'A Jew cannot be defined by religion, race, or national identity: one is a Jew if a Gentile says one is a Jew.' (Lawrence D. Lowenthal)

This essay examines what it means to be Jewish, and will give further details about the different definitions of Jewishness found especially in America. It looks at the way Jewishness is presented in Arthur Miller’s novel Focus, and it examines whether Lowenthal’s definition of Jewishness is affirmed or challenged by novel.

2. Definitions of Jewishness

Jewish immigrants to America frequently tried to adapt their own culture to the American. The Jews were always concerned about their clothing and their behaviour and to make it fit into the American culture, they also tried not to be conspicuous by their different habits and holidays. In short, social integration was often one of the most highly valued goals. American Jews were always preoccupied with what the real Americans would think of them.

In the post-war American society it became more and more important what one personally achieved rather than what one was; and that is why Jewish identity, as a consequence of birth, became less relevant for the majority of Jews. This was especially the case for the successive American- born generations, for whom the Jewish identity, religion and traditions were less attached. While there is not one single explanation of Jewishness, this essay will describe some of the most common definitions of Jewish identity.

In 1952 Rabbi Morris Kertzer was asked for his definition of the Jewish identity in America; his answer was that the American Jews were really not different from the white, middle-class Christians around them. Kertzer said that they were tolerant, democratic and unabashedly American and, further, were characterized by a love of learning, the worship of God, and good deeds. 2

David Brauner has tried to define what a Jew is. In his book Post-War Jewish Fiction he mentions Harold Bloom, one of the most famous American Jewish critics, and his British counterpart George Steiner. Bloom complains about the tendency [on Jewish Studies courses] to plead that the Jewish condition is a special case amidst the rest of humanity […] when it fact it provides a paradigm against humanity. Steiner on the other hand pleads that Jewishness and the Jewish experience are unique. 3

² Samuel C. Heilman, Portrait of American Jews. The Last Half of the 20 ^th Century (Washington: University of Washington Press 1995).

³ David Brauner, Post-War Jewish Fiction. Ambivalence, Self-Explanation and Transatlantic Connections. (London: Palgrave 2001)

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Brauner raises a lot of different definitions of Jewishness but calls all of them into question. Some critics say being a Jew is defined by the consciousness of being a Jew, but does this still apply if that consciousness is deluded? Brauner mentions that the most generally accepted definition of Jewishness is that one is a Jew if one identifies him (or herself) as such. He also refers to the existing theory that Jewishness is a psychological trait. In the end, Brauner suggests that there is more than one definition of Jewish identity. He concludes, saying that “for some […] Jewishness is an innate, inalienable property, for others a learned tradition; for some, a belief system, for others a cultural construct; for some a race, for others a religion; for some a nationality, for others a sensibility; for some a historical legacy, for others a metaphysical state”(David Brauner 2001, p.3).

In his studies about Jewish identity Jean-Paul Sartre defines that “the Jew is one whom other men consider a Jew [… and that] it is the anti-Semite who makes the Jew” (David Brauner 2001, p. 38). He makes a distinction between authentic and inauthentic Jews. The inauthentic Jews are, like the protagonist in Focus, Gentiles that are mistaken as Jews by others and who are trying to run away from this unacceptable situation. Laurence J. Silberstein says in his work that to be Jewish means to identify with Jewish people and the Jewish cultural heritage ⁴ . He also says that the most important realm of Jewishness is the social and cultural sphere, and not the theological and metaphysical anymore.

3. Jewishness in Arthur Miller’s Focus

Lawrence Newman does not identify himself as a Jew when he first gets his new spectacles, although he does realise that they make his face look Jewish. He hopes that other people will not realise the change in his appearance.

When he sees himself for the first time in the mirror wearing his glasses, he sees a Jew and not ‘himself’. Although he is totally aware of that it is his own face that is reflected in the mirror, it seems to him as if it was the face of a stranger. “A long time he stood staring at himself, at his forehead, his chin, his nose. It took many moments of detailed inspection of his parts before he could see himself whole. […] In the mirror in his bathroom, the bathroom had used for nearly seven years, her was looking at what might properly be called the face of a Jew. A Jew, in fact, had gotten into his bathroom.”

⁴ Laurence J. Silberstein and Robert L. Cohn, eds, The Other in Jewish Thought and History (New York and London: New York University Press, 1994).

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