This article was downloaded by: [Tufts University]On: 10 November 2014, At: 11:29Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Sociological Spectrum: Mid-South Sociological AssociationPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/usls20

THE HOLOCAUST ASRECURRING REALITY:VICTIMIZATION THEMES ANDJEWISH AMERICAN ETHNICIDENTITY FORMATIONDana M. Greene aa Appalachian State University , Boone, NorthCarolina, USAPublished online: 19 Mar 2007.

To cite this article: Dana M. Greene (2007) THE HOLOCAUST AS RECURRING REALITY:VICTIMIZATION THEMES AND JEWISH AMERICAN ETHNIC IDENTITY FORMATION,Sociological Spectrum: Mid-South Sociological Association, 27:3, 275-298, DOI:10.1080/02732170701215941

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02732170701215941

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,

and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

THE HOLOCAUST AS RECURRING REALITY:VICTIMIZATION THEMES AND JEWISHAMERICAN ETHNIC IDENTITY FORMATION

Dana M. Greene

Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA

Drawing on sociological studies that document the regularity throughwhich marginalized ethnic groups construct an ethnic identity, this articleexamines identity formation in the Jewish American context. A contentanalysis of 100 short stories written between 1946 and 1995 demonstrateshow victim-oriented identities are created out of the more mundaneexperiences of everyday life. These stories, which were intended forconsumption by Jewish American readers, describe daily life within theJewish American community and, with surprising regularity, bring issuesof victimization into the imagined experience for their readers. In addition,the analysis shows how Jewish American short story writers present theHolocaust, victimization, and anti-Semitism as contributing heavily tothe processes of identity formation within the community. The discussionof the data concludes by arguing that, as the Jewish American communitybecomes further removed from the events of World War II, the Holocaust isbecoming a more salient recurrent reality in the formation of a JewishAmerican identity that is increasingly tied to issues of victimization.

CONSTRUCTING A CLIMATE OF VICTIMIZATION

Several studies (Omi and Winant 1994; Roediger 1999; Turner 1993;Waters 1990) within the field of sociology have documented the regu-larity with which marginalized ethnic groups in various societiesconstruct an ethnic identity that focuses on issues of domination,oppression, and victimization. These studies also document waysthat daily experiences are used to construct such group identities.

Address correspondence to Dana M. Greene, Appalachian State University, Department of

Sociology and Social Work, 223-3 Chapell Wilson Hall, Box 32115, Boone, NC 28608-2115,

USA. E-mail: qreendm@appstate.edu

Sociological Spectrum, 27: 275–298, 2007

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0273-2173 print/1521-0707 online

DOI: 10.1080/02732170701215941

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

An emphasis on the relationship of members of minority ethnic andracial groups to the dominant majority and the use of suchoppression or victim-oriented group identities as a way of developingstrategies for dealing with these problems is particularly evident in thecontemporary Jewish American community. Jewish Americans clingto their victim status—recalling images of times past (the Holocaustand persecution)—as a means of trying to maintain their status asunique minorities, resisting assimilation into the world of ‘‘ordinarywhite Americans.’’

Ethnic identity formation for Jewish Americans since WorldWar II has been largely contingent upon social, political, and economicfactors. Following the War, Jewish Americans experienced significantsocial and economic advancement, and an era marked by a continualdecline in the discrimination and oppression of Jews by the dominantmajority. Therefore, the similarity of ethnic identity issues under dis-cussion for Jewish Americans to those found among more objectivelyoppressed ethnic minority groups in American society presents a puz-zle. How is this happening? Why now? What social functions does itserve for the group? And how does it affect Jewish Americans’ rela-tionships with other social groups and to issues of oppression moregenerally? These questions underlie the argument that follows.

This study examined the kinds of events that get incorporatedinto identity formation and institutional practices within the JewishAmerican community and focused on the process by which victim-oriented identities are created out of the more mundane experiencesof everyday life. For evidence of how this process works, I drewupon a random sample of 100 short stories written between 1946and 1995 by Jewish American authors. Intended for consumptionby Jewish American readers, these stories described daily life withinthe Jewish American community and, with surprising regularity,brought issues of victimization into the imagined experience of theirreaders. Written by members of the community for other members ofthat community, the presentation of issues of Jewish American ident-ity provided an easily accessible window making visible the concernsof at least a portion of that community over time. Perhaps more sig-nificantly, an analysis of a random sample of these stories allowedidentification of the strategies used to create a specific victim identitywhen describing daily experiences within the community. Morespecifically, my study examines how Jewish American short story wri-ters presented the Holocaust, victimization, and anti-Semitism as partof the processes of identity formation within the Jewish Americancommunity across three time periods: 1946–1956, 1957–1972, and1973–1995.

276 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

METHODS

My analysis adopted an alternative methodology that takes intoaccount agency, historicity, and temporality in the analysis of well-known and less well-known Jewish American authors’ symbolic useof the Holocaust (and, thus, issues of genocide and victimization)in their writings. I systematically analyze how both groups of JewishAmerican writers commented on Holocaust-related events as well asconcurrent societal issues in their fiction. Particularly, through myexamination of culturally specific ideologies (and, occasionally sym-bols and themes) in the adaptation of each group to contemporaryAmerican society in conjunction with Federal hate crimes statistics,I discuss how the Holocaust continues to affect Jewish Americanauthors’ perceptions of the development of a specific Jewish Americancultural identity in the United States.

This study focused on the writers of short stories as a source ofdata, but approximated Janice Radway’s examination of frequencyof symbol use, here applied to Jewish American short stories (cf.Radway 1984).1 Identifying broader themes, of changing saliencethrough time, stories about the Jewish American community makeclear how Jewish American authors capitalize on Jewish Americancommunal concerns and ‘‘voice’’ them in their writing. Drawing onsocial history in conjunction with a qualitative and quantitative con-tent analysis of 100 Jewish American short stories written by a com-munity of both well-known and less well-known authors imitates aportion of Radway’s methodology by providing a more concrete ideaof how a symbol is being contextualized (both temporally and histori-cally) within the larger context of the story under study. This helps tocontextualize some of the more concrete references to ‘‘the dreadedpast’’ and to the Holocaust. Adapting Radway’s methodology toexamine a population of Jewish American writers and the collectiveimpact of their stories in this way, I am able to document how collec-tive group memories of this horrendous event (the Nazi Holocaust),as understood and portrayed by Jewish American authors, continueto be ‘‘translated’’ over time. These accounts through time providean understanding of the continual development and transformationin their writings of Jewish American identity as distinct from thesimply ‘‘American’’ identity of the general population.

1Janice Radway, in her (1984) groundbreaking book entitled, Reading the Romance: Women,

Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to

reach convincing conclusions about why women read romance novels and the types of identi-

ties that romance novels create for the readers who read them.

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 277

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

Three time periods were designated in this study: the post WorldWar II—pre-Civil Rights decade of 1946–1956; the periods of intenseCivil Rights and antiwar activity, which involved many JewishAmericans from 1957–1973, and which included the Arab-IsraeliSix-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973; and themost recent period from 1974–1995, which included the period ofinwardly focused ‘‘liberation movements’’ in the United States andthe period following the Egypt=Israeli war of 1973.2 Twenty-two stor-ies appeared during the first time period, 36 during the second, and 42in the final.

I compared the themes and symbols used during three time periodsin which American Jewish authors related differently to broadernational and international events to reveal the manner in which sym-bols become appropriated through time to create meaning for JewishAmerican writers. I examined the association patterns of given sym-bols and themes through time to document the process throughwhich social meaning and Jewish cultural identity are constructedby both Jewish American authors and Jewish American communalparticipants.

The sample of short stories was coded qualitatively and quantitat-ively (for substance, frequency of occurrence, and frequency of refer-ence). Symbols relating to victimization and Holocaust symbolizationappeared in the writings 26 percent and 53 percent of the time,respectively. Over time, rhetoric from Jewish organizations (mostnotably, the Anti-Defamation League [ADL]) played up the ‘‘JewishAmerican as victim’’ mentality. To address questions relating to thedefinition of an actual versus perceived victim identity, hate crimedata from Federal agencies (Uniform Crime Report [UCR] fromthe Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]) and Jewish agencies(ADL Martilla Study) were cross-referenced to query the impact ofthe dissemination of hate crime=victimization rhetoric within theJewish American community on the formation of a unique andspecific Jewish American identity.

2The time periods into which stories are grouped for analysis could be delineated in terms

of major dates in modern Jewish history or according to periods of significant social change in

American history. Because my study focuses on Jewish American authors and their literature

that illustrates how they perceive Jewish American identity to be changing, I have grouped time

periods in this study by periods of significant change in conditions of American society. Doing

this, however, does not minimize, in any way, the importance of modern Jewish history, which

fortunately also has major events within each of these time periods. Rather, these time periods

show the salience of both Jewish and American historical events for shaping the discussion of

Jewish American identity by well-known and less well-known authors.

278 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

HATE CRIMES AS A FORM OF VICTIMIZATION: IMPACTON IDENTITY

Survivors of the Holocaust, including Gerda Weissman Klein (1995),have stated that many of their experiences in the United States haveunique parallels to their experiences and memories of life in the Naziconcentration camps. This realization is particularly troublesome, ifone of the primary goals of learning history is to prevent the pastfrom recurring. Similarities in the dynamics within U.S. society andthose during the Holocaust are perceived by both those who experi-enced the events and those who did not. The socially constructed per-ception that hate crimes continue to target Jewish Americans almostexclusively continues to be in the forefront of the American Jewishconsciousness, politics, and culture. (In point of fact, anti-Semitichate crimes continue in the U.S., but are declining in frequency.)I do not mean to argue that hate crimes are not really important.Because hate crimes continue to be present in the greater society, theyrepresent a real social problem that needs to be addressed. The per-ception of their degree of threat to American Jews, however, is aninstitutionally sponsored social construction.

Federal Data Inform the Study

The FBI has designated that hate crimes, under the 1990 Hate CrimesStatistics Act, be designated as ‘‘any crime that is preformed, negativebias against persons, property, or organizations based solely on race,religion, ethnicity=national origin, sexual orientation, or disability,hate crime is by its very nature often difficult to identify; the tollon its victims immeasurable.’’3 Several of the tenets of this definitionclearly parallel the atrocities leveled at the Jews at the hands of theNazis; Jewish Americans in the United States continue to experienceand perceive persecution at the hands of those who perceive Jews tobe controlling and manipulating American society to serve their owninterests. Because of how both the occurrence and perception of hatecrime commission are socially constructed, the Holocaust remainsembodied as a ‘‘recurrent reality’’ for American Jews. Hate crimeshave been both appropriated and socially constructed as a meansof justifying one group’s perceived dominance and power over smal-ler and (perceived) less powerful groups in society. Information onthe commission of hate crimes against Jewish Americans has beencompiled by a variety of sources, most strikingly, by the FBI in the

3FBI Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990.

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 279

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

form of the UCR and by the ADL.4 Table 1, shows the incidence ofhate crimes committed in the United States by motivation, as com-piled by the ADL Survey on Hate Crimes.5

According to the UCR on hate crimes in 1996, of the 1,401 hatecrimes that were perpetrated against members of various religiousgroups, 1,109 targeted Jewish Americans exclusively. Of the 321 totalincidents that targeted churches, synagogues, and=or temples, 255were religiously motivated and targeted Jewish Americans. In the‘‘Crimes Against Persons’’ category, of the 1,500 total number ofreligiously based hate crimes committed in 1996, 1,182 were perpe-trated against Jewish Americans. Among ‘‘Crimes Against Property,’’737 involved vandalism of property owned, leased, or otherwiseoccupied by Jewish Americans. Sixty-six percent of those crimes

4With regard to the incidence of hate crimes, one may return once again to the bias cate-

gories in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act (race, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity=

national origin). Criminal incidents can involve more than one offense, victim, or offender.

For counting purposes, one offense is counted for each victim of a crime against property and

as a crime against society, regardless of the number of victims. The eleven traditional offense cate-

gories included in the collection of hate crime data by the FBI and published in the hate crimes

statistics section of the UCR are: murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery,

aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, simple assault, intimidation,

and destruction=damage=vandalism of property. Source: FBI Hate Crimes.

Table 1. Offenders’ reported motivations in percentages of hate crime

offenses

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996

Racial bias 62.3 60.7 62.4 59.8 60.7 61.6

Anti-black 35.5 34.7 37.1 36.6 37.6 41.9

Anti-white 18.7 20.3 19.4 17 15.4 12.6

Religious bias 19.3 17.5 17.1 17.9 16.1 15.9

Anti-Semitic 16.7 15.4 15.1 15.1 13.3 12.7

Anti-Semitic as % of religious bias 86.4 87.5 88.1 86.2 82.9 79.2

Ethnicity 9.5 10.1 9.2 10.8 10.2 10.7

Sexual 8.9 11.6 11.3 11.5 12.8 11.6

5I would be remiss if I did not include data compiled by the ADL, but I would also be

remiss if I did not openly acknowledge problems with such data. The ADL is known for pub-

lishing statistics regarding happenings in the Jewish American community. However, one must

be skeptical of such reporting because Jewish organizations have a tendency to focus on events

of the moment, rather than longitudinal trends, to make claims that Jewish communities are

increasingly victimized by non-Jewish groups. Such inaccurate claims have the potential to

alter, drastically, the social construction of Jewish American identity formation as it incorpo-

rates issues of anti-Semitism as well as to alter the social construction of Jewish American per-

ception of the prevalence (and how widespread) of the commission of hate crimes. (Table

source: http://www.adl.org/99/hatecrime/comp_fbi.html)

280 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

committed because of religious bias in 1996 were targets of crimesagainst property. The anti-Semitic crimes with the most substantialincrease were arson and vandalism (ADL 1994). Sixty-four percentof all anti-Semitic vandalism incidents in 1994 happened in 12 north-eastern states and the District of Columbia. Western states accountedfor 14 percent, while Southern states accounted for 11 percent ofanti-Semitic vandalism (ADL 1994). According to the UCF, ofcrimes targeting individual Jewish Americans in 1996, 18 involvedaggravated assault, 26 were cases of simple assault, and 363 involvedethnic intimidation of one form or another. Finally, of the 1,182 totalhate crime offenses against Jews, 189 of the offenders were White, 32were non-White, while 970 perpetrators either were never apprehen-ded by the authorities, or were of an unknown or undisclosed race.

It is clear that crimes based specifically on religious bias and anti-Semitism continue to be part of American life. The message that theADL promotes by distributing hate crime data in this way is that issuesof religious bias, anti-Semitism, and the incidence of anti-Semitismcontinue to be and are becoming a more salient issue in American dailylife. The data in Table 1 does not confirm that thesis, however. Instead,if the data are carefully analyzed, there is a relatively small change inthe commission of hate crimes committed on the basis of religious bias,anti-Semitism, and no basis to argue that anti-Semitism is the primarycausal link to bias crime incidents in the United States. In fact, in eachof these three cases, the numbers reported by the ADL do not increaseover time—they decrease. Although the ADL attempts to promote theidea that anti-Semitism continues to be a serious problem in the UnitedStates that affects the assimilation and acculturation of JewishAmericans, their claims are only partially grounded in their data.However, the creation of a socially constructed victim identity,premised on the perception that bias crimes are on the rise and targetJewish Americans more frequently (as opposed to less frequently) isuseful for the survival of a small community threatened with assimi-lation into the larger society. The fear that the Jewish American com-munity may dissolve (as a result of acculturation and assimilation) isalleviated somewhat because Jewish Americans are more likely to turntheir attention inward, toward their community.

ANTI-SEMITIC AND HOLOCAUST IDEATION: ‘‘LIVING’’THE LINKAGE BETWEEN HISTORY AND MEMORY

Current economic and political trends indicate greater acceptanceof Jews by other Americans. Over the past decade (1986–1996),

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 281

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

expression of anti-Semitic sentiment in the United States was farbelow that found in American society before and during WorldWar II. Half a century after the collapse of Nazism, societal dynamicshave shifted from overt (anti-Semitism as seen in Nazi propaganda,and ultimately, in the Final Solution clearly aimed at eliminatingthe Jewish population, or in Ku Klux Klan terrorism) to more covertand hidden expression. Instead of targeting people directly, most actsof anti-Semitism that become hate crimes perpetrated against JewishAmericans involve indirect attacks. These attacks, however, helpinitiate the social construction of a victim identity for JewishAmericans that links hate crimes targeting Jews on American soilto the Holocaust.

The Holocaust in Europe ended in 1945, but for the vast majorityof those in Jewish American communities the legacy of the Holocaustlives on. The ADL portrayal of hate crimes to the Jewish Americancommunity evokes images and fears of further victimization relatingto the Nazi Holocaust. The collective group memories of the Holo-caust and the atrocities contained therein have become ‘‘remem-bered’’ by younger generations that never actually experienced theHolocaust directly. Symbolism, language, and images of the Holo-caust are often invoked to socially construct a level of JewishAmerican suffering at the hands of an oppressor or a perpetratorof a hate crime against the Jewish community. Because of the socialconstruction of hate crimes, and the perception of the extent of biascrimes that consequently exists in the Jewish American community,they are seen as an important recurrent reality in the United States.This social construction impacts group identity because of itsperceived (i.e., interpreted) relationship to the Holocaust.

As Jewish Americans, themselves, have noted, hate and hatecrimes did not emerge during the Holocaust. Throughout Americanhistory, hate and hate crimes have been directed at members of differ-ent minority groups in the United States (whether racial, ethnic,religious, or sexual). Hate will continue manifesting itself in ugly waysunless the structure of U.S. society changes in a way that altersthis dynamic. In the meantime, ‘‘victimization’’ is a sociallyconstructed reality with which Jewish Americans live. Hate targetedat Jewish Americans continues to decline over time, but the com-mission of any bias crime has been socially constructed in such away as to connote a recurring reality of the Holocaust for JewishAmericans.

Much of the interpretation of hate and bias crime in the JewishAmerican community could come from the collective recollection ofthe German Jewish experience as well. Even though American Jews

282 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

experienced economic, social, and even political prosperity in theUnited States, leadership in the community could be perceived asviewing the data released in the form of national hate crime statisticsor ADL data with a certain cynicism. In a sense, it is almost asthough the data is a ‘‘snapshot’’ in time—an image of what oncewas or could be yet again in the Jewish community, as the collectiveconsciousness in the American Jewish community remains wroughtwith the realities of what happened with the German Jews prior toand during World War II. The United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum takes as its ‘‘catch phrase’’ the word, ‘‘Remember.’’ YadVashem (the Israeli Holocaust Memorial) is encapsulated in thephrase, ‘‘Never Again,’’ and the Jewish American community takesthese sentiments to heart. Yet, the community cannot erase their con-sciousness of the sense of security, prosperity, and relative assimi-lation into German society that Jews experienced up until 1933.After Hitler rose to power, all of that security, prosperity, and successdisappeared. In many ways, this perception of a possible similarity insocial experience could be one of the reasons behind the JewishAmerican community’s clinging so mightily to their victim statusand victimization and a very ‘‘real’’ threat to their community, wayof life, and livelihood. Thus, while levels of victimization may notactually be increasing, the ADL and other Jewish organizations focusupon its continuation and using specific snapshots in Jewish commu-nal history, recall and keep alive victim identity as salient to thecontemporary Jewish American experience.

History becomes memory and then gets interpreted and incorpor-ated into a specific group victim identity over time. This study askshow history and memory of the Holocaust get paired with the presentto form a specific Jewish American group identity that holds tightlyto the past while looking to the future. A more general questionunderlying this study is how and in what ways does history becomerelevant to the definition of a contemporary group’s identity and thatgroup’s ideals?

Rhetoric in the Jewish American Community

The present day Jewish American identification with victimization isa fairly new phenomenon. Jewish American short stories show thatthe Holocaust, victimization, and anti-Semitism become increasinglypowerful parts of Jewish American identity over time—especially astime moves further away from the immediate post-Holocaust erathrough the Civil Rights and Liberation Movement era, to morepresent times of redefining what it means to be both Jewish and

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 283

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

American to today’s world where being Jewish becomes somehowconflated with an immediate sense of victimization given the currentre-emergence of the Palestinian Intifada.

The how and why of the alignment of the Jewish Americancommunal identification with the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and vic-timization is largely a question of whether the community, as awhole, is able to accept their relative security in the United Statesand let go of past experiences and perceptions. Jewish Americansfocus on negative data, imputing increase in attacks against themand perceiving that additional attacks might be forthcoming. Onesource of emphasis on victimhood (when the data do not supportthe perceived threat of continued and increasing persecution) comesfrom dissemination of actual hate crime data by the U.S. govern-ment, individual states, and Jewish organizations like the ADL; theUnited Jewish Communities (UJC); and local synagogues, temples,and Federations. Interpretation of these data becomes steeped inhistory and recollection of the communal and shared collectiveexperiences of the German Jews of Europe.

While some Jews experience hate crimes directly, most do soindirectly in the form of ‘‘statistics’’ distributed by Jewish Americanorganizations.6 Statistical reports of anti-Semitic hate crimes stronglyimpact the formation and content of a group-specific identity forJewish Americans. Organizations and members within the targetcommunity often socially construct such victim statuses. Jewish orga-nizations (such as the ADL) promote awareness of the incidence ofhate crimes, presenting this information as if it were an ever-present,indeed increasing, event in the lived realities of Jewish Americans.These identities then become contextualized in the target groups’lived and interpreted realities.

Victimization themes exert a distinctive presence, symbolically, inthe fiction written by Jewish American authors. One of the strongestpredictors of Jews’ overall identity formation remains their sociallyconstructed understanding of how the group has been victimized his-torically (e.g., the Holocaust) and their internalization of idioms and

6Jewish American organizations such as the ADL, American Jewish Congress, etc. are in

the ‘‘business’’ of distributing statistics relating to the commission of hate crimes levied against

Jewish Americans. As such, they report events that have occurred in the United States recently,

but rarely show changes in incidence over time. This creates for members of the Jewish Amer-

ican community an inaccurate perception that hate crimes are on the rise and that there is a

resurgence of Jewish anti-Semitism in the United States. The way that this type of information

is distributed widely within the Jewish American community relates, largely, to the construc-

tion of a Jewish American victim identity that remains tied to such issues.

284 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

stereotypes that were widely ‘‘accepted’’ as Jewish by those outsidetheir group. Smith (1990, pp. 68–69) argues that:

(f)acts as a distinctive social practice may well be characteristic of the

forms of knowledge, vested in texts, that have become general since

the invention of printing. The socially organized practices of fact

and the relations in which they are embedded go beyond the intersub-

jective world known tacitly among those share a here and now. Rather,

subjective experience is opposed to the objectively known. The two

are separated from each other by the social act that creates an exter-nalized object of knowledge—the fact. This social organization of

knowledge depends upon but transcends the primary intersubjective

participation in and constitution of a world known in common.

Socially constructed identification with victimization (in the form ofhate crimes and otherwise) and social interpretation of these predic-tors has strongly influenced the development of Jewish Americangroup identity in the United States.7 The incorrect perception thatthe incidence of hate crimes is rising fits into the larger context ofassimilation by influencing the degree to which a Jewish immigrantidentifies with American culture. It results in the development of aneven stronger identification with Jewish American ethnic and culturaltenets as well as the development of a unique victim status in whichJewish Americans have begun to ‘‘fly the victimization flag as a badgeof merit.’’ Hence, hate crimes, whether actual or perceived, serve tocreate an identity for Jewish Americans that is strongly affiliated withthe triad of experience: the socially constructed perception of contin-ued Jewish American victimization (by hate crimes, ethnic antagon-ism, the Nazi Holocaust, etc., that is propagated by informationdistributed by several Jewish American agencies), cultural and ethnicheritage, and the perceived expectations of American culture.

Hate crimes are unique social phenomena related to identity for-mation because they are the interpretive processes that constitute

7This is largely affected by the fact that the ADL is in the business of publishing hate crimes

statistics and really plays up their significance and impact within the Jewish American com-

munity. The result of this is a tightening of the Jewish American community and the develop-

ment of stronger Jewish American communities. However, the reality of the situation is not

what the ADL publishes or portrays. Instead, the incidence of hate crimes is diminishing,

not increasing, and, as such, I would argue that the impact of hate crimes and victimization

on Jewish Americans is diminishing as well. Thus, the ADL attempts to portray an image of

increasing vulnerability and victimization of the Jewish American community that is not

sstatistically accurate.

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 285

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

what comes to be seen as oppressive, intolerable, or unjust con-ditions.8 Being either a victim or an intended victim of a hate-inspiredcrime draws attention to one’s ethnic or racial group and makes moredifficult an individual or group’s attempt to assimilate into society.Consequently, drawing attention to anti-Semitic hate crimes createsa stronger identification and alliance for Jewish Americans with their‘‘fellow victims’’ within the Jewish American community. Simply put,it creates identification with victimization at the same time that anindividual is attempting to assimilate into society. Hence, what oneexperiences is a triple-edged sword with which one is stabbed fromall angles as one tries to ‘‘fit in.’’

Members of a community can come to experience perceived,increasing levels of victimization through the textual presence andexpression of real or perceived victimization. To that end, ‘‘(t)heshaping of that presence by the social organization of its productionis hidden but effective; the knower is related to the object of herknowledge through it. Exploring knowledge as socially organizedmakes this mediated relationship of the knower to known accessibleto inquiry’’ (Smith 1990, p. 63).

Thus, perceptions of growing levels of anti-Semitism and ethnicantagonism, victimization, and immigrant status all work togetherto create a unified image of the ‘‘Jewish American experience’’ inthe United States. These factors strongly and jointly influence thedegree to which Jewish Americans construct their own, semiunique,9

victim identity in the United States, and, therefore, their perceptionof the degree to which Jewish Americans have successfully assimi-lated into American society.

Integrating Victimization Themes into the Cultural Product

Jewish Americans as victims of hate crimes is a common theme appear-ing in Jewish American fiction. The prevalence of hate crime imageryand symbolism in fiction written by both well-known and less well-known Jewish American authors is extremely high, with authorsinvoking such symbols as swastikas; book burnings and the disal-lowance of the freedom of religion; repetitive references to Hitler’sautobiography and rhetoric as outlined in Mein Kampf; anti-Semitic

8Ibid.9I argue that the construction of a Jewish American identity that is tied to issues of anti-

Semitism and victimization is semiunique because Jewish Americans are not the only group

to either actually be or perceive that they are victims of hate-inspired crimes. As such, Jewish

Americans cannot claim ownership of a victim identity in this context.

286 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

graffiti; anti-Semitic rhetoric and speech patterns; vandalism anddestruction of Jewish property; and anti-Jewish sentiment.

Examples from two stories show how authors construct perceptionsof contemporary parallels to Nazi victimization. In Allegra Goodman’s(1989=1998) short story entitled, ‘‘Variant Text,’’ the principal charac-ter, Clare, begins to dream that Cecil Birnbaum (a renowned phoneticexpert) approaches her. As Goodman (1989=1998, p. 41) writes:

[S]he senses that Cecil is behind her. And there he is in the lamplight

with his Olivetti electronic taking down her thoughts. Henry confrontsCecil. ‘‘My dear Man, why are you troubling this poor girl?’’ ‘‘I am

merely recording her accent,’’ Cecil replies. ‘‘I can locate anyone by

his pronunciation. You, for example, are from Vienna, Brooklyn,

NYU, Cambridge, Princeton, and Los Angeles.’’

In this story, Goodman is making reference to the differentiation ofpeople based upon solely linguistic qualities. By adding Vienna aspoint of origin, this passage suggests that Clare is a Jewish refugee,whose every move can still be identified. In Nazi Germany, as inthe United States, groups seeking identify Jews and other non-Aryangroups have relied upon such superficial qualifications as speech pat-terns, shape and size of an individual’s skull or head, style of dress orjewelry, or hair consistency. While Goodman is clearly placing thistype of intergroup differentiation into a contemporary context in‘‘Variant Text,’’ she is symbolically drawing upon the use of anti-Semitic characteristics in the identification and characterization ofwho individuals in the story are, and from where they have come.

Seldom is it the case that one’s origins, in a sociological context,can be ignored. Just as one’s religious, ethnic, racial, gender, andnational identities and backgrounds continue to matter, it is clearthat those in positions of power continue to exert their influence indecision making processes or in action as is evidenced in the inter-national Jewish author Christa Wolf’s (1993) short story, ‘‘Unterden Linden,’’ which was published widely in the U.S. and parablesJewish perceptions of American society.10 In ‘‘Unter den Linden,’’

10The title of Wolf ’s short story is particularly noteworthy in the sociological context.

‘‘unter den Linden’’ is the name of a major street in Berlin near the Reichstag. If translated

literally, unter den Linden means, ‘‘under the trees.’’ However, the word, ‘‘Linden’’ refers to

a group of trees that are fragrant in smell, have heart shaped leaves, and are generally planted

to provide shade (shelter) from the sun. This story, however, was not in the sample of stories for

this study.

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 287

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

Wolf (1993) writes of watching the changing of the guard, an eventoccurring in the United States. However the language that Wolfinvokes is reminiscent of the Nazi era, as shown in this excerpt fromthe story:

I wanted to impress upon my memory the commands with which they

yank, snap, snap, as if on taut strings, the two main characters to of

the stationary rifle platoon. I did not want to miss out on a single

one of those admirable parade steps, which precisely tracking a line

invisible to us uninitiated, must end up exactly in front of the tips ofthe sentry’s books—should he be standing where the regulations have

placed him. As a rule, this is the case, you can rely on it. However, on

this afternoon, of all days, the rule had been broken and one of the

relieving officer candidates marched straight off into a catastrophe.

The spot where his predecessor was meant to receive him (between

the second and third pillar) was empty.

Scarcely, five or ten minutes earlier, this negligent soul—possibly

affected by the heat—had obeyed a command audible only to himself,by suddenly executing a precise left face and, with his rifle shouldered

in the prescribed manner, goose stepping [emphasis added] to the cor-

ner of the building he was symbolically guarding, where, after com-

pleting another wheel to the left, he finally came to the deep shade

of a chestnut tree. (Wolf 1993, p. 71)

While, in the American context, it is clear that Jewish Americans maynot exemplify the conception of the ‘‘Jew’’ that was prevalent inpre-World War II, the issue of a Jewish cultural heritage is whatseems to be initiating current perceptions of anti-Semitism.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Jewish American short stories form a rich data source in that theyemerge from the community about which they are typically written.Moreover, because Jewish American authors also tend to participatein the community from whence they write and are able to observe thegroup over time, short stories written by these participants in theJewish American culture are of interest to those individuals who con-sume and read them because they are about themselves. The JewishAmerican short story is unique because it draws the Jewish pasttogether with the Jewish American present and serves as a form ofsocial commentary on how members of the Jewish American

288 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

community both view themselves individually and in relation to theirsocial group.

Jewish American authors present, in their short stories, an impor-tant testimony to the Holocaust in their interpretive framework. Bothpast and present experiences with victimization—dating all the wayback to slavery in Egypt to the ‘‘forced’’ life of the Jews in the shtetlsin Eastern Europe, to the genocide directed at the Jews during theHolocaust, and including the perceived negativity and anti-Semitismdirected at the Jews in the United States are symbolically representedin the writings of Jewish American authors. The underlying culturaltheme of victimization in the short stories written by JewishAmerican authors clearly reflects the use of the authors’ perceptionsof collective group memory in the construction of a Jewish Americanidentity that holds onto Jewish ideals and the Jewish past, while sim-ultaneously adopting a more eclectic American identity based largelyon consumerism, materialism, and exclusion. The Holocaust, victimi-zation, and anti-Semitism symbols in Jewish American short storiesoften are understated in the stories and are used to convey theauthors’ interpretations either of current events or of perception ofthose events by the Jewish American community. The frequency withwhich these three primary themes appear shows the continuingimpact of the Holocaust and concerns about victimization on JewishAmerican authors. These symbols help shape the formation of anidentity that, even while it continually goes through processes ofredefinition, remains inextricably linked to issues of victimization.

The Holocaust is a unique symbol in American life. The term refersto the mass murder of 6.1 million Jews and six million other people(Communists, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Poles, Criminals, etc.). It isthe one event of the 20th century with which most people are ableto identify strongly with its victims. The Holocaust was perpetratedon foreign shores and in a foreign language, and yet the Americanconsciousness—both Jewish and non-Jewish alike—understands itas an integral identity-forming experience such that almost everyonecan be conceived as a victim. However the Holocaust is described, ithas moved from the margins of societal awareness to the center ofanalysis and, indeed, has become a pivotal issue in the fictional shortstories written by Jewish American authors. Thus, for many JewishAmerican writers, it is the 6.1 million Jews murdered in the Holocaustthat becomes the focus of attention in their writing.

Two overarching themes of the Holocaust and victimization arebroken down into sub-categories found in Jewish American shortstories. Direct references to the Holocaust are used more frequentlythan indirect references to the Holocaust (Table 2) of the 100 short

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 289

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

stories in this study written by Jewish American authors, 53 percentrefer to the Holocaust. Forty stories make direct reference to theHolocaust, and 30 of the sampled stories use indirect references,but only 21 of the stories did not contain any reference to the Holo-caust or victimization (Table 3).

Memory is a symbolic device that is used fairly regularly to relatethe Holocaust and victimization to authors’ perceptions of JewishAmerican contemporary experiences in the United States. It occursin 15 percent of the short stories written by Jewish American authorsin my sample. Memory is often intertwined with both direct andindirect references to the Holocaust and is inextricably linked to ten-sion and fear perceived by Jewish American authors to be linked tothe groups’ collective experience with the Holocaust. Oftentimes, inthe stories, memories are related as dreams and other unconsciousmotivations for a character’s present behavior. In these stories, theHolocaust is not simply an experience that certain individualsendured; rather, it is an experience that impacts the entire Jewishpopulation. Its lessons, experiences, and messages have been commu-nicated in ways that make them orienting themes in Jewish Americanshort stories. Linking current memories with direct and indirect refer-ences to the Holocaust in these stories vivified contemporary tensionsand fears by making them symbolic of the Holocaust.

Symbols conveying tension and fear related to the Holocaustappear in 18 percent of the sampled short stories written by JewishAmerican authors. Much of the tension that appears in these short

Table 2. Use of Holocaust and victimization symbols or themes in short

stories written by Jewish American Authors

Stories using Holocaust symbols or themes 53

Stories using anti-semitism=victimization symbols or themes 26

Stories with no symbols or themes related to the Holocaust 21

Table 3. Different uses of Holocaust and victimization symbols in Jewish

American short stories over time

Stories using direct references 40%

Stories using indirect references 30%

Stories using memory 15%

Stories using tension=fear 18%

Stories using anti-Semitism=victimization 26%

Stories with no symbols or themes related to Holocaust=victimization 21%

290 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

stories centers around concern that if the Holocaust is forgotten orpermitted to slip away into the unnoticed past of the group, thenthe group might once again face genocidal forces or other types ofvictimization that could, in some sense, cause the demise of theJewish people. This same sentiment is played upon in the rhetoricpropagated by Jewish organizations and agencies and is also evi-denced in the verbal statements made by Jewish American com-munity members. Issues of tension and fear in the Jewish Americancontext are also clearly linked in these stories to fear and concernfor the State of Israel. Many stories present the present dayArab-Israeli conflict as threatening the Jewish people in many ofthe same ways that Hitler threatened the survival of the Jews. Inmuch of the writings by Jewish American writers, the tension and fearthat accompanies the Holocaust is used to persuade readers of theneed to create a strong Jewish identity resistant to external pressureswhich are aimed at removing a Jewish presence from the world.Many of these fear-producing external pressures, then, also are linkedto issues of actual or perceived anti-Semitism in the Jewish Americancommunity.

The Holocaust often becomes a reference point for understandingacts of hostility or violence directed or perceived to be directedagainst Jews. This, however, is not the only context in which issuesof anti-Semitism come into play in the writings. Anti-Semitism andvictimization, independent of the Holocaust, emerges as a centraltheme in 26 percent of the stories. Oftentimes, anti-Semitic acts arereferenced with regard to the changing political, social, and economicclimate in the United States. There is often a rise in bias crimes duringtimes of quick or turbulent change. Much of the anti-Semitic symbo-lism that appears in the short stories also draws on the changingpolitical climate in the United States and its perceived overall effecton the Jewish American community. My reading of these short stor-ies suggests that Jewish Americans regularly perceive ‘‘ordinary’’events in the context of lessons from the Holocaust. How and whydoes this happen?

Dorothy E. Smith (1990) engaged standpoint theory within thesociology of knowledge to analyze how individuals come to ‘‘know’’both their individual and collective experiences and how perceptionsof events can just as easily be social constructions as the issues them-selves. Smith sought to provide an interpretive framework that chal-lenged more simplistic claims sometimes made in the sociology ofknowledge in order to bring the level of understanding and interpret-ation to a more experiential level. That is, she created a framework inwhich she identified the existence of a bifurcated consciousness, one

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 291

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

in which knowledge is framed through living life and participating inone’s community and everyday activities. Drawing on Smith’s con-ceptual theory, a new way of knowing about the social worldemerges: one that is steeped in experience and understanding fromwithin (a community) rather than from the outside. In this manner,it is everyday life, indeed lived reality that is primarily a social con-struct. Social beings take direct experiences and those experiencesthat appear to pertain to the social group and apply a systematicinterpretation of those experiences based on the contextual realitiesof individual lives. If one takes the very basic premise that the socialworld is already socially organized ‘‘prior to the moment at which weenter and at which inquiry begins. By taking up a standpoint in ouroriginal and immediate knowledge of the world, one can makesocially organized properties first observable and then problematic’’(Smith 1990, p. 23).

This has immediate relevance for understanding how and whyJewish Americans are constructing an ever-stronger victim identity.Experiences, understandings, and interpretations, are essentialproperties that mutually create Jewish American perceptions of theoverall salience of hate crimes. Critical understandings and interpre-tations, in turn, are based not only on personal experience, but alsoon how issues of anti-Semitism, victimization, and hate=bias crimeshave gotten portrayed on a communal level for Jewish Americans.Thus, Smith might argue that it is not sufficient to rely on tacitknowledge of the Jewish American experience. Every aspect of theJewish American experience and identity is socially constructed—from the salience of hate crimes to the incorporation of a victimidentity into the core definition of what it means to be both Jewishand American in the United States. Most importantly, even the pro-cess by which Jewish Americans perceive that they, increasingly, aretargets of hate crimes (when, in fact, the data does not support thisconclusion) is incorporated into a unique Jewish American victimidentity.11

Smith contends that ‘‘(t)he very organization of the world that hasbeen assigned to us as the primary locus of our being, shaped otherprojects and desires, is determined by and subordinate to the relationsof society’’ (Smith 1990, p. 27). By locating the analysis not simply inthe events that occur in the lives of social beings, but also in howsocial beings experience and understand or interpret those realities,a greater insight may be found concerning how and why social

11Smith notes that no two individuals have similar perceptions of the same events and

claims that one has to be cognizant of this phenomenon.

292 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

beings, as the authoritative speakers of their own experiences, locatethemselves (i.e., claim certain identities over others) in society asthey do.

This striking shift in emphasis is documented in Smith’s (1990, p. 62)work, where she argues:

from the situated imperfections of the knower to the status of knowl-

edge in actual settings, and as organized by and organizing definite

social relations. The social organization and accomplishment of the

knowledge itself is the focus of inquiry. How can there be ‘‘knowl-

edge’’ that exists independently of knowers? What are the socially

organized practices of knowers who in concerted ways obliterate their

presence as subjects form the objectified knowing we call knowledge

[emphasis in the original]? How does a knower, embodied and situated

in a local and particular world, participate in creating a knowledge

transcending particular knowers and particular places? . . . To inquire

about these is to inquire into the social organization of knowledge

[emphasis in the original], rather than its sociology.

How does the linking of other contemporary Jewish Americanthemes to symbols of the Holocaust, victimization, and=or anti-Semitism redefine the ‘‘meaning’’ of current Jewish Americanexperience? Authors are, by definition, creative writers. Each authorhas a unique way of creating meanings through the interweaving ofsymbols. For example, the coloring of references to social class withdirect and indirect references to the Holocaust becomes significant.Social class had one connotation prior to the Holocaust: namely,material goods and financial social success. Contemporarily, how-ever, it is clear in the literature that the definition of social classhas expanded. Some authors use references to social class in wayswhich show that memory of the Holocaust has not dissipated, evenfor those who never directly experienced the event themselves, 50-some years after the event. These stories take aspects of fear thathave an historic referent (e.g., the idea that if one leaves home forwork, that s=he may never return), and reinvent them to fit a con-temporary social context. In all, however, the symbols that are uti-lized primarily by Jewish American authors have one thing incommon: namely, usage that is premised on group victimizationand the need to remain in close contact with those who share a simi-lar culture (ingroup vs. outgroup perspectives), lifestyle, social class,religion, and worldview.

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 293

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

With more open access to non-Jewish neighborhoods, schoolingand jobs after World War II, opportunities for assimilation—includ-ing intermarriage with non-Jews-accelerated. Secularized Jews couldmore easily ‘‘assimilate,’’ disappearing into the dominant Americanculture. Discussion of what it means ‘‘to be Jewish’’ gained a newintensity and was reflected in the themes of Jewish-American shortstories by both well-known and less well-known authors. Now,however, the terms of discourse had changed.

Jewish American literature of the mid-to-late 1900s represents abreak with that which is traditionally Jewish, traditionally religious,and traditionally Talmudic. Historically, Jewish American literaturefocused on the traditional. This form often embodied what mightbe called a typical ‘‘Fiddler on the Roof’’ mentality in which the prin-cipal character, Tevye, arranged, with the help of a ‘‘Yenta’’ (amatchmaker), the lives of his children. Judaism has long been animpetus for tradition—the religious and cultural heritage provides asocially constructed interpretation of the conventional mores, rules,and regulations that govern ones’ being. In the last few decades, allthis has changed. It is precisely this escape from tradition that is per-sonified in contemporary Jewish American literature.

This ‘‘escape,’’ however, represents much more than merely a breakfrom that which is traditional. Jewish Americans, beginning in the late1940s and continuing through the present, have been experiencing theimpact of a number of social forces that have been inextricably linkedto their ‘‘escape’’ from the traditional. Following the war, as JewishAmericans prospered and found new opportunities opening in Amer-ican society, they also had to come to understand, and, ultimately, toaccept the fact that six million Jews perished during the Holocaust.Jewish Americans perceived a need to mobilize resources in anattempt to ‘‘aid’’ those who had survived and were seeking familymembers and new places to live.12 Thus, as they moved into ‘‘success-ful’’ roles in the broader American society, American Jews felt socialpressure to support those Jews who had survived the war and to showtheir compassion. With the burden of helping and understanding whathad happened to their social and religious group overseas, came theestablishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the push for AmericanJews to ‘‘identify’’ with the Jewish State. Yet, the Jewish State began,as it were, wrought with problems due to the manner in which the land

12Ostensibly, survivors sought refuge in the newly formed State of Israel because they were

not welcomed back into their communities of origin after the war. The anti-Semitism had pene-

trated the society so deeply that many survivors were made to feel unwelcome and what were

their homes and property prior to the war no longer belonged to them.

294 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

had been designated by the United Nations and the pre-existing andcontinuing tensions between Arabs and Jews in the region.13

Many American Jews felt themselves pushed toward Zionismbecause of perceived links between their own safety and that of theirsocial, political, religious, and, often, ideological reference group, aswell as by the perception by the dominant society that ‘‘all Jews(and, thus, all Jewish Americans) were=are supporters of the Stateof Israel.’’ A globalization of consciousness had begun for manyAmericans with WWII and its aftermath. For American Jews andJewish American writers globalization very clearly took on a parti-cular coloring. Once again, Jewish American short stories reflectemerging themes, in response to changes in what has become prob-lematic, nationally and internationally, during different time periodsof the past half-century.

The first decade after World War II (approximately 1945–1956)marked a time of growing American prosperity, social mobility formany American Jews and establishment of the State of Israel. Withthe development of suburbs in American metropolitan areas, greateracceptance as enrollees in colleges and universities, increasing oppor-tunities for intermarriage with non-Jews, and the opportunity toescape central city living came new possibilities for assimilation intoAmerican society more generally—and new threats, therefore, to thesurvival of a small minority community.

From 1957 to 1973, there was a major shift in public issues inAmerica more broadly. The Civil Rights movement gained momen-tum and enlisted participation from many American Jews who ident-ified with other oppressed minorities. Internationally, threats to theState of Israel from Arab neighbors helped mobilize even strongersupport for Israel among American Jews and reawakened awarenessthat European lessons from the Holocaust had not permeated the lar-ger global society that was emerging. Now there were new nationsand population groups who were espousing hatred for Jews and theState of Israel. And indeed, within the United States by 1973 the

13Throughout history, tensions have existed between Arabs and Jews. This tension was exacer-

bated with the creation of the State of Israel in a region that was previously claimed by Palesti-

nians. This tenuous relationship between Israelis (who are Jews having distinct citizenship and

allegiance to the State of Israel) and Arabs has only been further exacerbated by many of the

Israeli policies toward Palestinians and in their position of ‘‘occupiers’’ of land that does not right-

fully belong to them. Moreover, because of many of the Israeli tactics aimed at ‘‘creating security

for the Israeli people’’ (i.e., the Yom Kippur War and the Six-Day War in which Israel further

‘‘extended its territory’’) further tensions have arisen. These ensuing tensions have further contrib-

uted to the feeling of fear and relative uneasiness that Jewish Americans have had to combat with

regard to their continued identification as Jews in America.

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 295

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

broad coalition that had supported the Civil Rights Movement wasbreaking apart, and Black Power advocates began expressing anti-Semitic views that had not previously been widely expressed withinthe African-American community (whose religious traditions oftenidentified closely with accounts of slavery in the Old Testament,and the fellow-suffering of both minorities in the U.S.). By 1974, withIsrael adopting more aggressive military postures and a new politicalconservatism beginning to emerge in the United States, a new contexthad emerged for interpreting what it means to be a Jew in America.

Paralleling this shift in national and international context, trendsin Holocaust and victimization symbolization as central themes inshort stories written by Jewish American authors between 1945 and1995 can be seen during the three time periods just described: 1945–1956, 1957–1973, and 1974–1995. As Table 4 shows, there has been asteady upward trend in the use of the Holocaust as a central theme inliterature written by Jewish American authors over time. During thesecond era of this study, use of the Holocaust as a central theme in theshort stories increased by five percent over that found between 1946and 1956. It increased an additional 8.1 percent from the second to thethird eras in this study. Thus, the representation of the Holocaust in Jew-ish American short stories evidenced a 13.1 percent increase from 1946 to1995. By the second period, it had become a central theme in over half ofthe stories sampled, and this emphasis continued to increase in the thirdperiod.

Of the sampled stories written between 1946 and 1956, 46.4 percentdealt with the Holocaust at some level. This finding stands in sharpcontrast to assertion by other scholars that during this time period,Jewish American leaders invoked ‘‘a conspiracy of silence’’ aboutthe Holocaust. Jewish American authors were never silent, thoughtheir attention to Holocaust themes increased, strikingly, over time.

The upward trend in theme and symbol usage was not limited to theHolocaust. It also is evidenced in the occurrence of anti-Semitism and

Table 4. Use of Holocaust, victimization, and=or anti-Semitism symbols or

themes written by Jewish American authors over time

1946–1956

(%)

1957–1973

(%)

1974–1995

(%)

Stories using Holocaust 46.4 51.4 59.5

Stories using anti-Semitism=victimization 21.4 28.6 27.0

Stories with no symbols or

themes relating to Holocaust=victimization

32.1 20.0 13.5

Significant values at a ¼ .05.

296 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

victimization as central themes over time. The use of victimization as acentral theme in the short stories increased by 7.2 percent during thesecond era in the study, but decreased slightly in the third time period.Overall, use of victimization as a central theme in Jewish Americanshort stories increased from 21.4 percent to 27.0 percent, thereby estab-lishing it as a fairly salient issue for the Jewish American community.

As the Holocaust and victimization became represented more pre-valently as central themes in short stories by Jewish Americanauthors, stories that had no reference to the Holocaust decreased dra-matically. From 1946–1956, roughly one third of the short storiessampled (32.1%) involved no references to the Holocaust or victimi-zation. However, there was a 12.1 percent decrease in the proportionof sampled stories with no reference to Holocaust or victimizationduring the second period studied and a further decline of 6.5 percentin such stories during the third time period. Only 13.5 percent ofstories written between 1974 and 1995 ignored Holocaust orvictimization=anti-Semitism themes.

In each time period, a similar proportion of stories used tensionand fear, or concerns about anti-Semitism and victimization asthemes of the story. The frequency of both direct and indirect refer-ences to the Holocaust or memories of the Holocaust or tension andfear relating to it roughly doubled during the second time period andthen remained fairly steady over time, with use of indirect referencesdecreasing slightly in the third time period.

Striking changes in emphasis occurred in each time period. Overtime, the Holocaust grew in importance as a part of Jewish Americanshort stories. Its most rapid increase occurred during the period from1957 to 1973, when it offered a special context for understanding con-temporary social developments, both in the Middle East and in theUnited States. However it always was present, as an orienting contextfor understanding Jewish American experience since World War II.

What do Jewish Americans do with this victim identity? How doesit orient them toward other victims who are not Jewish? It is clearthat international events affecting international Jewry have broughtabout a shift in emphasis. There have been important new develop-ments in the past couple of years that have begun to divide membersof the Jewish community into supporters or critics of current Israelipolicy. To study this phenomenon we will need not only evidence fromfictional literature, but observation of Jewish American communitieswho are now dealing with a new internationalized context, using thevantage point that they have developed over the past 50 years. Themoral lessons drawn from the samples of short stories show no final res-olution of the question of what Jewish Americans do with this collective

The Holocaust as Recurring Reality 297

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014

victim identity (except be victims) and relationship to other oppressedpeople that has emerged through time. It will thus be interesting to seewhether the complex dilemmas of a powerful state and its relation to‘‘terrorism’’ give new direction to this dynamic moral debate.

REFERENCES

Anti-Defamation League (ADL). 1994. Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. New York:

Author.

Goodman, Allegra. 1989=1998. ‘‘Variant Text’’ in Total Immersion edited by Allegra

Goodman. New York: Delta Books, pp. 20–51.

Klein, Gerda Weissman. 1995. ‘‘One Survivor Remembers (Noble Be Man, Merciful

and Good).’’ New York and Washington, DC: HBO and the United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States:

From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.

Radway, Janice. 1984. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular

Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Roediger, David R. 1999. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the

American Working Class. London and New York: Verso.

Turner, Patricia. 1993. I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African American

Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Waters, Mary C. 1990. Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. Berkeley:

University of California Press.

298 D. M. Greene

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tuf

ts U

nive

rsity

] at

11:

29 1

0 N

ovem

ber

2014