The Netflix show is being praised for its authenticity. But it portrays Judaism as a ‘tradition’ for immigrants to overcome.
This week Netflix released Long Story Short, about a Jewish family navigating the ups and downs of life over the course of several decades. The show, by Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, has been praised for its comedy, creativity, and affecting storytelling.
While it certainly has those qualities, it reflects a prevailing current in mainstream American culture: a reductive reimagining of Judaism as little more than a grab bag of traditions.
The American conception of Judaism stems from a debate within the religion dating back to the 1800s in Europe. For years, Jews were confined to the ghetto and the shtetl, where their lives were marked by superstition and old-world customs. But when they were finally emancipated, many wrongly conflated those superstitions with Judaism itself and came to see the entire religion as nothing more than traditions to be discarded upon entry into modern society. In 19th-century Germany, Jewish reformers, led by Abraham Geiger, sought to free themselves from what they saw as outdated ways in favor of German sophistication.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the National Review Online (paywall)
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Josh Appel is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute.
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