The Last of the Euro-Semites

I define myself as a six-thousand-year-old European.
- Irving Layton

The name Kafka is both Hebrew, from Jakov-Jacob, and Czech. Kavka, spelled with v, is the Czech word for black bird. . . . The Jews' gratitude to the Emperor was enormous and their loyalty to Habsburg intense. Kafka's first name offers a good example. His parents named him Franz, token of their affection for Franz Josef.
- Walter H. Sokel, "Kafka as a Jew"

Of course "Semite" refers to the speaker of a language group and was turned into a racial epithet by a German pedant. That being said, "Semite" in the broader sense has its use. Middle Eastern nationalities that share certain linguistic, cultural and yes, racial affinities can be categorized as Semitic. These include Arabs and Hebrews, but also other nationalities that were either assimilated or decimated in the wake of the Islamic wars of expansion: Assyrians, Arameans, Chaldeans, Phoenicians (arguably still around in Lebanon) and others.

Nowadays most Jews accept the designation "Semite" with humour, indifference or pride. Zionism has reestablished the center of Jewish life in the Middle East, and with that has come a realignment in identity. Ashkenazi Jews who sought inclusion in European society were once dismissed as being irredeemably "other." Since Ashkenazi Jews had been in Europe for over a thousand years, had begun learning European languages and adjusting to European culture, this was a mortal blow to their honour. "If Europe doesn't want us, we'll build our own Europe in the Middle East!" said Theodor Herzl (not in those words). Zionism was a result of the failure of assimilation.

Yet the nature of the Zionist project changed. Instead of building a Jewish France or Germany in Palestine, Zionists began rebuilding Israel: the original Hebrew state. Thus they rejected the Germanic-infused "language of exile," Yiddish, in favour of purely Semitic Hebrew. Of course so many years in Europe could not be erased overnight. Arabs still accuse Israelis of being transplanted Europeans, pointing quite rightly to suspicious signs of Europeaness like lighter skin and a functioning democracy. Yet from an objective standpoint, Israel is a Semitic country speaking a Semitic language and practicing a Semitic religion: it belongs in the Middle East.

But do I? I am an Ashkenazi Jew and Canadian citizen whose grandparents emigrated from the Russian pale of settlement. I do not speak Hebrew or consider myself culturally Middle Eastern. Zionists would say that I should migrate to Israel, learn Hebrew and become who I really am. But that is not really who I am. My homeland is Ashkenaz, what historian Howard Sachar called a "Semitic archipelago" in a Slavic and Germanic sea; and Ashkenaz no longer exists. I do not belong in the Middle East, I "belong" in exile. Other Jews may find in Israel the homecoming they were looking for; I have not.

I do not deny my heritage, but that heritage is not simply Semitic: it is Euro-Semitic. I belong neither here nor there. The geniuses of Ashkenaz used the sense of being "neither here nor there" to produce great works of art and to live lives of poetry and passion. I will not reject the Europe of my ancestors even if it rejected them. I will not reject the Middle East of my contemporaries even if it continues to reject them. Nor will I throw myself into North American culture, the melting pot that makes all races orange-skinned and all calfs golden. God's answer to Moses is the one true fount of identity: Ehyeh asher ehyeh. I am that I am.

Comments

  1. DudeMay 3, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    "Nor will I throw myself into North American culture, the melting pot that makes all races orange-skinned and all calfs golden."

    Amen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. latté islandMay 3, 2009 at 10:41 PM

    I think the exile of Ashkenazis who don't want to live in the middle east is curable. We are a people whose culture was formed by living as outsiders in Europe. In order to be an Israeli Zionist, one has to reject one's own culture and history (just as the early Zionists suppressed Yiddish, even though they've changed their minds lately).

    I think we need our own state. Even if it can't be done, it's grounding to at least recognise this. If I understand your blog, you're saying that exile is our natural state. I'm saying, we're in exile because we don't have land.

    You said in another post that it's not enough for the tax collector to look like you. My position is that it's extremely important for the tax collector to look like you. Human nature being what it is, someone who looks different is going to pay more, one way or another.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DudeMay 4, 2009 at 12:40 PM

    I smell misapprehension.

    ReplyDelete
  4. latté islandMay 4, 2009 at 9:32 PM

    Dude, how about explaining it instead of being cryptic, if you're referring to my comment. If you can explain my misapprehension, I'll change my position.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ¡Benjaminista!May 4, 2009 at 10:06 PM

    You might say I'm more interested in geist than in volk. It used to be that if someone looked like you, they also shared your geist - but modernity changed that. Obama has more in common with Bush than either do to a bushman. I'm not saying race doesn't exist; I'm saying spirit is more important. And to paraphrase Nietzsche, the spirit begins where the state ends.

    ReplyDelete

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