Shmuel was the same way; he realized that some people were discomfited by his views and regarded him as eccentric. Yet, he persisted. For truth's sake, he had to. And Jacob too had to live his own life. I liked the fact that these lives were earnest and full and was discomfited by their glib comparison to lives that although more' successful' in American standards are so much emptier in comparison. I wondered why their kids did not follow their examples.
Chapter 7
What I particularly liked about this chapter was the vividness of the way that Meyerhoff described the nursing home and the people therein. Her images stick with you and they remind one of so many others that we know in our lives. What I particularly liked too was the fact that infrequent visiting of nursing homes has made me impatient with the amount of conformity that seemed to me to present there amongst its residents. Yet, what I noticed by Meyerhoff was the fact that she gave each individual his or her specific personality -- made them stick out -- so that you saw them as people and I like that. Basha was a 'whale' for instance, Feigl was a bird (and you could easily see her fall over), and Shmuel I found the most awe-inspiring of all: a veritable Spinoza.
I learned that culture is deep and innate in an individuals; that you cannot so glibly change it; and that to understand an individual you have to understand his or her culture.
I also felt that Meyerhoff did not understand or know enough about the multifacetdeness of this particular culture. Has she known more, her writing would have been more complex and multiple-sided. I was occasionally disturbed...
Meyerhoff indirectly compares the Hassid of the new to the demise of this old population who indicate a different Judaism. Whilst enjoying Meyerhoff's alignment of one way of life next to the other, I feel uncomfortable with her lack of insight into the history of Judaism and her deep knowledge of either. She skims along the surface and although, by doing so, she acts as anthropologist, yet some historical knowledge may have better served her ends and given her a greater understanding of the different easy of life epitomized in Judaism (she would have likewise understood Kominsky's protest against the Reform temple).
An idea whilst reading this that also came to mind was the following: Meyerhoff indicates and writes that this community was a transplantation from the old home and she wanted to preserve it in writing due to its predicted demise. Yet, the inhabitants may have carried something from the Old Home, - or rather their personalities were shaped by the experience of growing up in the Pale in Russia and in the other shtetl regions. Nonetheless, none of them transplanted the Old to the New. They brought their experiences with, adopted new experiences in America whilst trying to merge themselves with their new country, most of them seemed to have done a good job of it, and so, ultimately, they became hybrids rather than old living in newness. I have learned this from various authors' research in connection with sociology of knowledge.
