Jewish Identity #3: Where's the Art, Joel? Where's the art?

Thank you Joel for referencing me, and for once again inspiring me.

I want to post a personal frustration of mine that links so closely to yours. There are so many Jews like you and me, who love religious Judaism and are bogged down by the packaging that so many religious Jews present. But we are failing at presenting ourselves to the world more effectively.

Just last night my husband and I were talking about the movie “Kadosh” which I do not want to talk about here in depth. Maybe another time. I have plenty to say, believe me, and most of it negative. The problem, though, is that when ONE MOVIE comes out depicting Orthodox Judaism, it remains ONE MOVIE. So whether it is harmful or exploitative or painful or inaccurate or insightful or inspiring, it stands alone as only ONE MOVIE. But if it is THE ONLY damn movie out there, then audiences will deify or demonize it. What I’m getting to is simply this. WE NEED MORE GOOD CONTEMPORARY JEWISH ART.

(A quick and single note about “Kadosh”… I think my husband made an important point about this movie which is that its biggest flaw is not necessarily its inaccuracies or how it deals with women’s issues, but that it depicts being Haredi as SO DAMN MISERABLE. No wonder no one wants to be frum.)

For any stranger logging on to this site… and if you do so, please let me know, because as far as I know right now only 2 or 3 friends will ever see it… I am, among other things, a writer. I studied creative writing at Oberlin College where Joel and I became friends.

Since that time I have continued to write, including a few general uncontroversial and inspirational Jewish pieces published on www.aish.com. but I also have a collection in the works of Jewish fiction. And I’m sorry to say, it is the only fiction of it’s kind that I have ever found. My stories grapple with Orthodoxy but don’t embrace it completely the way that stories tend to when published by Orthodox publications. Kiruv is so crucial right now as frum Jews are trying to draw other frum Jews in. So there is a problem to face of whether or not it is detrimental to print that ambivalence. For me, though, and for Jews like me, I want to hear STRUGGLE. I want to hear how hard it is to be Orthodox. Because DESPITE HOW HARD IT IS, I choose it daily and I LOVE IT. That is the point, to me about being a Jew. You work very hard for what you achieve, and that’s what makes it so beautiful and worthwhile.

However, I have searched far and wide and cannot find a place where I feel I can publish this fiction. This is awful. Not only does it mean that I can’t share my work (and celebrate fame and fortune). It also means that if I DO publish, there are no alternative voices to balance out mine. (I should be lucky to have such a struggle.)

The first of the stories I am talking about here begged me to continue revising it for a good five years. I have finally put it aside and called it finished. But at the point that I resolved to do that, I also resolved that I needed to write more stories to accompany it. I needed to show that I cannot say all that I need to say in one story.

How can we get the art out there, Joel? How can we do it?