For Jews, looking back is not only useful for understanding the past; it’s a way of fortifying oneself for the days to come. Nostalgia for ‘the best times’ holds out a template for hope, while more somber memorializing cautions, ‘never again.’
“In one way, Jewish memorial practices are no different than those of other ethnic groups,” says Michael Bernard-Donals, director of the Center for Jewish Studies. “But in another way, they connect Jews to a particular past, one involving exile and return, of living among strangers while making a life of continuity among one’s own community.”
KlezKamp 2013
Two recent events celebrated the role of memory and reflection in Jewish culture: “Jewish Madison in the 1960s,” a special program for faraway friends in Los Angeles in May, and “A Biselle KlezKamp,” a free, one-day immersion in Yiddish folk culture held at UW-Madison on July 22.
Through events like these, the Center for Jewish Studies plays a unique role on campus.
“The Center is here to ensure that UW students not only understand the continuity of the Jewish cultural past, but the many ways in which that culture plays out in the present, and can have consequences for the future,” says Bernard-Donals.
A professor of English and Jewish Studies, Bernard-Donals studies the ways in which events compel us to speak, through testimony, memorial, poetry, or some other utterance. Here he shares more about the importance of memory in Jewish culture:
Q: Why is memory so important? What is gained by looking back?
A: The injunction to remember is foundational to Jewish notions of justice — because Jews remember when they have been marginalized, disenfranchised, and enslaved, Jews are enjoined not to marginalize, disenfranchise, and enslave others. Partly it's because of Jews' cultural location in exile: Jewish memory is a way of establishing a connection to a location, to a home, that has been lost, and as a way of remembering the fact of exile so that even when at home, Jews recognize their past in exile. And partly, it's a fact of ethnicity: recollection is a way of making a connection to one's family, one's past, one's 'roots.'
Q: How does nostalgia fit in with the more serious work of 'remembering?'
A: Nostalgia typically gets thought of as misty-eyed, melodramatic, and kitschy. But the word comes from the Greek word 'nostos,' meaning 'return,' so nostalgia can be thought of as a memory of (a lost) home. Because the history of Judaism is largely one of exile, nostalgia is a way of describing not just the loss of home but the longing for return, even if the place doesn't actually exist except in the imagination.
Q: Is it more important to remember the good or the bad?
A: Memory can be seen not just as a form of cultural continuity, but also a kind of early warning system. The command to remember Amalek, the group that tried to destroy the Jews as they wandered in the desert after the escape from Mitzrayim, warns to be watchful for those that would attempt to do harm. Memory of 'the bad' is a way to appreciate circumstances in which Jews enjoy relative peace living with their neighbors, and to caution vigilance in the event that that peace is disturbed.
Q: What is uniquely Jewish about this?
A: Jewish ritual practices — the celebration of shabbat on Friday evening and Saturday (the sabbath), the festivals, the high holidays — are ways of connecting to a Jewish cultural past, and also a way to make that past relevant in the present.