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{"id":1095,"date":"1999-09-08T08:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-09-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/1999\/09\/08\/generation-j\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T13:53:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T18:53:49","slug":"generation-j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/1999\/09\/generation-j\/","title":{"rendered":"Generation J"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It was a highly unorthodox service. The leaders of Aquarian Minyan \u2013 a \u201cJewish renewal\u201d flock near the University of California at Berkeley \u2013 spread pillows on the floor and asked worshippers to bring drums. While the Hebrew prayers remained safely foreign, Schiffman noted that an awkward word \u2013 \u201cGod\u201d \u2013 appeared frequently in the English parts of the rite.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t pray to God,\u201d she wrote afterwards. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I believe in God \u2013 so I substitute the words \u2018our highest selves.\u2019 That\u2019ll work for now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That was in 1996, before her diary evolved into \u201cGeneration J,\u201d a book that traces her wanderings through Judaism, alternative Judaism, New Age mysticism, Buddhism<\/a> and all points in between. This year, the young poet and Internet professional initially decided not to attend a Rosh Hashanah service. Then she was surprised to realize she might regret not joining other Jews to hear the ram\u2019s horn blast that opens the High Holy Days. The season begins at sundown Friday (Sept. 10) and ends with Yom Kippur on Sept. 20.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting comfortable thinking in terms of God being a kind of divine presence in our lives,\u201d said Schiffman. \u201c\u2018God has become a wide, wide word for me. That word means many things to me, now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This is what life is like for non-practicing Jews born after the Holocaust, she said. They are marrying non-Jews in record numbers. They are turning to other religions in record numbers. They attend classes about Judaism, but can\u2019t seem to join a congregation. Many Jews are even having doubts about the skepticism taught by their parents.<\/p>\n\n

Schiffman calls this phenomenon \u201cGeneration J.\u201d This is the \u201cgeneration of Jews who grew up with television, with Barbie, with rhinoplasty as a way of life. Millions of Jews \u2014 the unaffiliated, secular, atheist, indifferent, or simply confused \u2014 are lost. We can\u2019t say whether our Jewishness is a religion, a race, or a tribal remnant.\u201d Her conclusion is stark: \u201cWe can neither claim nor escape our Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

As Schiffman tells her story, the God of Abraham and Sarah does play a poignant role \u2013 captured in the voices of a diverse collection of Jews who describe their lives of faith, prayer, ritual, tradition and law. A woman who guides Schiffman through a ritual bath of cleansing \u2013 the mikvah \u2013 put it this way: \u201cThere is a God. There is a creator who created the world. He gave us instructions.\u201d An Orthodox jazz musician tells the writer: \u201cThe way to know God is to fulfill his will, and God\u2019s will for a Jew is to go to the Torah and follow the mitzvot. That\u2019s our path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Schiffman\u2019s response is blunt: \u201cI needed another way to God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

But she eventually takes a small leap of faith \u2014 nailing to the doorpost a mezuzah given to her by her husband. This is the small, ornate container that tells visitors they are entering a Jewish home. Inside is a parchment scroll and, by tradition, its first lines proclaim: \u201cListen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This was a highly symbolic step, said Schiffman. But it\u2019s also symbolic that, a few pages later, she finds herself sitting in a tattoo shop having her upper torso painted with a long, snaking vine in preparation for her naked role as the maiden of honor \u2014 sort of \u2014 in a friend\u2019s pagan wedding. Schiffman tells the artist to have the temporary tattoo end with a large Star of David on her back.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI know that I\u2019m not Orthodox,\u201d said Schiffman. \u201cI\u2019m not kosher and I still haven\u2019t joined a synagogue. I don\u2019t even know what the 613 mitzvot are that we are supposed to keep. I know that I have come a long way, but I still don\u2019t know where I am. But I am a Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"