Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

 

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is a fascinating book that takes on the issue of race or ethnicity in America and molds it into the paradigm of caste.  According to Wilkerson, most American ills can be traced to our devotion to caste, and the constantly changing nature of caste: the ruling white male elite in the United States has proven that they maintain and mold caste, and their superiority within it, since the European colonization of North America.

I am usually skeptical of meta-theories and one-answer-to-all problem scenarios, but it is hard to find fault with Wilkerson’s historical reasoning.  It makes more sense than racial theories of subjugation, in most cases.

Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story

 

Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt is a fascinating exploration of a question that does not occupy many people – and seems remote: why is there something, rather than nothing?  This is a remote concern: answering this question will not save the earth from the damage we have done or feed hungry people, but there is a place for such questions in human life.  Why are we here?  Why does the world exist?  Is there a purpose to our existence – and if so, how can we find it, and how do we even frame that question to get a meaningful answer?

Just take one idea from this book.  The Big Bang happened around 14 billion years ago.  That makes the universe not very old at all.  What was before it?  How does that make us related to time, the creation of the universe, and the “stuff” of the universe?

In this book, Holt takes on questions like these, and dozens of others.  All of this he does in an approachable manner.

Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas

 

Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas by Jeffrey Ostler is a detailed and well-documented history of the attempted (and sometimes effective) eradication of Native American tribes east of the Mississippi River before the Civil War.  

While the book focuses on the attempts of the US government and its citizens to force Native communities from their land, and often eradicate them as a people, this book highlights the successful attempts by many native groups to maintain their identity, power, and agency in the face of brutal dislocation. They survived genocide through a combination of strategic alliances, guerilla warfare, and sometimes the sheer luck of patterns of American settlement.  Ultimately, this is not so much the story of victims as survivors.

Shalom Eric, email from Jake D., 3-01-24

Shalom, Eric

Well, I asked you not to answer my email, but you did (I knew you would, but I had to ask)  – mercifully, your email was very short.  But still disturbing!  Do I have to drive to T-burg and take your shoelaces, belt, and the knives in your kitchen and hide them?  Seriously man, give me a call – immediately, if what you wrote is the true state of things. 

Barring that, let's get right back to 3, and call it, for the sake of clarity, 3b

3b. You do and have hated the concept of the Third Way, but if you look at this closely, there is no other option for Jews like you and me.  We are Americans – neither radically pro-Zionist nor anti-Zionist.  We hardly think of the Jewish state at all! We look on with horror as events unfold there, as the moral beings we are – but we are people caught in the middle.  But do we look on with any special horror?  Right now ethnic cleansing, murder, and sexual crimes (mass rapes) are happening in Sudan.  But no one pays attention.  Where is their special horror? Why is this catastrophe a lower moral priority for American Jews than Israel Palestine?  Ask yourself that.  But on to the main topic:  Why are we in the middle?  We belong to the first, or second-largest Jewish community in the world (depending on who is counting and how). And despite our numbers and influence, look at what the American Jew has become.  Either you are a cheerleader for Israel – and that is your primary Jewish Identity.  Or you find the Jewish state, and its actions, and even the fact that one exists, morally wrong, or repugnant.  But why must we be in either of those camps?  I know this dichotomy causes you much pain.  Let’s examine it a bit.

3c.  If you are in either camp, you are bound to Zionism – either for or against.  You tell me stories of the minyan you belong to, and a great deal of energy is spent on justice for the Palestinians.  OK.  That is noble.  But on the other side of town are the Jews you talk about (not at your shul) who hang their primary identity as Jews as Zionists.  Some, not all, do not consider anti-Zionist Jews, Jews, or more graciously, but still a nasty, mean-spirit, self-hating Jews.  As you know, I reject the entire structure.  From A-Z.  That is why we need the Third Way.  We need to create an authentic progressive Judaism (really Judaisms) right here in America.  We need our way.  A Third Way.  Why should we be tethered to a place we have never been?  Why must be Jews in the very place where our shoes touch the ground.

4.  Let’s tackle four tomorrow.  It is getting late.  Well, Sunday or Monday, after Shabbos.  What will I say: what does the Third Way look like? Well, preview [!] we are already doing it, but not calling it such.  So, I will leave you with that.  But I do want you to rest on the day of rest.  And I don’t just mean just your body – I mean your heart and soul.  The way you are heading now, well, it is not good my friend.  I say this out of the deep love I have for you.  You are so kind and generous… please treat yourself the same way!  Love & Shalom: JD