The Devil Made Us Do It!

    

So what are Jews really like? Are we the rebellious Hebrews that required 12 Roman legions to pacify? Or are we the passive Jews of the diaspora, like the Jews of the Shtetl, and the ghetto, shunted from pillar to post according to the prevailing winds in the countries we sojourned? No simple answers.

It seems clear that when efforts were made to separate us from the body of religious thought that define Jews at their core, that the reaction was explosive. That prompted reactions that united the whole body of the people. When we were dispersed and divided, the reaction by a Jewish public to adverse events was episodic.

Then there is the history of individual diversions from the mean which extrapolates an entirely different pattern. Behaviors by individual Jews, sometimes in substantial numbers, but as individuals, and in small groups, tell us an entirely different story than one exhibited in the rules-bound religiously –focused community structure that characterized Jewish life in Europe. There the prevailing attitude was “keep quiet, maybe it will blow over.”

There were probably other errant expressions of diversity, but one of the most well-known is told in the story of the Jews of Odessa. A seaport town, sharing the characteristics of others of its kind, in Jewish mythology the town is identified as one where many Jews were active participants as criminals, swindlers, and practitioners of depravity. Some Jews reacted to  hostile environments by breaking the rules*.

According to the story, for a period of time, it was well known that Odessa was a place where the “livin’ was high and easy”. Jews were engaged in all the activities one would expect from the lowest of the low, activities so often found in international seaport cities. These reports of Jewish behavior in such harsh contrast with the ordered lives Jews traditionally lived, was the talk of the Jewish universe.

When the Bolshevik revolution occurred, this criminal tradition  survived and was even invested in some major Russian cities, as Odessan Jews expanded their operations. The contradictions within that system provided ample opportunities for the unscrupulous to profit.

Thereafter, a stream of these people found its way to America, when its practitioners found the means of escape. I am reading into this all the manifold unconventional activities that Jews have got into on the North American continent, and elsewhere, that were outside the existing mold in the general population, and different than the case for the majority of Jewish immigrants. Some Jews, however, may have drawn their inspiration from the unconventional thinking imported by these refugees from life in Odessa. Non-conventional behaviors metamorphosed over time from the criminal to trying out approaches more acceptable in environments that proved to be more permissive. But, fierce competitors for survival, one way or another, nothing was permitted to block their aspirations.

With prohibition in America, they became smugglers and bootleggers. Fast forward to Jewish-owned Night Clubs and Casinos. Blocked by discrimination from the regular trades, many became peddlers, bringing the merchandise to the customer, and extending credit, creating the credit system, to finally, for a few, becoming department store magnates. They ended up destroying the livelihoods of many of those who wouldn’t give them a job.

 The Borscht belt, Jewish entertainment for Jews, became attractive resorts, leading the way to Broadway, Hollywood and Television. They ended up destroying the businesses of the exclusive resorts of those who would not permit them entry to their premises. These Jews were the purveyors of the unconventional, following the Odessan tradition.

Another stream fled Russia to other places, among them Palestine, as part of a movement to re-establish a Jewish State. They rejected the idea of communist universalist solution that eliminated all states, but adapted the communal principle as a basis for establishing the Kibbutz, their tool advancing their occupation. When the British failed to honor their Mandate, they went underground to build a state within a state. And they were ready to break all the rules imposed by the occupying power to advance their cause. Smuggling was the name of the game, but people were the product. And terror was the weapon for some to drive the British from their Mandate. They were bound by no rules, in accordance with the Jewish Odessan approach.

Those who wish to malign the Jewish people tell tales of a people for whom no depravity is too low. In the Odessan myth, some Jews did live out the “impossible dream”. But the experience did foster a persistent stream of thinking among Jews, if the rules get in the way of survival, of achieving the ends you seek, or if the rules are unreasonable, either discard the rules, or find a way around them.

*Tanny, Jarrod, City Of Rogues And Schnorrers, Indiana University Press,1992