The article is a "too-cool-for-school" look at young Jews and how they're taking back their Judaism. But while reading it, mostly, I thought...Y-A-W-N. Every couple of months, I see an article like this and I think the same thing: B-O-R-I-N-G with an added eye roll.
Look, I love some of the innovations mentioned in this piece: the G-dcast cartoons---which I love and always put up on my blog--and Limmud (I've attended their conferences for three years straight) but I just don't know how these type of articles apply to converts. Mostly, they don't. I think that's the point.
These type of articles are packaged for (and usually, about, with few acceptions) born Jews who were bored with Judaism and from a convert's perspective, didn't know how good they had it.
Heeb Magazine (most notable for dressing up Rosanne Barr as Hitler recently) and comedian Sarah Silverman, both mentioned in this article, are really gross. Why this article mentions them in the same breath as G-dcast and Limmud is truly beyond me. Heeb is about serving up some kind of ethnic Judaism life while Sarah Silverman is about defying the "nice Jewish girl" mystique by working her potty mouth. G-dcast and Limmud...are actually trying to get people to learn something about JUDAISM!
I think there is something really sad, watching from the wings as a convert, about the fact that "without anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, Israel (um, did Israel disappear?), liberating Soviet Jewry)," that young Jews feel they don't have something to gather around. Um, it's called Judaism, people. It's been around for over 2,000 years and it doesn't need a "cause," is about a personal relationship with G-d, hello?!
While young Christians in America are making a comeback (wearing their chastity rings on Disney, asking "What Would Jesus Do?" and becoming a united voting block), young Jews are...watching Sarah Silverman and reading Heeb. Is anyone else worried?
