Abstract
The phenomenon of the Jewish Buddhists emerged in the second half of the 20th century in America as a result of the encounter between the Western-bound globalization of Buddhism, the counterculture, and, in a post-World War II and post-Holocaust cultural context, the increasing secularization of Western Jews. Jewish Buddhists are Jewish-born individuals who connect to both Judaism and Buddhism. Neither converts nor syncretists, they lead spiritual lives that dwell in-between two symbolic spaces. How are we to make sense of this unique religious stance? What does it produce, and what place does it take within American Jewish life today? In this article, using Homi Bhabha’s concept of interstitial space, I suggest that the Jewish Buddhists’ in-betweenness is a space of creativity from which new hybrid systems of thought and practice have evolved. Following the suggestion of philosopher Judith Butler, I view the literary production of Jewish Buddhists as social discourses that enable the researcher to decipher the ways in which they articulate their own trajectories and their new teachings. Reading the books of four Jewish American Jewish Buddhist teachers through the lens of critical discourse analysis, I describe the way these individuals who have chosen to invest interstitial space between Judaism and Buddhism have become, in Fredrik Barth’s terms, “agents of change” within the Jewish religious field.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A term coined by French anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss, to describe the self-made belief and practice systems that individuals make up for themselves, borrowing from a various array of eclectic sources that they have at hand to create something meaningful and adapted to their own needs. In that sense, bricolage would the individual and amateur version of syncretism (Lévi-Strauss 1962, 26).
Interview: http://www.dharmalife.com/issue18/roshiandrabbi.html, last accessed June 5, 2017.
References
Ammerman, Nancy Tatom. 2013. Sacred Stories. Finding Religion in Everyday Life. Spiritual Tribes: Oxford University Press.
Barth, Fredrik. 1969. Introduction. In Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference, ed. Fredrik Barth, 9–38. London: Allen & Unwin.
Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
Baumann, Martin. 2001. Global Buddhism: Developmental periods, regional histories, and a new analytical perspective. Journal of Global Buddhism 2: 1–43.
Boorstein, Sylvia. 1997. That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist. San Francisco: Harper.
Boyarin, Daniel. 2004. Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Brodkin, Karen. 1998. How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Butler, Judith. 2005. Giving an account of oneself. New York: Fordham University Press.
Carr, C.Lynn. 2016. A Year in White: Cultural Newcomers to Lukumi and Santería in the United States. Rutgers: Rutgers University Press.
Cornille, Catherine. 2003. Double religious belonging: Aspects and questions. Buddhist-Christian Studies 23 (1): 43–49.
Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Penguin Books.
Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.
Fischer, Norman. 2003a. A Buddhist perspective: Calling, being called. In Beside Still Waters. Jews, Christians, and the Way of the Buddha, ed. Harold Kasimow, John P. Keenan, and Linda Klepinger Keenan, 251–260. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Fischer, Norman. 2003b. Opening to You: Zen-inspired Translations of the Psalms. New York: Viking Compass.
Gez, Yonatan N. 2011. The phenomenon of Jewish Buddhists in light of the history of Jewish suffering. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 15 (1): 44–68.
Hall, David D. (ed.). 1997. Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Heelas, Paul, and Linda Woodhead. 2005. The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion Is Giving Way to Spirituality. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Kamenetz, Rodger. 1994. The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet’s Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India. San Francisco, Calif.: Harper San Francisco.
Levin, Alan. 2015. Crossing the Boundary: Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths. Berkeley: Regent Press.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1962. La pensée sauvage. Paris: Plon.
Lew, Alan. 2005. Be Still and Get Going: A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life. New York: Little, Brown.
Lew, Alan, and Sherril Jaffe. 2001. One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi. Nashville, TN: Jewish Lights Publishing.
Linzer, Judith. 1996. Torah and Dharma: Jewish Seekers in Eastern Religions. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson Inc.
McGuire, Meredith B. 2008. Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Niculescu, Mira. 2012. I the Jew, I the Buddhist: Multi-religious belonging as inner dialogue. Crosscurrents 62 (3): 350–359.
Niculescu, Mira. 2013. Find your inner God and breathe: Buddhism, pop culture and contemporary changes in American Judaism. In Religion in Consumer Society, ed. F. Gauthier, and T. Martikanen, 91–108. London: Ashgate.
Niculescu, Mira. 2014. Juif-bouddhiste? Conflictualités internes autour de l’adoption du Bouddhisme par des Juifs Français. In Quand le Religieux Fait Conflit. Désaccords, Négociations ou Arrangements, ed. Anne-Sophie Lamine, 137–148. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Niculescu, Mira. 2015. Going online and taking the plane. From San Francisco to Jerusalem. The physical and electronic networks of ‘Jewish mindfulness. The Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 8: 98–114.
Obadia, Lionel. 2007. Etre Juif et Bouddhiste. In Des Cultures et des Dieux. Repères pour une Transmission du Fait Religieux, ed. Jean-Christophe Attias, and Esther Benbassa, 412–413. Paris: Fayard.
Obadia, Lionel. 2015. Shalom Bouddha: Judaisme et Bouddhisme une Rencontre Inattendue. Paris: Berg International.
Roof, Wade Clark. 1993. A Generation of Seekers. The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation. Harper: San Francisco.
Shoshanna, Brenda. 2004. Jewish Dharma. A Guide to the Practice of Judaism and Zen. New York: de Capo.
Sigalow, Emily. 2016. Towards a sociological framework of religious syncretism in the United States. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 84 (4): 1029–1055.
Turner, Bryan S. 1994. Orientalism, Postmodernism and Globalism. London: Routledge.
Turner, Bryan S., and Habibul Haque Khondker. 2010. Globalization East and West. London: Sage.
Vallely, Anne. 2008. Jewish redemption by way of the Buddha. In New Age Judaism, ed. Celia Rothenberg, and Anne Vallely, 19–33. London: Calif., Vallentine Mitchell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Niculescu, M. Reading In-Betweenness Jewish Buddhist Autobiographies and the Self-Display of Interstitiality. Cont Jewry 37, 333–347 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-017-9233-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-017-9233-6