Memory， Identity， Sense of Belonging

【Abstract】The paper offers a study of Jewishness in America based on two short stories written by preeminent Jewish writers Philip Roth and Saul Bellow respectively. By pointing out the confusions and paradoxes existing in the Jewish identity in America， it drives at the conclusion that Jewish identity and the memory of the Holocaust past will never be written off by the inexorable passage of time.

【Key words】Jewish identity； Philip Roth； Saul Bellow

One theme that fascinates many Jewish writers is the assimilation and identity of Jews living in America. Here the word “identity” is adopted to encompass mainly three aspects， namely， cultural identity， social identity as well as personal identity. These Diaspora Jews living in America have somehow assimilated themselves into mainstream American culture in various ways and at different levels. Daniel J. Elazar has classified seven types of Jews living in America nowadays by drawing seven concentric circles that radiate outward from a core of committed Jews toward a vague sense of Jewishness on the fringes.

At the core are the “integral” Jews， for whom Jewishness is a central factor in their lives and a full-time concern. …Surrounding the core is a second group of U.S. Jews， the “participants，” who regularly engage in Jewish life and who view expressions of their Jewishness as important but not full-time activities. …The third circle is made up of “associated” Jews， who are affiliated with Jewish institutions or organizations in some concrete way but are not very active in them. …The fourth circle， “contributors and consumers，” consists of Jews who make periodic donations to Jewish causes and occasionally use the services of Jewish institutions， but who are at best minimally associated with the Jewish community. …The fifth circle includes what Elazar calls the “peripherals，” who are recognizably Jewish in some way but are completely uninvolved in Jewish life. They have no interest in participating in Jewish experiences and rarely make donations to Jewish causes. …The sixth circle， the “repudiators，” are Jews who actively deny their Jewishness. Some are extremely hostile to all things Jewish， while others simply react with hostility to their Jewish origins. …Finally， there is a group Elazar labels “quasi-Jews.” They are neither fully inside or entirely outside the Jewish community. They may have intermarried but have some connection to a personal Jewish label.

—“Jewish Cultural Identity in the United States”

Right at the bottom is “integral Jew”， who practices Hasidic observations and regard their Jewish link as their essential identity. The man wearing a black frock coat in Eli， the Fanatic is an orthodoxy Jew； Eli， the lawyer， after experiencing an epiphany when he dons the black garment， also becomes an ultra-orthodox Jew. Harry Fonstein， the Holocaust survivor in Bellarosa Connection， is also a case in point. While Billy Rose， the Hollywood impresario， belongs to the third category of Jews whose role is one of “contributor and donor”. Together with the “associated Jews”， represented by Ted Heller and Linda Berg and other Jewish clients of Elis in the community， who， even though were galvanized by the Holocaust in Europe and united against anti-Semitism， many of them felt an underlying imperative to discard what had outwardly marked them as Jews. They intervened with Tzurefs Talmud-teaching school and they felt ill at ease with the black garment Holocaust survivor. These two groups of people occupy almost 40-50% of Jews in America， the largest group when Saul Bellow wrote this novella. Meanwhile， the “integral” Jews only amount to 5% of the total number. Jewish identity is now facing a severe challenge from the encroachment of American culture and to a great extent， it is on the verge of extinction in America as more and more Jewish parents are inclined not to disclose to their American-born children of the inhuman sufferings and hideous and mind-numbing memories. Eli， the Fanatic and The Bellarosa Connection both deal with the Holocaust survivors and their conflict with the dissolution， dislocation and displacement when they confront a disparagingly apathy attitude in America， the ostracism， the injustice and the stigma of being different. As Fonstein is eager to meet and express heartfelt gratitude to his savior， Billy Rose is as eager to avoid any further relations with him. The epiphany Eli experienced after he don the black garment is in his wife and towns peoples eyes a nervous breakdown. Eli， now a changed man fully aware of his identity as a Jew is suffering the ostracism and alienation that the Holocaust survivors suffer. Eli， the real hero and wise man in the community is labeled as a fanatic by his own people. The story sheds light to an extremely harrowing reality that the suffering of the Jews continues， this time not from Hitler， but from other Jews， his or her brothers and sisters. This conflict of identity and lost of sense of belonging has very much to do with their different memories. The memories that the other Jews choose to get rid of in Eli， the Fanatic is matter-of-factly the only thing the Holocaust survivors have. In The Bellarosa Connection， memory stands at a pivotal position across the story. The narrator is the founder of a Mnemosyne institute whose sole concern is to train people from all walks of life their mnemonic competence and the novella revolves around memory， remembering and forgetting.endprint

In cognitive psychology， memory serves as an indispensable tool for the forming of identity. The disparities of mentality between different people have a lot to do with their various memories. Two kinds of memories contribute to the formation of ones self-identity and those who share the same memories have a proclivity to identity with each other as belonging to the same niche. There are episodic memory and semantic memory， which combining together form declarative memory. Episodic memory is the memory of autobiographical events like “The SS officers talked to a huge German shepherd as if it were human and I as if I am the dog and said ‘Menschen， bitss dem Hundt （People， bite that dog.）”. Semantic memory refers to the memory of meanings， understandings， and other concept-based knowledge unrelated to specific experiences like “The Nazis murdered six million Jews during the 1940s or Christopher Columbus found the “New World” in 1492”. Events that recorded into episodic memory may trigger episodic learning， i.e. a change in behavior that occurs as a result of an event. For example， a fear of dogs that follows being bitten by a dog is episodic learning. Since semantic memory includes generalized knowledge that does not involve memory of a specific event， the concept is not as penetrating as the episodic memory and will not trigger episodic learning only if that memory is brought into reality frequently and vividly enough. What genocide means to Shoah survivors is by all means different from that for assimilating Jews who have no direct experience of the inhumanities. People like Elis clients and Billy Rose have no idea of how far bigoted prejudice and extreme ambition can carry human beings to act savagely toward another race. The memory is all that these survivors have got after they have been deprived of their parents， relatives， and dignity as human beings， freedom and what not. They are eager to share this memory with other people， Jews and Gentiles alike， not for sympathy or compassion， but a warning and precaution that it never happens again. They have seen how deep human being can sink and how animalistic human being can be like. There is no gainsaying that they still harbor hope in the bright side of human nature； they believe there are more good people than bad ones and by the free will inherent in all of us， we could shun evil and take up our personal responsibilities to fight against intolerance and bigotry.

The Jewish community is intolerant of the same Jews who happen to live in Europe when the darkest time of humanity occurs. They equate “different” with “inferior” and “threatening”. They refuse to identify with their own people and want to have nothing to do with the suffering of their less fortunate fellow Jews. After engaging with memories of manifold sorts for so many years， the narrator of The Bellarosa Connection considers about forgetting about remembering. Perhaps it is because the memories are so horrible to keep and the detrimental effects on their posterity far outweigh its benefits. It seems that the end of The Bellarosa Connection is abrupt and that nothing is concluded. This indeterminacy and confusion is the predicament American Jews are confronting with. They are facing a severe challenge not only the anti-Semitism from gentiles， but more often than not， from its own people. American Jewishness has come to a juncture； it is on the verge of extinction as the “melting pot” is encroaching every inch of their culture. It can also retain this uniqueness because there are still people out there， like Eli and Fonstein and Sorella， who will die trying to protect this culture and memory from elimination. It is extremely hard to do so in a foreign land like America where assimilation is happening everyday. The narrators sudden aphasia about remembering the name of a river in the novella reflects even the most competent mnemonic expert has to grapple with the lost of memory as well as perspective and identity. There are Jews in America who are as lost as those murdered in Europe. Both stories are optimistic in tone about the future of American Jewishness and both try to convey the message that we should keep the memories about the past to prevent inhuman things happening again. Apathy and silence will not be the right attitude； more and more Jews need to be aware of their identities and speak up their voices to protect the quality of our humanity.

References：

[1]Elane Norych Geller.The Holocaust and Its Lessons：A Survivors Story.

[2]Samuel M.Edelman.“To Pass or Not to Pass，That Is the Question：Jewish Cultural Identity in the United States”.

[3]喬國強.美國猶太小說中的兩種基本人物類型（英文）[J].英美文學研究論叢，2007（01）.

作者簡介：劉可，男，文學碩士，鄭州航空工業(yè)管理學院外國語學院教師，助教。