{"id":71,"date":"2006-05-10T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-10T09:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/05\/easy-target.html"},"modified":"2006-05-10T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-10T09:04:00","slug":"easy-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/05\/easy-target.html","title":{"rendered":"Easy Target"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cKeeping up with the Steins,\u201d<\/a> the new movie set to hit theaters shortly, is one of those cultural events that remind you just how different your Judaism is from your grandparents’ Judaism. The story revolves around a family preparing for the Bar Mitzvah of their son. But this is not your Zaydee\u2019s shindig. A Bar Mitzvah in this wealthy Jewishly populated Los Angeles suburb is something that involves booking rock stars, luxury boat cruises, and million-dollar-a-night venues.<\/p>\n

Judaism embraces materiality. There is no mitzvah <\/span>in being an ascetic. While the rabbis tell us \u201che who is wealthy is he who is satisfied with what he has,\u201d Protestant moderation is not seen as an ultimate value. I don\u2019t think that the Jewish tradition is opposed to nice Hanukkah gifts, being hospitable, and, yes, even dressed-up parties with good food and entertainment. But there is something about the image of 50 Cent and half-clad women on a yacht with 700 of your closest friends \u201cdancing\u201d around a 13-year-old that just\u2026how do I say this\u2026.doesn\u2019t sound Jewish?<\/p>\n

Look, the Steins and the rest of the characters in this movie are easy targets for anyone who has a shred of moral and ethical decency. Do we really want the gun-slinging rapper 50 Cent doing the horah with our children at the Playboy mansion? of course not.<\/p>\n

So what does this movie have to teach us and what does it tell us about who and what we as Jews have become?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new here is not Jews outdoing other Jews. Rather, it\u2019s that Americans want to be like Jews. The movie is not for Jews but about Jews and for Americans wanting to mimic Jews.<\/p>\n

The movie resonates because people are all too aware of the real-life prototypes for its characters and situations. The paradigm for wealth is no longer an old stuffy, reserved silver Cadillac Protestant man. It\u2019s the latte-sipping, iPod-buying, Hummer-driving, sweatsuit-wearing, hedge-fund-managing Jewish type.<\/p>\n

Jews now compete with other Jews for wealth and social status. They do so not because of any inner ethnic ties but because this is who moved up the corporate, social, and intellectual ladder with them. American Jews have gotten to the point where it\u2019s the most uncoincidental coincidence that many of their well-to-do neighbors are also Jews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cKeeping up with the Steins,\u201d the new movie set to hit theaters shortly, is one of those cultural events that remind you just how different your Judaism is from your grandparents’ Judaism. The story revolves around a family preparing for the Bar Mitzvah of their son. But this is not your Zaydee\u2019s shindig. A Bar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEasy Target - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/05\/easy-target.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Easy Target - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cKeeping up with the Steins,\u201d the new movie set to hit theaters shortly, is one of those cultural events that remind you just how different your Judaism is from your grandparents’ Judaism. 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A Bar…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/05\/easy-target.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-05-10T09:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Eliyahu Stern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Easy Target - Virtual Talmud","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/05\/easy-target.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Easy Target - Virtual Talmud","og_description":"\u201cKeeping up with the Steins,\u201d the new movie set to hit theaters shortly, is one of those cultural events that remind you just how different your Judaism is from your grandparents’ Judaism. 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