The Wicked Son

"The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Jewish self-hatred, and the Jews" is a collection of essays by playwright David Mamet, published by Nextbook/Schocken in 2006. (ISBN 9780805242072)

ummary

In the Passover Seder, four different sons ask a question. The wicked son asks, “What does this ritual mean to you?’’ To you, and not to him, because he is not willing to share the fate of the Jewish people.

David Mamet addresses this book “To the Jews…whose favorite Jew is Anne Frank…who bow the head reverently at a baptism and have never attended a bris – to you, who find your religion and race repulsive, your ignorance of your history a satisfaction, here is a book from your brother.”

Mamet confronts his readers: “The world hates Jews.” “The world hates you.” “In or out.” In or out – are you brave enough to be Jewish or not?

He then gives his own personal, unapologetic explanation of Israel’s situation. Unlike more familiar defenses of Israel that are full of facts, such as those by Alan Dershowitz in "The Case for Israel", Mamet focuses on what he sees as the anti-Semitic psychology and underlying double standards of attacks on Israel. For example, he writes: “The everyday announcements of the so-called ‘cycle of violence’ in Israel are race slander, a pro-forma reminder of the availability of the Jews as an object of disgust.” ["The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Jewish self-hatred", Nextbook/Schocken, 2006. p.6] He sees antisemitism in “the inability to assign to Israelis a basic humanity…the happy assignment of wicked motives to the Israeli soldier.” He underlines the double standard of antisemitism: “…’reprisals’…’retaliation’…the very words are revelatory, for such actions by the United States are known as ‘defense’…” ["The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Jewish self-hatred", Nextbook/Schocken, 2006. p. 11]

He sees the media portrayal of Israel as “a modern instance of the blood libel- that Jews delight in the blood of others.” ["The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Jewish self-hatred", Nextbook/Schocken, 2006. p. 12]

He decries the hypocrisy that won’t admit this truth: “The Jewish State has offered the Arab world peace since 1948; it has received war, and slaughter, and the rhetoric of annihilation.” [ibid, p. 13]

“It is a country, and like any country, will make mistakes.” [ibid, p. 47] Yet as Mamet sees it, Israel is “not by proof, but by the mere process of indictment, excluded from the family of humankind.”

Mamet then goes on to analyze what happens when Jews abandon loyalty to their religion and tradition in order, as he sees it, to find acceptance in Israel-bashing liberal society. It is the sin of the spies, a ‘coward generation’ with a ‘lack of belief in God.’ People have a drive to worship something, and will fill the void left by rejecting God by worshipping sports, celebrities, ‘wealth, fame, status, sex, physical fitness, good works, human perfectibility.” (p62) In the lavish bar mitzvah, Mamet sees the sin of the golden calf: in the absence of God, lapsed Jews worship Man, power, gold. It is self-worship, the idolatry of human power. [idib, p. 111]

In disowning themselves, cowardly liberal Jews lose the ‘sense of shared purpose’ bestowed by a Jewish identity [ibid, p. 135] ), which could be an antidote to the rootlessness and meaninglessness Mamet sees in the Hollywood Jews around him. They reject Jewishness and suffer the anxiety, loneliness and loss that results.

Losing their Jewish identity and tribal life is the loss of belonging. Like the love of one’s spouse, a belonging that requires service, attention, ethical lessons of controlling one’s fear and anger – and all the wonderful gifts of having an object of devotion. ( [ibid,p. 137] ) They lose the rights and responsibilities of every Jew: love of community, love of knowledge, the joy of immersion in history, the thirst for group approval, the mutual devotion. They lose the Jewish joys of filial piety, honor, tradition. They lose the joys of responsibility, timelessness, zest in an avocation, the joy of belonging to something great and ancient, the self-respect, the respect of those we admire, the sense of being valued.

“Our own enclave, the Jews, exists, in truth, in learning, containing wisdom, solace, tradition, and mutual support.” [ibid, p. 169] Secular Jews reject their birthright of ‘connection to the Divine.’ “(Our religion) is a gift from God – what greater joy than to support it, to devote ourselves to it, and to enjoy it?” [ibid, p. 169References

Reflist>