Jordi Mendez-Paris

Professor Nochomovitz

FIQWS 10115

6 December 2023

Jewish communities and families in America are the product of a long line of mass immigration from Europe, for many reasons ranging from better work opportunities, education, and escaping persecution. Regardless of the reason, Jewish individuals, families, and communities in America share a common challenge, with that being weather or not to assimilate into American society. This also comes with another set of problems, namely how the people around them feel about their connection to the Jewish faith. While there is freedom of religion in America, Jews still come into these types of conflicts with others within their own background and surroundings. Others may argue that assimilation into American society is good for Jews as a whole and unites them through unique experiences. In the short stories “Eli the Fanatic” by Philip Roth and “What Must I Say to You” by Norma Rosen, the authors utilize the protagonists to argue that assimilation into American society directly challenges traditional Jewish faith and culture, and the divide that assimilation creates proves to be the main source of contention in Jewish families and communities in America.

Understanding the conflict of division regarding Jewish assimilation into American society requires consideration of various factors. Factors such as trauma, fear, upbringing, personal beliefs and other external factors all influence how one connects to their religion and how they choose to embrace and present it. Both Eli Peck from “Eli, the Fanatic” and the unnamed protagonist (I’ll call her Susan’s mother for simplicity) from “What Must I Say to You” struggle with their Jewish identity, which explains their actions and the clash with more observant Jews in their respective stories. Their behaviors represent the divide that assimilation causes, with Eli and Woodenton’s pestering of the Orthodox Jews about the Yeshivah, and Susan’s mother’s disagreement with her husband over the mezuzah and publicly displaying the fact that they’re Jewish. The common occurrence in both texts is that the more assimilated/ “westernized” Jewish people feel uncomfortable with the European Orthodox Jews and their practices.

Upbringing, or how someone is raised is explored in the context of American and European Jews. In “What Must I Say to You”, Susan’s mother is reluctant to recognize or practice anything related to being Jewish, despite being married to a more religious Jew. In fact, she feels conflicted on whether to tell her maid, Mrs. Cooper, that she’s Jewish since she personally doesn’t connect to the religion, but also doesn’t practice any other faith. This is made apparent during Christmas season with the family’s lack of a Christmas tree. In a conversation with her husband about the topic, she worries, and says “I don’t feel like making any announcements…but I suppose I should. She’ll wonder…”, to which her husband replies by saying he believes she doesn’t need to, but she ends up changing her mind to be honest (Rosen 206). She then reveals to Mrs. Cooper that they’re a Jewish family, stating “We don’t attend church. We go—at least my husband goes—to a synagogue. My husband and I are Jewish” (Rosen 206). The language and tone she uses when saying this reveals that she isn’t too connected to the religion, since she corrects herself when saying that her family goes to a synagogue, to just her husband–but it also signals that she is confused about her identity, switching from identifying and not identifying as Jewish. Later in the story, it is revealed why this is the case. When her husband asks to put the mezuzah on the door and subsequently reads part of the bible explaining what the mezuzah symbolizes, she rejects it. He asks, “Didn’t they(her family) go to a synagogue?”, to which she replies “My grandmother did. My grandfather did, too, but then I remember he stopped. He’d be home on holidays, not at the services…My parents were the next generation. And I’m the generation after that. We evolved” (Rosen 211). This conversation reveals that her lineage has been in America for generations, with a lifestyle so different from European Orthodox Jews that her family slowly assimilated into American society. They came to America and picked up new American values, replacing traditional Jewish ones. The phrase “We evolved” also shows that she views more traditional Judaism as something old-fashioned, revealing the disconnection in this Jewish family created by assimilation and losing connection with one’s roots’.

In “Eli, the Fanatic” by Philip Roth, upbringing also plays an important role in the story. The town of Woodenton as well as Eli and his wife, Miriam, are all Jews assimilated into the contemporary Christian-Protestant American lifestyle. The issue of assimilation arises when the town hires Eli Peck, a lawyer, to attempt to remove the Orthodox Jews that just bought a mansion since they believe that their practices and lifestyle are disturbing. In Eli’s letter to headmaster Leo Tzuref, the man in charge of the Yeshivah, he states “…what most disturbs my neighbors are the visits to town by the gentlemen in the black hat, suit, etc. Woodenton is a progressive suburban community whose member…are anxious that their families live in comfort and beauty and serenity. This is, after all, the twentieth century, and we do not think it too much to ask that the members of our community dress in a manner appropriate to the time and place.” (Roth 261). The town is uncomfortable by Jewish traditions and practices because it’s out of the ordinary to be so religious. The word “progressive” in this context symbolizes that the people of Woodenton view the Orthodox Jews as people stuck in time. Escalating the situtaion, Eli makes a proposal. He states “Jews and Gentiles alike have had to give up some of their more extreme practices in order not to threaten or offend the other…Perhaps if such conditions had existed in prewar Europe, the persecution of the Jewish people, of which you and those 18 children have been victims, could not have been carried out with such success—in fact it might not have been carried out at all” (Roth 262). The divide between the Orthodox Jews and the assimilated Jews can be represented by the people’s hostility towards the Orthodox Jews in this letter, as the disconnect is loud and clear. Eli blaming the Jews for the Holocaust because of their different lifestyle shows how deep the divide is in Jewish America, as well as proving that Jews assimilated in America hold beliefs that go against or don’t tolerate traditional. Simply put, the different lifestyles cause the two types of Jews to be at constant tension.

Fear and trauma are other important reasons why people in the Jewish people in America are divided and choose whether to assimilate or not. In “What Must I Say to You”, handling the fear of persecution is one of the main differences between the husband and Susan’s mother. While the husband himself was directly affected by the Holocaust, his wife wasn’t, but the way they process it impacts their perspectives. While her husband isn’t scared of outwardly showing he is Jewish, she is deeply terrified, saying “I have read about concentration camps and killings are buried in the small, intense lives of my husband’s family…Why am I more bitter than my husband about his own experiences?” (Rosen 212). They talk a bit more about the experience and she is revealed to be fearful, thinking to herself “How is it my husband doesn’t know after this there can be no mezuzahs?” to which he replies, “Its too painful to quarrel” (Rosen pp.212-13). Thinking back to the beginning, this fear of facing antisemitism contributes to her desire to not tell Mrs. Cooper that she is Jewish, since she doesn’t find it necessary to reveal as she isn’t connected much, and she fears the worst-case scenario if everyone knew she was Jewish. However, the husband thinks of it differently, since he is connected to his religious identity and views America as a place to freely practice without any fear, since the Jews rarely ever got that in Europe. The different ways of thinking further prove that differences in values between the two types of Jews challenge each other. This symbolizes the divide between assimilated American Jews and more observant Jews, as they see America as an opportunity to live without persecution by blending in or using their religious freedom respectively. 

In “Eli, the Fanatic”, the fear is handled similarly with the man in the hat being forced to comply with Eli’s proposal to ditch the black suit and wear a green one. In another conversation with Tzuref,  referring to the man in the suit, he says “To take away the one thing a man’s got? Not take away, replace“(Roth 264). Eli is requesting to strip the man of his identity and thus his religion with his request for him to dress like everyone else. After providing the man with his own green suit, Eli receives the man’s black suit on his doorstep and that’s when reality sets in. He thinks to himself “The greenie was saying, Here, I give up. I refuse to even be tempted. We surrender” (Roth 286).  He feels guilty of what he’s done, using threats to scare the man into complying and basically “giving up” his religion, which influences him to put on the clothes. The text states “Eli…stood draped in black, with a little white underneath, before the full-length mirror… To calm himself he walked out the back door and stood looking at his lawn” (Roth 286). It is here where Eli breaks and sympathizes with the Orthodox Jews, and attempts to apologize, which fails since the people of Woodenton believe he’s lost his mind and “The greenie made a run for it” (Roth 291). The community of Woodenton “feared” the newness of the Orthodox and the Orthodox feared having nowhere to go. The division runs deeply.

These two short stories clearly represent the divide in Jewish America caused by assimilation. In “What Must I Say to You” by Norma Rosen, the clash of beliefs is shown to heavily influence identity and familial relationships. In “Eli, the Fanatic”, the divide is shown to effect one’s wellbeing, identity, and large amounts of people at once, with the Orthodox Jews and Woodenton community being affected. In both short stories, the protagonists face complex emotions regarding Judaism and their decision to reject it. With Eli, despite his revelation, he gets sedated when he visits his newborn son after everyone believes he is experiencing a mental breakdown, including his wife (Roth 298). With Susan’s mother, after Mrs. Cooper breaks the bottle, she realizes their arguing isn’t going to solve anything, and says “Let’s not quarrel at all…but especially not the entrance to our home” and becomes open to learning about her Jewish roots, putting up the mezuzah, and it ends with her husband telling her and Mrs. Cooper about the story of Passover (Rosen 215). Despite the different problems in each story, the protagonsts more or less act similarly and come around by the end of each story. 

Understanding the relationship of Jewish assimilation into American society can be difficult as it involves looking at different things. Things like past experiences, fears, how you were brought up, personal beliefs, and outside influences all play a part in how people connect to their religion and show it to others. It’s a mix of these things that shapes how Jewish identity is seen and how individuals balance tradition and blending into American culture. Recognizing these various factors is important for grasping the diverse experiences of Jewish people as they navigate the complexities of holding onto their heritage while fitting into American society. Philip Roth and Norma Rosen successfully showcase how underlying factors influence or are influenced by assimilation, the main source of conflict, which greatly impacts families and communities in America.