrong and that evil exists to be confronted and controlled through a faith in the future. This for me is the essence of my faith in one God and one force of nature. I do not want to cloud it with idols or kings or spiritual leaders. I do not need to base this faith on identified miracles and individuals who were spontaneously born or possessed to change and control a culture.

This is the only part of my discontent as a Jew. This is why I shy away from the culture of my Jewish heritage; because it is not the same for me. My culture is a blend of all that we know of history in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. When people ask me if I’m a Jew I say yes – I practice Judaism as it is the one religion that I can find enough of a connection to God as a force of nature and the one truth of humanity. The truth is that we should just be nice, simply follow the golden rule. So it is not because my grandmother’s people were genetically Jewish – it is because of the underlying message that resonates thorough every story in the Torah and the teachings it has spawned.

As Hillel stated on one foot under the skepticism of one who had not studied – “That which is hurtful to you don’t do to others. The rest is commentary, now go study.” This is the underlying message I want to be in the back of my head when I make any decision, teach my children, go about my work or play with others. It is not enough to follow the rules or follow your dreams – we live and depend on others and as long as there is that interdependence there must be that one key rule. That rule is God; it is our conscious and our guide. It is the spirit that spawned our ability to grow and conquer the world. It is not war and hatred that create but cooperation and love that make people and allow them to survive. It is so simple and yet so hard to follow. That is why there is a Torah, a God and what we call Religion. It is a look from your mother, a guiding hand from your father, an kiss from your wife or husband and a hand from your fellow man.
So I am not a Jew simply because my people came from an ancient tribe in Israel, I am a Jew because it was a gift given to me by my Grandmother on my thirteenth birthday in the form of the poem “IF” and the logic and reason I have learned by studying Torah.