The wildly popular blog, “Stuff White People Like,” has spawned a number of spin-offs, including, “Stuff Young Jewish Adults Like.” On this list of ninety-six you will find high scorers such as “writing for television” (#5), “Ultimate Frisbee” (#4), “National Public Radio” (#10), “having Catholic friends” (#25), “Jewish Geography” (#21) and “ordering ‘special’ meals” (#18). Like its forbear, this list is complete with photos and fairly lengthy explanations of how and why each of these items is beloved by JYAs (Jewish Young Adults), as the website’s shorthand reads.
“Stuff White People Like,” became a sensation in certain circles; you’d be bound to hear people proclaim, “that’s so true!” about such an accurate list. However, “Stuff White People Like,” might be more accurately titled, “Stuff Upper Middle Class People Like.” Certainly this isn’t always the case but more than being based on color, this list seems to be based on class. If you really press the question: what is it about white people that makes them like all these things, it is often education, a certain urban experience or sensibility, worldliness or cosmopolitan taste and, a certain socio-economic status. It seems not to be something inherent about whiteness itself that provides the basis for this list but rather a certain sub-population group that is, financially, fairly well off.
The same critical eye should be used to consider “Stuff Young Jewish Adults Like.” Does this list shed light on something at the core of Jewishness? And, when it says, “Jewish Young Adults,” should it really read “Jewish Young Adults living in a certain part of the country, with a certain degree of religious observance and a certain level of education and economic comfort?” How certain are we that this list is inclusive and if it’s not, does it somehow reflect on the un-hip-ness of what is excluded?
A few items pop out immediately as presuming a level of religious observance, most notably, “dabbling in religiosity” (#58). For one to dabble in religiosity, which the blog claims to be a rite of passage for any JYA, necessarily means one cannot be born into it, or maintain it. Depending on your definition of religiosity, this cuts out a lot of Jews, including those who have never “dabbled” in it, although, of course, there are always some exceptions.
On the other hand, there are many items that seem to, albeit with some more elaboration, actually touch on something unique and specific about Jews. For instance, “Jewish Geography,” a custom of name exchanges when you meet a new Jew (do you know ______, he lives in your town?) displays the connectivity and surprisingly small degrees of separation between Jews in America and around the world. A useful question to figure out how Jewish this game is would be: could another religious or ethnic group play this game with the same success? What about this game is distinctly Jewish?
One element seems to be that JYAs like “organizing themselves” (#6). Between religious minyans and congregations, youth groups, cultural groups, non-profit organizations, Jewish community centers, Jewish federations, social networking and the list goes on, it seems that Jews create spaces and opportunities to promote this interconnectedness and explore different aspects of their Jewishness together. This idea is intimately related to the Jewish Diaspora, which has spread the Jewish community to all corners of the earth so that you could go to Argentina or Mumbai and find Jews there with whom to try Jewish Geography, though how successfully I’m not sure.
Yet Diaspora also seems notable as the word refers to a spreading, a dispersion and, whether this desire is thoroughly accepted by all Jews, there is a sense that we were scattered from one unit and so, should aspire to eventually return to this one unit. Without going too deeply into the ideas of homeland, exile and Diaspora, a fruitful, but different discussion, that sense may account for the type of organizing and interconnectivity that leads to a startlingly productive round of Jewish Geography.
There might be a tendency to categorize this list as more precisely referring to “cultural” Jews, however this term is highly problematic as it begs the question, do non-cultural Jews, let’s say “religious” Jews, not have culture, and if they do, is it the same culture as the “cultural Jews?”
Still I want to balance my critique with giving some credit where it’s due; I do think many of the items on the list are fitting for most American Jewish young adults, and, as this blog is balancing humor with accuracy, I think it’s both funny enough and true enough to deserve notice. However, for a more serious, critical analysis I think it’s necessary to keep asking, why is this stuff Jewish, in the same way we should ask of “Stuff White People Like,” why is this stuff white? While the whiteness is mostly substitutable for class, I do believe that getting to the root of the whys in this newer blog may reveal some valuable insights about Jews and Jewishness today.
But check it out yourself and I’ll leave it here, having reliably confirmed another thing Jewish young adults like, “writing about themselves” (#13).
- Liz
