Poet Adam Kirsch Discusses Jewish American Authorship

On January 29th, author, poet, and literary critic Adam Kirsch visited a snow-covered Rotunda for a conversation with Professors Caroline Rody (English) and Jennifer Geddes (Religious Studies), as part of the Being Jewish in America Today series. Kirsch began by discussing his own background as a Jewish American. Particularly, he examined his study of the Talmud during adulthood, which led him to conceive of Judaism as a way of life—not merely a private, personal religion. He explained that being a Jewish American for him meant acquiring Jewish knowledge on his own, understanding the tradition gradually, almost as an outsider, and writing about it. While many authors of the 20th century shied away from considering themselves "Jewish authors," Kirsch boldly accepts the label, explaining that it no longer serves as a constraint in today's multicultural American ethos.

And yet, this freedom of identification, Kirsch noted, has become threatened after October 7th. He claimed that most American Jews feel forced to either ardently defend Israel or totally reject the nation altogether—a false dichotomy, in his eyes, that isn't applied to critical analyses of other nations. By examining the historical roots of Zionism, Kirsch explained that Zionists' original goal was to have a peaceful state in which Jewish culture and religion could be lived out as a way of life, without assimilation or threat from a different majority culture or religion. He offered hope that a two-state solution could, in time, be fostered to allow both Israelis and Palestinians peaceful and secure nations in which to live and thrive. For American Jews, Kirsch argued, this means taking a broad and flexible perspective on the nation of Israel—affirming it's right to exist but not feeling the need to defend its every action, and moving past the taboos placed on conversations around Zionism and the war to foster productive dialogues to facilitate peace in the Middle East