22. Mazal Tov Cocktail: An Encyclopaedia of Jewish Radical Culture
Jewish neoconservative demagogue Norman Podhoretz has given up. Jews are liberals, he accepts in his new book, “Why Are Jews Liberals?”, whether he likes it or not — whether he thinks it consistent with our tradition or not. Though Podhoretz would like to disclaim our progressive heritage, I for one am enamored and emboldened by it. I take much pride in and gain much reassurance from my connection to our radical past, and feel myself to be a bearer of our great tradition, as opposed to a defiler.
Likewise, there are many other Jews around the world today who are politically progressive as a result of both their historical circumstances and Judaism’s innate messages of human compassion and rejection of the status quo. They too find inspiration in the Jewish past, and see themselves as carrying the torch, struggling today to make manifest the ideals and dreams of their predecessors. Yet so often, they are discouraged by mainstream academics and political and religious institutions — made to feel that they are somehow un-Jewish in their beliefs and actions — and so they become estranged from Judaism, Jewishness and the Jewish community.
Mazal Tov Cocktail (the name comes, with permission, from a long-demised ‘zine of the same name by Heeb founding publisher Jennifer Bleyer) is an attempt to further connect the dots and to make clear the direct line drawn from our radical past to our progressive present. An encyclopedia of Jewish radical culture, Mazal Tov Cocktail would study individuals, movements, events and concepts within Jewish history that are revolutionary or radical in nature — from Abraham’s iconolcasm through Anarchists Against the Wall — connecting our modern struggles and movements to our intellectual, political and mythical heritage.
Artists, writers, musicians, politicians, activists, rabbis, biblical figures, Torah concepts, rabbinic concepts, sectarian movements, political movements, sit-ins, strikes and uprisings — all would be encompassed and explored in detail, seeking out the central Jewish ideas that have motivated these individuals, movements and events.
Mazal Tov Cocktail would seek to demonstrate that our historical narrative is not singularly determined and that one can find their own story, place and empowerment in Jewish history. Mazal Tov Cocktail would be an outstretched hand to those Jews disenfranchised and alienated by reactionary anti-progressivism, inviting them not just into the fold, but to take hold of it. It therefore has the potential to reconnect disaffected Jews to their heritage and sense of peoplehood.
Mazal Tov Cocktail also invites the increasingly conservative Jewish mainstream to view their heritage through the prism of human progress, rather than through the provincial lens of Jewish self-interest. Its content would encourage Jews to see their ideas and struggles as parallels to the advancement of the human story, placing the story of Jewish redemption in the greater context of the redemption of the world.
Mazal Tov Cocktail would furthermore reach back towards our lost Hebrew and Yiddish socialist literature, delving into the archives of YIVO, the National Yiddish Book Center and the Zionist Archives, seeking out content that further elucidates and demonstrates this line from our past to present, providing translations and annotation that can breathe new life into texts that have disappeared from our consciousness.
Mazal Tov Cocktail has the potential to be the ultimate rejoinder to Podhoretz and his ilk, succinctly demonstrating once and for all that there’s far more to being a Jewish progressive than we’re given credit for.
