A few years ago, my mom sat our family down to watch a movie about a Jewish immigrant family trying to make it in America. They settled in Baltimore with empty pockets, great ambitions, and a tight-knit Ashkenazi culture to ground them. As the years went by, the family grew more economically successful, but also more disconnected from their foundational traditions. Avalon, the 1990 film, suggested that while material success resolved their poverty, it had created a different, and arguably more pronounced, deficiency in their cultural preservation.
In the melting pot that is American society, many decide that the freedom promised by assimilation overshadows its risks. Just learn English, celebrate Thanksgiving, and put in the hard work, and you’ve got a shot at achieving the “American dream.” The idea that distinct inheritances can be merged rather than erased flatters Americans and encourages unity. By assimilating, Jewish Americans achieved material growth and success in fields ranging from medicine, where Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin created the polio vaccine, to physics, where Albert Einstein revolutionized the discipline at Princeton University, to law, where Ruth Bader Ginsburg advocated for civil rights. These achievements are nothing short of remarkable, and America deserves praise for promoting equal opportunity for all.
America’s declaratory promise of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” contrasts with the prejudices that the Jewish people faced in other nations, first in pre-Emancipation Europe, and then in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Fundamental American liberties such as free speech and a free press have allowed the Jewish people to advocate for causes we deem important and push back on policies we deem discriminatory. Freedom of religion has given the Jewish people a sense of true community within the melting pot, allowing for the establishment of yeshivas, synagogues, and Jewish advocacy organizations.
However, these freedoms come with a paradox: the same liberties that can protect can also harm. Free speech can be used to spread libels against the State of Israel and other antisemitic rhetoric. Freedom of religion creates an opportunity for extremist groups to spread intolerance of Judaism and justify their hatred with religious precedent. These same freedoms that ensure the free practice of religion also ensure that committed Jews will never be completely integrated into American society. Being close to belonging but never fully fitting in is a hallmark of the Jewish experience.
By choosing to assimilate, Jewish Americans face the overarching danger of losing the roots of our identity in the melting pot culture of
America. While Jewish institutions exist and prosper, Avalon reminds the Jewish people to beware of bringing their guard down in the face of success. American Jews should prioritize lighting Shabbat candles every Friday instead of going out, take pride in seeing IDF soldiers singing and dancing to Hebrew songs during wartime, and look to the Torah for answers in times of distress. Jewish Americans cannot let their spirit be diminished by pure ambition for financial prosperity, because Jewish success is meaningless without a strong Jewish life behind it.
The future of American Jewry is in our own hands. As Jewish people, we will never be able to fully assimilate into a society that isn’t our own. America has given us a choice: we can choose to forget this reality and lose ourselves in material success, or we can choose to enhance American society with achievements grounded in the values of Judaism. The resilience of the Jewish people is not solely due to our success in so many disciplines, but also thanks to our ability to take pride in our culture despite adversity. Now, more than ever, is not the time to let our identity fade.