The Struggle Towards

Abstract

The majority of individuals of part-Jewish descent neither identify totally with their Jewish past nor totally reject or ignore it. Theirs is that vast grey area ranging from some vague, nagging awareness of a heritage they might like to explore, to a deeper yearning to embrace that heritage, often obstructed by ambivalence, inertia or fear, as well as constraints of halacha. Some of these lost Jews may be groping towards a degree of acceptance or knowledge; others may express a more ambitious desire to belong but lack the will or energy to see the process through. Still others may have experienced an equally strong desire to be Jewish but, fingers burnt or circumstances changed, have retreated to a less intense position. This state of flux, typical of lost Jews in the west, is captured by Francesca Kaye, an artist and potter from London: ‘It’s a huge thing and a tiny thing; it’s something I don’t think about but then I would think about; it’s a very big part of me, it’s sort of a little part of me as well. It’s a combination, it varies, but I definitely feel that my identity is Jewish.’