Introduction: The Jew as Legitimation, Jewish-Gentile Relations Beyond Antisemitism and Philosemitism
The Introduction to the volume The Jew as Legitimation, Jewish-Gentile Relations Beyond Antisemitism and Philosemitism discusses how, from early Christianity up until the present day, references to Jews and Judaism legitimized non-Jewish ideas, values, de
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Introduction: The Jew as Legitimation, Jewish-Gentile Relations Beyond Antisemitism and Philosemitism David J. Wertheim On Monday night, January 5, 2015, not long after the sun set over Beverly Hills, the guitarist of the punk band Good Charlotte, Benji Madden, crushed a glass to celebrate his wedding with actress Cameron Diaz. More than 100 friends including superstars like Lionel Richie and Drew Barrymore cheered the ensuing “mazel tov!” It was the highpoint of a marriage ceremony that included the recitation of the seven blessings and the Jewish yichud ritual, in which the freshly married couple retired to a room, having demanded strict privacy—reportedly for 30 minutes. In spite of all these Jewish customs, the wedding was not an actual Jewish wedding. Not only was there no rabbi involved and no ketubah signed, but neither the bride nor the groom were Jewish in any way. Both seem to have Christian backgrounds, and Madden was even brought up a Pentecostalist in the Church of God and has tattoos of Jesus and Mary on his arms and neck.1 Apparently the couple merely believed that performing 1 After the wedding, rumors surfaced that there was some Jewish ancestry in Madden’s bloodline.
D.J. Wertheim (*) Director Menasseh ben Israel Institute for Jewish Studies, the Netherlands
© The Author(s) 2017 D.J. Wertheim (ed.), The Jew as Legitimation, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42601-3_1
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Jewish customs that are part of a Jewish wedding would contribute value to their decision to give their relationship an official status. In the Jewish world this raised some eyebrows. With other Hollywood stars including Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow taking a sudden interest in Judaism, Haaretz inferred “having a Jewish wedding—even if the couple isn’t Jewish—might be the next trend in Hollywood.” In Tablet Magazine, Rachel Shukert, who perceived an unprecedented place of Judaism in mainstream America, welcomed this latest fashion of the stars. If the trend should continue, “It’ll be proof,” she argued, “that we can let others in without diminishing ourselves; it’ll be proof that assimilation works.” But not all responses were so positive. In Forward, Elissa Strauss, beneath the headline “What’s So Wrong About Cameron Diaz’s Jewish Wedding?”, expressed her reservations about the watering down of Jewish ritual that the welcoming of non-Jewish Jewish weddings condones, arguing that “ritual shouldn’t just be about what makes us feel good,” and she rhetorically asked, “without a connection to a history to ground us, a community to challenge us, and a value system to guide us, how meaningful can such rituals be?” Although the appropriation of Judaism in the wedding surprised many, the wish to make use of Judaism for non-Jewish purposes is not limited to Hollywood role models. We can find a similar mechanism at work in a wide variety of settings. Nor was it new: from a long-enduring era that ranges from early Christianity to the present day, Judaism and Jews served many different world-views including Catholicism, Protestanti
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