A Lesson About Pride Jews Can Learn From Obama

One of the mysteries of Jewish history is why Jews find so little pride in their identities and tradition. Put a sword to the Jewish neck and threaten them with death unless they become Christian and they will willingly die for their faith. But put them in everyday, Western society and they will Anglicize their Jewish sounding names, have plastic surgery to alter ethnic features, and often distance themselves from Israel when its policies become too controversial.

Nearly all American Jews, even the most secular, are given two names at birth, a Jewish ceremonial name, say, Hershel, and an anglicized name, say, Harry. The former is heard at the person's bris and bar or bat mitzvah. The latter is used at all other times. Most Jews are hard pressed to even remember their Jewish name. They certainly would never think of using it on a regular basis. It's too ethnic, too parochial. Too strange. If you want go get ahead in American society, you have to fit in. You have to sound like everyone else. Will you really get equal treatment in the job market if your resume says "Yankel" or "Yentl"?

But Barack Obama has now forever eliminated the excuse for American Jews, not to mention other minorities, to bury their ethnicity. Last March Newsweek magazine ran a cover story explaining how Obama changed his name from Barry to Barack. He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, the child of an African man and a white American woman, struggling to find his racial identity. During his undergraduate years at Occidental College, he found himself looking for a sense of belonging. He decided to embrace his African heritage by rejecting the anglicized version of his name that surely would have allowed him to fit more easily into American culture.

So how could a man with such a strange name advance to become one of two who will be the next president of the United States? Well, when you work hard and have undeniable talent, you will undoubtedly advance, even if your name sounds weird.

This is a lesson that American Jews must take to heart.

While I was Rabbi at Oxford, one of the University's most prestigious colleges, Balliol, hired an American Jewish Nobel Prize winner and former Rhodes Scholar, Baruch Blumberg, to be its master. I was intrigued by the fact that he went by the name Baruch, even though many of his official biographies named him as Barry. When I spoke to his wife about it, she explained that they were not particularly religious but that he saw no need to deny his Jewish name. But was he not concerned that he might be held back if he used a Jewish name, I asked? Not in the slightest, she told me. He excelled at what he did. He would be judged by his talent and would brook no compromises about his name.

Hollywood superagent Ari Emmanuel, with whom I worked in the past, is another example, as is his brother Rahm, one of the Democratic leaders of the house. Both have held on to their Jewish names and have risen to the very top of their fields.

So why is it that so many of us, orthodox Jews included, seem so self-conscious about using our Jewish names?

Because human beings are governed by a herd instinct. We all want to feel like insiders. We don't want to be different. And given the world's long history of anti-Semitism, we're also afraid of calling the wrong kind of attention to ourselves. So we do things to make sure we don't stick out as much, like taking off our Yarmulkes when we get to College and later at work, to refusing to ask for time off for Jewish holidays for fear that we'll anger the boss.

But it's time we buried that fear forever and proudly asserted our Jewish identities in a culture that increasingly celebrates difference.

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, is a giant of American culture and easily one of the most talented people to ever appear on television. He is also unashamedly Jewish, throwing in Jewish references and mentioning Jewish holidays at every turn. And yet, even he was born Jonathan Leibowitz and changed his name. Would he have been less successful had he stayed with the Jewish one?

Well, just look at Oprah, whose name is arguably the most recognizable on the planet. It is a name that does not fit in anywhere, but it did not stop her from becoming the world's most influential woman.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of America's great success stories. An immigrant at the age of 21 from Thal in Austria, he started first as a bodybuilder, then became one of Hollywood's biggest stars, married a Kennedy, and is now the governor of America's most populous state. And he did it all with one of the weirdest sounding last names around. And still, Jews run to change their names from Heimowitz to Haines.

But it's not last names that I'm principally discussing here. Living with a Jewish first name connects you with an unbroken tradition. Most Hebrew names are from the Bible. They evoke the spirit of a Biblical figure who embodied a particular virtue. My name is Shmuel, Hebrew for the prophet Samuel. It's a name I am proud to bear. I often think of my namesake, how his mother Chana, barren for so many years, prayed for his birth and then consecrated him to G-d's service once he was born. That story of sacrifice inspires me to work to put G-d before my own interests. True to his mother's promise, Shmuel led the Jewish people with humility and integrity for decades and then without concern for his own position anointed Saul as Israel's first king. Later, when God regretted having made Saul king, Shmuel begged God to recant. His crowning achievement, quite literally, came when he raised David to become sovereign of the Jewish people and established a dynasty that runs from antiquity to the future Messiah.

What is your Jewish name and to what earlier figure does it connect you? Perhaps you ought to find out by dusting it off and bringing it out of the cupboard.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach hosts a daily national radio show on "Oprah and Friends" and has recently published "The Broken American Male." www.shmuley.com

Comments

[smartcookienyc]

Much (Neurotic) Ado About Nothing...A Rose by any other name...


It's simply more beneficial to let people use whatever name they like.

I would prefer to see energy better spent on issues that really affect human living rather than just names and labels.

[dctackett]

Maybe they just don't like the sound of their names... these names do come from a different language and sound awkward in an English speaking society... I'm not jewish, but if my name was "Schmuel" I would change it...

We are not our ancestors... I'm Scottish and Irish, but I don't live over there and I wouldn't want an Irish or Scottish ethnic name, unless it had a nice sound... it would just sound odd and I wouldn't want an odd sound to be my name. If I was named "Danfuzklept"... I would change it, no matter how many ancestors I had with that name and no matter how proud they were of their names, if I even knew how proud they were, because it doesn't work for me. Great for them, not for me... what's the big deal...?

[smartcookienyc]

"We are not our ancestors." I like that. Thank you, I agree.

[toocoldout]

HELLO! This is the kind of quality positive content that the Huffington Post needs more of. Great article.

[Storm]

My Jewish name is Jochanan, and it connects me to Jochanan ben Zakkai, who escaped the siege of Jerusalem and became the father of rabbinic Judaism.

But Rabbi Boteach, if you are so concerned with Jews proclaiming their identity, why aren't you speaking out against the chillul HaShem occurring right now in Israel? Literally hundreds of people who voluntarily chose to pronounce their Jewish identity through halakhic conversion, even under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, have had their conversions "annulled" by ultra-Orthodox rabbis.

Even the conversions of the RCA aren't good enough for this crew. And, as you know, Chabad, though not behind this particular attack, has been supportive of this kind of defiance of Jewish law and Torah in the past by attempting, over and over, to get the Knesset to pass laws denying Jewish identity to those whose conversions, though they comply with every aspect of Jewish law, weren't done by the right people.

I thought the Haredi were supposed to uphold age-old Jewish tradition. Instead, they have invented new "requirements" for Jewish identity and new procedures (e.g., annulment) that are nowhere in the Talmud, Rambam, or the Shulkhan Aruch. It's almost as if they were possessed by a bunch of 19th century Reformers!

So, Rabbi Boteach, if you're going to ask people to be loud and proud about their Jewish identity, why don't you use your influence to support those that are already doing so, but being told they can't?

[CornellRedneck]

There were a lot of American notables who have been proud of their Jewish First names:

-Abraham Lincoln
-Ezra Cornell
-Benjamin Franklin
-David Crockett
-Judah Benjamin (Confederate Secretary of War)

To name a few.

[BlackJAC]

Jon Stewart dropped his last name because when he was first doing stand-up comedy, nobody could ever pronounce "Leibowitz" correctly.

[TXfemmom]

I don't understand why there have to be "Jewish" names, and one would have to have one to be "Jewish" or names that have to be "African" in order to be African-American.

Just getting into the discussion indicates that there is a form of racism or ethnic problem within the person who thinks that someone has to have a "Jewish" name and use it or they are not proud of their Jewish heritage.

There is too darn much which separates us as a group of people within the United States, without putting further pressure on individuals to have a "Jewish" or "African" or "Caucasian" name.

[dctackett]

I totally agree... I always here people talk about their "own kind"... lot's of latinos are always going off about their latinoness... jews are always going off about their jewness... blacks always about their blackness... asians always about their asianness... I'm white (irish/scottish), and I could care less...

Why do they constantly have to let everyone know about the genetic/cultural history of their ancestors?... and it's not even those that are actually from the country/region of their ancestors... I just think... you're from Whittier, not El Salvador, or Israel, or Kenya, or China... and I think how weird it would be if I always referred to the culture of my ancestors... "I'm white, and white people do it this way, white people call it this, I'm doing it white style..."

I really don't even understand what the whole pride of ancestors is about... ok, it's where I get my genetic sequence +/- mutational variations... I can understand being proud of your own accomplishments and those of your immediate family, because you actually know them and affect eachother's lives... go back 7 generations and we've got over a hundred ancestors... is doing things the same or similar way that people from a hundred or few hundred years ago really something to be proud of?

[Storm]

Agreed.

Some of the best Jews at my synagogue have names like Christopher McMahon or Maria Tognazzini.