The whole thing lasted a couple of minutes and afterward I felt as if something overdue had happened, the end of an easy ride. It is a complicated time to be a British Jew, or a Jew of the global diaspora, shaped by different cultures with allegiances and affections that lately have been pulled wider apart...There are lots of us, I know, who hover on margins, whose adherence are not quickly definable, even in this time of disorder when the natural tendency is to try to neaten positions and make pigeonholes for beliefs.
There have always been agnostic kosher-keepers. There have always been observers of the Sabbath who'll sneak away after synagogue to watch Saturday football...There are Jews like me who can go for weeks at a time in a sort of nondenominational trance. There are Jews who slip beneath notice, who defy the general understanding of what a Jew is.
Collection
[
|
...
]