Authentically Jewish: Identity, Culture, and the Struggle for Recognition by Stuart Z. Charmé (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Authentically Jewish: Identity, Culture, and the Struggle for Recognition by Stuart Z. Charmé Ken Koltun-Fromm Stuart Z. Charmé. Authentically Jewish: Identity, Culture, and the Struggle for Recognition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2022. 301 pp. The title to Stuart Charmé’s thoughtful book Authentically Jewish reads as provocation: What could “authentically Jewish” plausibly mean? Who commands the authority to decide what counts as authentic? And how do we recognize others as authentically or, even worse, inauthentically Jewish? If readers hold these skeptical questions in mind even before turning the first page, then the title has done its work, for Charmé believes these are precisely the rhetorical stances we should take toward the question of Jewish authenticity. Nowhere does Charmé decide matters of authenticity as he traces through a litany of modern Jewish texts and communities; instead he offers a framework for how to think well about claims to authenticity and the judgments we make about others who seek recognition for their Jewish practices. If some regard the notion of authenticity as an outdated and problematic term, Charmé appeals to a more nuanced, self-critical concept of authenticity that recognizes its cultural and political force. He draws upon his expertise in Sartrean existentialist philosophy to offer a thesis seeking to upend essentialist claims to authenticity by replacing them with nonessentialist, dynamic ones: “An authentically Jewish sense of self is always to some degree unstable and [End Page 483] unsettled. . . . Only in this way is it possible to transform an essentialist kind of genetic and cultural authenticity rooted only in the past into an existentialist one based on continually reaffirming the meaning of being a part of this group” (157). This “active dynamic sense of self” (157) is “a fluid process” (214) that requires “the forms of recognition that these constructions receive from others” (215). And so the subtitle to this work: claims to authenticity are (1) constructed out of fluid, nonfoundational identities and cultures, and (2) such claims seek out recognition from cultural authorities. Those who maintain essentialist views of authenticity—they all assume, Charmé argues, “some underlying core or solid foundation” (14)—will not be convinced by any of this. But for those struggling for recognition from outside or from within contemporary Jewry, Charmé’s text might read as a helpful scholarly approach that defends progressive models of authenticity. Essentialist claims arrive in two general forms: historical accounts that focus on “roots and origins” determined to be “old and uncorrupted” (11), and expressivist notions that “reflect or express something about their unique, innermost selves” (12). Both make claims to purity in some form that are decidedly nonfluid. These kinds of claims are generally taken up by “those who have successfully gained power and authority” in the Jewish community (15). Charmé has little sympathy for these reactionary types, in part because they act in bad faith: all essentialists actually “engage in their own reconstructions and revisions of tradition that include selectivity, innovation, reinvention, and transformation” (16). Charmé draws on Jean-Paul Sartre’s account of existentialist identity formation in order to bolster “a non-essentialist model that avoids some of the problematic and even toxic aspects of traditional historical and expressive authenticity” (17). This model has three components: (1) we all reside in an “existential situation” beyond our control, but (2) “the meaning of each element of a person’s historical, cultural, and personal situation remains open to revision, modification, and even rejection,” yet (3) claims to authenticity require recognition by others (25–26). This form of “existential authenticity,” one that Charmé defends as a “self-reflexive approach to the provisional and constructive creation of Jewish meaning that challenges the calm self-assurance with which Jews still present the essentialist authenticity of their beliefs and practices” (20), is the most flexible and expansive position. Note this illustrative analogy: “Like junk food, essentialist forms of authenticity taste good and are filling, but ultimately, they leave one weighed down with a weak and unhealthy identity resting on shaky foundations. Existential authenticity is more like yoga. It requires finding identity positions of temporary stability but also realizing that they are not meant to be held indefinitely. On the contrary, hopefully...