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"I'm Just Jewish . .Defining Jewish Identityin Philip Roth's Goodbye,
Columbus and Five ShortStories
Patrick Silvey
ABSTRACT. Roth scholars are largely, and accurately, in agreement that in
Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories(1959) Roth uses irony to satirize
American Jewish middle-class anxiety about assimilating into the predomi
nantly gentile American culture. This article explores the method by which
Roth satirizes his Jewish characters. Specifically, the article demonstrates
that, throughout the collection, Roths caustic attitude toward many of his
characters is rooted in basic moral principles of the Jewish faith. Though
Roth critics would certainly never label Roth a moralist, his first publishedcollection of stories shows the writer to be critical of his Jewish characters
via a moral paradigm.
What is it then between us?
Walt Whitman, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
At its release, Philip Roths Goodbye, Columbus was met with enthusiastic
praise by some and harsh criticism by others.1Among those who applauded
Roths literary talents were critics Irving Howe and Alfred Kazin, as well as
successful Jewish novelist Saul Bellow. Howe, for instance, wrote that Good
bye, Columbusbristled with a literary self-confidence such as few writers two
or three decades older than Roth could command (229). Still, several of
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many Jewish readers who accused Roth of exploiting Jewish-American culture
in order to gain acceptance as an American author (Parrish 1). In his essay
Writing About Jews, Roth claims that one rabbi actively protested his workto the Anti-Defamation League, asking What is being done to silence this
man? Medieval Jews would have known what to do with him (160). Rabbi
Theodore Lewis condemns Roths portrayal of Jewish Americans saying that
the Jewish characters in his short stories and novels [are] depraved and lecher
ous creatures. The only logical conclusion any intelligent reader could draw
from [Roths] stories or books, is that this country nay that the world
would be a much better and happier place without Jews (qtd. in Isaac 182).
Many within the Jewish community took issue with Roths portrayal o f the
Jewish cultural and religious identity, labeling him a self-hating Jew.
There is no shortage o f scholarship that explores the subjects o f Roths
social criticisms in Goodbye, Columbus. One early critic, for instance, writes
that the major force behind [Goodbye, Columbusis] an indictment of the Jew
ish upper-middle class (Larner 28). Likewise, Debra Shostak identifies the
underlying theme o f the collection as a criticism of Jewish assimilation after
the Second World War (117). But for a richer understanding of the text as a
whole, critics would be wise to discuss not only what Roth is satirizing, but
how he is criticizing it. Certainly, the novella Goodbye, Columbus could be
categorized as an indictment of the Jewish upper-middle class, and Eli, the
Fanatic is easily a story about assimilation. Critics, like Jeremy Larner and
Shostak, who have characterized these stories as critiques of the modern Jew
ish way of life as Roth saw it, are not incorrect in their assertions. But the fact
that Roth criticizes assimilation and Jewish materialism through principles
established by traditional, even orthodox Jewish values serves to validate those
criticisms. This is especially true since Roth would later come under attack by
Jews who claim to ground their attacks at him in the principles o f Judaism.Though it cannot be denied that Goodbye, Columbus is a social indictment,
many o f Roths more harsh critics have oversimplified the collection by insist
ing that Roth purposefully condemns the American Jew. In fact, the collection
reveals Roth to be a social critic who is both bemused at, and cynical of those
American Jews who have abandoned the morals o f Judaism in favor of the
more convenient morals o f American individualism. Perhaps then the only
crime that Roth commits with Goodbye, Columbus is the crime of holding
a mirror to unflattering truths. Even this accusation is a bit too simplistic,
though. Jewish scholar Samuel Osherson theorizes instead that [s]uch stories
[that appear in Goodbye, Columbus] were OK as long as they were confined to
a Jewish audience; Roths sin was that he wrote a best-seller, and showed our
[Jews] dirty laundry to the goyim (32). Thus, many Jewish critics of Roths
work might have found Goodbye, Columbus troublesome not simply for its
unflattering p ortra it o f some American Jews, bu t because it was critical while
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JEWIS H MATERIALISM IN GOODBYE, COLUMBUS
Neil Klugman is by no means a privileged Jewish boy. He lives with his aunt
and uncle in a Jewish neighborhood in the city of Newark. He openly admits
with neither pride nor shame that he was educated at Newark Colleges of Rut-
gers University, and he works at the Newark Public Library in a respectable
position that promises early promotion to the kind of industrious, conscien-
tious young man Neil appears to his immediate superiors to be (Halio 13).
For all this, Neil is right to be somewhat surprised when he rather effordessly
becomes romantically involved with Radcliffe student Brenda Patimkin and
her social climbing family. Critic Jay Halio accurately describes Brenda as
a Jewish American Princess who is rich, spoiled, and smart, if somewhatshortsighted (14). Through her, Neil is introduced to the posh, suburban,
materialistic world of Jewish postwar prosperity.
Brendas father owns a successful business, Patimkin Sinks, and as Alan
France claims, the Patimkins struggle to distance themselves from their past,
to establish membership in the national, largely gentile, elite (84). This truth
becomes most evident when Brenda admits to Neil that her familys wealth has
allowed her to have cosmetic surgery on her nose. The dialogue of this scene
is very telling:Im afraid of my nose. I had it bobbed .
What?
I had my nose fixed.
What was the matter with it?
It was bumpy.
A lot?
No, she said, I was pretty. Now Im prettier. My brothers having his fixed
in the fall. (13)
The Patimkins have already financially distanced themselves from their Jew-
ish cultural baggage, but the fact that theyve fixed Brendas nose and plan
to fix Rons indicates a conscious attempt to create physical distance from
it. And yet it is no t their identities as followers o f Judaism that they wish to
abandon. After all, Mrs. Patimkin reveals with pride that she is Orthodox and
that her husband is a Conservative Jew (8889). Therefore it is clear that it isnot necessarily their religious past from which the Patimkins are attempting
to distance themselves, rather it is their ethnicity and their lowermiddle
class roots in Newark (France 84). Still, though Mr. and Mrs. Patimkin have
deluded themselves into believing that they are Orthodox and Conservative
Jews, they are fully aware that Brenda and Ron do not identify themselves as
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Hebrew studen t Ive ever seen...but then, of course, she got too big for her
britches (89). Likewise, when Neil acknowledges to Mr. Patimkin that he
knows that the term gonif translates as thief, Mr. Patimkin replies, Youknow more than my own kids. Theyregoyim,my kids, tha ts how much they
understand (94). Whether or not Brendas parents have done so consciously,
they have raised two very privileged, secular children. And with their no lon-
ger bumpy noses, their ethnic identity has been made to be just as ambigu-
ous as their religious identity.
The Patimkins preoccupation with materialism and American commodity
culture is most apparent to Neil through their consumption of food. His first
dinner with the family reveals that dieir eating habits mirror their consumerism:
When [Mr. Patimkin] attacked his saladafter drenching it in bottled French
dressingthe veins swelled under the heavy skin of his forearm. He had three
helpings of salad, Ron had four, Brenda and Julie had two, and only Mrs. Patim-
kin and [Neil] had one each [...]
There was not much dinner conversation; eating was heavy and methodical
and serious, and it would be just as well to record all that was said in one swoop,
rather than indicate the sentences lost in the passing of food, the words gurgled
into mouthfuls, the syntax chopped and forgotten in heapings, spillings, andgorgings. (2122)
Phis dietary affluence of the Patimkins is further exposed when Neil explores
their basement. He discovers a mirrored bar that was stocked with every kind
and size of glass, ice bucket, decanter, mixer, swizzle stick, shot glass, pretzel
bowl all the bacchanalian paraphernalia, plentiful, orderly, and untouched
(41) stocked with twentythree untouched bottles of Jack Daniels. Moreover,
Neil stumbles upon an old refrigerator heaped with fruit, shelves swelled
with it, every color, every texture. ..greengage plums, black plums, red plums,
apricots, nectarines, peaches, long horns of grapes, black, yellow, red, andcherries. . . Oh Patimkin! Fruit grew in their refrigerator and sporting goods
dropped from their trees! (43).
The Patimkins cornucopia o f fruit serves as a contrast to that o f Neils
Aunt Gladys. During Neils first interactions with her in the story, he explains
that he dislikes choosing fresh fruit over canned fruit or vice versa because
whichever [he] preferred, Aunt Gladys always had an abundance o f the other
jamming her refrigerator like stolen diamonds (6). In an essay comparing
assimilationism in Goodbye, Columbus and Eli, the Fanatic, Shostak pos-
its that [t] he refrigerator is the emblem of success in America, the holy vessel
that demonstrates the equal importance of gathering and spending material
wealth as a means to delineating the broadly sanctioned identity in the world
(118). France also sees the refrigerators in Goodbye, Columbus as symbolic
possessions; he claims that [r]efrigerators...are important emblems of social
mobility. Neils Aunt Gladys is preoccupied with her own refrigerator; her
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o f these critics seem to agree tha t in this story R oth is very explicitly attem pt-
ing to m ake food a sign of consum erism a nd m aterial wealth. Th is is o f great
significance to the story as . . in trad ition al Jewish culture , the ind ividu alsrelation to food is defined in terms o f the an cient d ietary laws whose function
is to distinguish the Jews irreversibly from othe r tribal groups a n d ...to serve
as material pro of o f the Jews covenant w ith the m ono theistic G od (Shostak
117). Therefore, th e Patimk ins abu nda nce o f food works to place them at
the great ban qu et o f Am erican com m odity culture (France 84). Moreover,
[i]n centering several scenes around the admiration and consumption of
food, the story dem onstrates bo th the rom ance o f plenty for the Jew attem pt-
ing to define a place in 1950s American culture and the disillusionment that
ple nty can cause (S hostak 117). For th e Patim kin s, fo od has becom e less a
connection to the culture and religion o f Judaism an d more a symbol o f sen-
sual satisfaction afforded by the American capitalist ethos.
N eil s connectio ns to Afr ican Americans th roughout G oodbye, C o lum -
bus are another im p ortan t class dis tinguisher in the story. D uring his first
phone call w ith Brenda she asks him to describe him se lf. Neil tells her tha t
he is . . . da rk, an d, likely as a joke , B renda asks h im Are yo u a Negro?
(7). C ritic P eter R udny tsky claims tha t [t]his eq uation o f the m iddleclass
Jew w ith the black reinforces N eils sense o f social inferiority (25). N eils
sense o f inferiority is o nly exacerbated as he comes to w itness firsthan d th e
opulence o f the Patim kin hou sehold. N eil even attem pts to hide his lower
class status d urin g his stay w ith th e P atimkins by leaving his one shirt w ith a
Brooks Brothers label to linger on his bed w hile unp ack ing (63). Still, despite
N eil s sham e for his social standin g he fin ds a connectio n w ith th e sm all
colored boy (31) at the library who turns out to be a Gauguin enthusiast.
N eil adm ires th e boys in tere st in th e G auguin reproductions, and because o f
the bo nd he senses between the two o f them , he later lies to a wh ite librarypatron w ho wishes to check ou t the G auguin book, te ll in g h im tha t its been
p u t on ho ld (48).
N eil s connectio n to the chara cte r o f Carlo ta, the Patim kin s N avahofaced
N egro m aid (2 1), is a lso m eanin gful in te rm s o f how N eil negotiate s his own
iden tity in c ontrast to the Patimkins. After N eils first encou nter w ith the
African American boy at the library he goes to the Patimkin home a second
time. W he n he arrives, Brenda, Ron, a nd M r. and Mrs. P atimkin are w aiting
for him so that they can leave to take Ron to the airport while Neil looks
after Brendas you nge st sibling, Julie. After th ey leave, N eil stands in th e hall
o f the hou se an d thinks to h imse lf tha t [he] felt like Carlota; n o, n ot even
as com fortab le as th at (40). T h e fact tha t N eil w ou ld feel like the Pa timk ins
African Am erican m aid m akes it clear tha t he is very aware tha t his social class
is likely m uc h closer to C arlotas than it is to th e Pa timk ins.
All of Neils anxieties ab ou t his social inferiority becom e m ost p rom inen t
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knows that she left her diaphragm at home intentionally, knowing her
mo ther would likely stumble upon it. Neil also knows that Brendas interests
have never been in satisfying her parents demands of her, yet she insists toNeil th at [tjheyre still my parents. They did send me to the best schools,
didnt they? They have given me everything Ive wanted, havent they?
(134). Brendas words to Neil indicate more than an attempt to satisfy her
parents. She is explicitly telling him that it is her social status that makes
them unsuitable for one another. Her parents sent her to an Ivy League
school and gave her everything she wanted; therefore, she and Neil are
incompatible. As France contends, Brenda must ultimately recognize that
self-interest is defined by class interests, which take primacy over romantic
inclinations (88). And though it is Neil that leaves Brenda crying in the
hotel room, Brenda has intentionally initiated the events that eventually led
to their break-up by leaving the diaphragm at home. Brenda is, in short,
done slumming it with Neil; she is ready to move on to a man who more
closely matches her social class.
After the fight, Neil wanders the streets of Cambridge. In the window
of the Lamont Library Neil stares at his reflection and sees that I was only
that substance...those limbs, that face that I saw in front of me (135).
France claims [w]ith this image we have reached the limits of the post-warreification o f wealth, success, status, and sexual desire. For Neil there is no
alternative to the hollowness o f the 1950s commodity culture (89). Frances
contention might be valid if it had been Neil who had rejected the upper-
middle class commodity culture rather than the other way around. Shostak,
on the other hand, theorizes that [fjinding himself reflected back tohimself
from the outsideof that bastion of highbrow, gentile America to which he has
aspired, a t last Neil recognizes the Jews excluded position, no matter his mate
rial attainments. He remains a Jew (119). Goodbye, Columbus is, after all,a story about Jewish entry into the American commodity culture. Neil has
been rejected, but as readers we are meant to understand that this may not
be such a terrible thing. He may not have gained the status of the Patimkins
high-class American materialism, but he has retained his identity as a Jewish
outsider. Roth intentionally writes the ending of this story to be ambiguous;
whether or not Neil values his Jewish identity (or if he even should) is left
uncertain. Earlier in the story, Neil explains to Mrs. Patimkin that he is just
Jewish (88). However, this ending seems to suggest that Neil has undergone
a journey toward recognizing and understanding his identity as a Jew. With
this story, Roth exposes the social class distinctions that have been made
within and among the American Jewish community. More importantly, he
demonstrates tha t the concept o f social class is necessarily unsympathetic, and
is therefore decidedly non-Jewish. In other words, social climbing Jews such
as the Patimkins would seem to have lost the sympathy that ought to define
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JEWISH/CHRISTIAN HOSTILITY IN THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS'
Oscar Freedman is the type of endlessly inquisitive young man who is some-
what wiser than the authority figures who surround him. The Conversion
of the Jews begins with Ozzie conversing with his much less thoughtful
friend Itzie Lieberman about an argument Ozzie had with his Hebrew school
Rabbi about the nature o f Jesus Christ. Ozzie understands that He was a real
person, Jesus, but he wasnt like God, and we dont believe he is God, yet
when Rabbi Binder claimed that its impossible [for God to father a child]
Ozzie became confused. In his confusion he asked Binder if [God] could
make [the world] in six days, and He couldpickthe six days he wanted right
out o f nowhere, why couldnt H e let a woman have a baby without havingintercourse? The question and the conversation are both over the head of
Itzie who can only respond by saying You said intercourse, Ozz, to Binder?
(140). Still, Ozzie goes on to explain to Itzie that the Rabbi refused to answer
this question. Because of this, Ozzie must ask his mother to come to the
Hebrew school for a third time to discuss his obstinacy with the Rabbi.
That evening, Ozzie plans to tell his mother that she must again visit
Binder, but he decides to let her light the Sabbath candle first. The scene
articulates Ozzies incontrovertible connection to his faith:[W]hen Mrs. Freedman came through the door she...went to the kitchen table
to ligh t the three yellow candles, two for the Sabbath and one for Ozzies father.
When his mother lit the candles she would move her two arms slowly towards
her, dragging them through the air, as though persuading people whose minds
were half made up. And her eyes would get glassy with tears. Even when his
father was alive Ozzie remembered that her eyes had gotten glassy, so it didnt
have anything to do with his dying. It had something to do with lighting the
candles...When his mother lit the candles Ozzie felt there should be no noise;
even breathing, if you could manage it, should be softened. O zzie... watched hismother dragging whatever she was dragging, and he felt his own eyes get glassy.
(14243)
It is obvious tha t there is a great deal of reverence in Ozzies observance of
Jewish tradition in this scene. The somberness of this moment, though, is
juxtaposed with a mom ent of violence. After Mrs. Freedman finishes lighting
the candles, Ozzie tells her that she must again visit with Rabbi Binder and
[f]or the first time in their life together she hit Ozzie across the face with her
hand (143). Th e reverence Ozzie has for his faith is further emphasized by his
refusal to read Hebrew scripture quickly on the grounds that he could read
faster but that if he did he was sure not to understand what he was reading.
Though there is no logical reason for Ozzies escape to the school rooftop,
once there he finds himself in a position of powera position he decides to
utilize. Ozzie threatens to jump while Binder pleads with him not to. Mrs.
Freedman arrives and joins Binder in pleading for Ozzie to come down safely
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person in the crowd admit that God can make a child without intercourse
(157). Next Ozzie forces evetyone to say they believed in Jesus Christ,
before he tells his mother [she] shouldnt hit [Ozzie] about God [...]Youshould never hit anybody about God (158). When she promises never to hit
him about God he jumps to safety into the fire departments yellow net that
glowed in the evenings edge like an overgrown halo (158).
Its truthfully no wonder that Roth has been accused by many of being a
self-hating Jew (Glenn 95). O n the surface, the act o f writing a story about
a Jewish Hebrew student who forces an entire group of Jews to say they
believed in Jesus Christ would seem to warrant such an accusation. Yet crit
ics have largely overlooked this controversial element of the story. One early
reviewer criticized The Conversion of the Jews for being too pat, saying
its .. .moral, You should never hit anybody about God, is ultimately hokum
(Hyman 37). Other critics find the story problematic for its structure. Alfred
Kazin, for instance, believes that in The Conversion of the Jews Roth is too
anxious not only to dramatize the conflict but to make the issue absolutely
clear (qtd. in Halio 26). Reading this story as mere allegory, however, might
be a bit reductive. It seems to me that Halio might have a more conclusive
reading of the text overall. He claims that
in the world of the child, simplicity rules, as it does for Ozzie Feedman. Therein
also lies the humor of the story and its import: adult sophistications and their
consequences are finally no match for the single-mindedness and courage of a
litde boy, for whom the logic of Gods omnipotence and mercy overwhelms allother considerations. (26)
In o ther words, Rabbi Binders dismissive claim that a God who created the
world in six days could not have a child without intercourse is unsatisfying
to Ozzie because Binders claim is based not on logic or reason but on an
awareness of longstanding Jewish/Christian hostility. As Theodore Solotaroffclaims, Ozzie is not the kind of boy to allow God to be hedged in by the
conflicts o f Judaism and Christianity (27).
Moreover, the faith that Ozzie forces upon his onlookers is not unlike
the faith that has been forced upon him. After all, Ozzie is coerced to read
Hebrew scripture quickly at the cost of comprehending it. He is antagonized
for his inquisitive nature, and the questions he insists on posing all involve
Jewish privilege. He first wonders how Rabbi Binder could call the Jews
The Chosen People if the Declaration of Independence claimed all men to
be created equal (141). Next, he demands to understand why his mother
considers a plane crash to be a tragedy only when she discovers among
the list of those dead eight Jewish names (142). It seems that Ozzie has
found an inconsistency within the Jewish commandment to . . . love [ones
brother]: he is as thyself (qtd. in Jung 387). Thus, when Binder refuses to
approach the question of Jesus Christs possible divinity with logic opting
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to determine his wordsOzzie decides he has had enough of the hypocrisy.
His actions throughout the second half of the story demonstrate his attempts
not only to confront that hypocrisy, but to force his Jewish onlookers toconfront it as well.
JEWISH FAVORITISM AND SOLIDARITY INDEFENDER OF THE FAITH"
Along with The Conversion of the Jews, Defender of the Faith is one of
Roths most controversial stories collected in Goodbye, Columbus. The story
was first published in a 1959 issue of The New Yorker and was met almost
immediately with outrage by many Jewish readers (Parrish 129). In his essay
Writing About Jews, Roth quotes from several letters he received from Jew-ish readers after the story was published. One letter was sent directly to Roth:
Mr. Roth:
With your one story, Defender of the Faith, you have done as much harm
as all the organized antiSemitic organizations have done to make people believe
that all Jews are cheats, liars, connivers. Your one story makes people the gen-
eral public forget all the great Jews who have lived, all the Jewish boys who
served well in the armed services, all the Jews who live honest hard lives the
world over . . . (160)
The second letter was received by The New Yorker and was then forwarded
to the writer:
Dear Sir:
[. . .] We have discussed [Defender of the Faith] from every possible angle
and we cannot escape the conclusion that it will do irreparable damage to the
Jewish people. We feel that this story presented a distorted picture of the average
Jewish soldier and are at a loss to understand why a magazine of your fine reputa-
tion would publish such a work which lends fuel to antiSemitism.
Cliches like this being Art will no t be acceptable. (160)
Moreover, one rabbi and educator in New York City told Roth that he had
earned the g ratitude.. .o f all who sustain their antiSemitism on such concep-
tions of Jews as ultimately led to the murder o f six million in our time (qtd.
in Jews 16162).
The story revolves around three Jewish privates and their Jewish com-
manding officer, Sergeant Nathan Marx. When Marx is initially confronted
by Private Sheldon Grossbart, who asks the Sergeant if he and his fellowJewish personnel might be allowed to attend Jewish services on Friday eve-
nings rather than cleaning the barracks along with the other privates, Marx
submits to Grossbart because the request seems to be a fairly minor one and
because Grossbart makes a point to tell Marx that this is a matter ofreligion,
sir (165). Over time, however, as Grossbarts requests of Marx become more
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than they are about ethnically based preferential treatment. As Halio explains,
Playing on Marxs sense of guilt more than on any sense of solidarity he might
have with his landsmen (that is, fellow Jews), Grossbart finagles special passesand exemptions from onerous duty for himself and two of his friends (27).
Moreover, Grossbarts fidelity to Judaism comes into question as the story
progresses. Grossbart asks Marx for a weekend pass a few weeks after Passover
so that he and his friends can visit relatives in St. Louis[...] [for] a whole
Passover dinner. When Marx denies Grossbart his requestpasses are never
given during basic training Grossbart accuses Marx of persecuting [him]
(187). Finally, Grossbart threatens to leave without the pass and Marx finally
submits to his request. When Grossbart returns, however, he tells Marx that
he and his friends had gone the wrong weekend and had used the pass not
to go to a Seder but to a Chinese restaurant. It has become obvious to Marx
at this po int that Grossbarts requests for special treatment are based not on
an interest in following religious tradition but on his own self-interest. In this
way, Grossbart is one of those Roth characters who, in the words of Stephen
Wade, [use] Jewishness as a shield and a convenience (68).
Given the lengths Grossbart is willing to go to in order to avoid discom
fort, it is rather unsurprising when Marx learns that he has somehow gotten
exempted from being shipped to fight in the Pacific along with the otherprivates. Because Nathan Marx now understands Grossbarts motivations, he
arranges to have Grossbart sent to the Pacific instead. After learning that the
safety Grossbart thought he had secured through manipulating his superiors
has been compromised by Marx, he confronts Marx and accuses him of being
an anti-Semite. Marxs actions, however, are far from anti-Semitic. As Jessica
Rabin submits, Marxs betrayal o f Grossbart, ostensibly calling in a favor to
help out a Jewish kid bu t actually undermining Grossbarts manipulations,
seems to be an endorsement of personal integrity rather than of a single exclusionary category of identification (18). Marx has realized, in short, that it is
fairness, not favoritism that is the heart o f equality. According to Dan Isaac, in
forcing Grossbart to fight in the Pacific
Sgt. Marx has taken an action that appears callous and even anti-Semitic, unless
understood as arising out of an honest conflict that profoundly wrestles with the
problem of how best to serve Jewish interests. The solution is one that sacrifices
the interests of one not very likeable member of the tribe to an abstract principle
of absolute justice. (189)
One early reviewer of Roth wrote of Defender o f the Faith that it was the
only one of [the stories collected in Goodbye, CoLumbus\ that seems wholly
successful to me (Hyman 37). Likewise, Howe claimed that [n]either before
nor after Defender of the Faith [had] Roth written anything approaching
it in compositional rigor and moral seriousness (236). As Howe points out,
at least part of the success of this story is due to its moral complexities Like
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dilemmas with great subdety (56). This moral and ethical subdety might
refer to Marxs last words in the text. As the privates ready themselves for war
and attempt to accept their fate, Marx claims that [b]ehind me, Grossbartswallowed hard, accepting his. And then, resisting with all my will an impulse
to turn and seek pardon for my vindictiveness, I accepted my own (200). In
admitting that Marx acted vindictively he may be admitting that his actions
were less about doing what was right and more about getting even with a
man who has repeatedly taken advantage of him. Still, regardless of Marxs
motivations it is clear from the outcome of the story that Marx has received
a prophetic vision of universal justice (189). In the end, Marx has finally
refused to hand over any more of his sense of fairness and responsibility to the
seductive appeals of Jewish solidarity (Solotaroff 27).
There is one other aspect of Defender of the Faith that contributes to its
wholeness as a story. During Marxs first interaction with his commanding
officer Captain Paul Barrett, Barrett tells Marx that Id fight side by side with
a nigger if the fella proved to me he was a man. I pride myself.. .that Ive got an
open mind. Consequently, Sergeant, nobody gets special treatment here, for
the good o rthe bad. All a mans got to do is prove himself.. .And I admire you.
I admire you because of the ribbons on your chest (166). Despite assurances
that Barrett has an open mind, his rhetoric here shows both Marx and thereader that the opposite is true. A lesser writer would have made it impossible
for a reader to believe that someone as thoughtful and savvy as Marx would be
capable of being manipulated by Grossbart for so long. However, in creating
an obviously racist (and probably anti-Semitic) man as Marxs commanding
officer, Roth has effectively [t] rapped [Marx] between two antipathies, two
grotesque distortions of attitudes toward Jewishness (Isaac 188) so much so
that it is believable that Marx would allow himself to be taken advantage of by
Grossbart. Moreover, amidst these two remarkably different attitudes towardJudaism, Marx is forced to create an identity for himself. He sees both Gross
bart and Barrett as unattractive extremes and becomes instead the defender of
a democratic theory by which the accidents of birth give no exemption from
our common fate. He acts from a sense of justice tha t is, finally, humanistic in
its universality (Guttman 174). And this universal justice that Marx enacts in
the story is ultimately a form of universal sympathy.
The question remains, however, about what it is that so many Jewish readers
found unattractive in this story when it was first published. One aspect of the
story some readers might have found problematic was its treatment of Jewish tra
dition. After all, there is nothing immoral about Jewish soldiers requesting to be
allowed to attend religious services while serving in the armed forces. Moreover,
Grossbarts request to be allowed to remain kosher is not unreasonable. The con
text of the story is, of course, the end of World War Two and, therefore, Jewish
readers might be fair to criticize a story that would seem to belittle ones right to
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as Roths text would support, the following of Jewish tradition is only important
for those who attempt to live with moral integrity and absolute universal justice
and sympathy. Michael Rothberg writes about another complaint many Jewishreaders had with the story. According to Rothberg,
[w]hat probably made the story so disturbing for some members of the Jewish
community was the supplementary, anticipatory suggestion, incarnated in Gross-
bart, that the emergence of consciousness of the extreme could so easily become
the occasion for sentimental, politically interested claims to ethnic solidarity. (57)
Readers were, in short, upset that Roth would anticipate Jewish favoritism
with a character such as Grossbart. Critics are right to be appalled by Gross-
barts self-interest. However, the moral integrity of Marx ought to serve as anantithesis to the lack o f moral integrity o f Grossbart. Moreover, Roths story is
not an indictment of Judaism as a religion. On the contrary, Marxs universal
justice functions in the story as a defense of the faith rather than a rejection
of it. Readers who have found fault with Roths criticism o f certain Jewish
individuals would do well to look more closely at his affirmation of Marxs per
sonal integrity and his identity as the essential Jew of the story. Roth himself
summarizes his critics complaints writing that I had told the Gentiles what
apparently it would otherwise have been possible to keep secret from them:
that the perils of human nature afflict the members o f our [Jewish] minor
ity (Jews 161). He goes on to defend his story claiming [t]hat I had also
informed [Gentiles] it was possible for there to be such a Jew as Nathan Marx
did not seem to bother anybody (161). In other words, Jews who have found
reason to criticize this story for the way Grossbart is represented as a Jew seem
to have overlooked the fact that Marx is a Jew as well.
ASSIMILATION IN ELI, THE FANATIC"
Like Goodbye, Columbus, Eli, the Fanatic is centered on suburban Jews
who are actively working to assimilate into American culture. For the Jews of
Woodenton, unlike Mr. and Mrs. Patimkin, assimilation is reached through
a rejection of religious identity. In the words of the title character, Wooden-
ton is a progressive suburban community whose members, both Jewish and
Gentile, are anxious that their families live in comfort and beauty and seren
ity (261). Elis words are intentionally vague; in truth the Jewish members
of the predominantly WASPish Woodenton community have assimilated by
repress[ing their Jewishness] in order to smooth their entry into Americanculture (Shostak 119). Therefore, when the openly Jewish Leo Tzuref along
with a nameless concentration camp survivor operates an Orthodox yeshiva
out o f his home, many of the towns Jewish residents become uncomfortable.
Because Eli is an attorney, he has been commissioned by the community to ask
Tzuref and his eighteen students to close the yeshiva on the grounds that it is
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he and the Jewish Woodenton residents are right because they are adhering to
American lawhe claims matter-of-factly that [the location of the yeshiva] is
a matter of zoning (251). Tzuref, however, sees that the Jews of Woodentonuse the law as an excuse to attempt to distance themselves from the Orthodox
Jews of the school. An early critic of Roth for instance claimed that, with this
story Roth means to condemn a society that turns zoning laws into subtle
instruments of persecution (Isaac 191). Thus, by asking Eli When is the law
that is the law not the law? (251). Tzuref attempts to appeal to Elis sense of
(Jewish) morality. Tzuref is establishing the difference between the laws of the
American legal system (of which Tzuref is in violation) and the laws of Judaism
(of which Eli and the Jews o f Woodenton are in violation).
The characterization of the Jews of Woodenton is significant in terms of
Roths very pointed condemnation of them. Ted Heller, a particularly vocal
member of the community, goes so far as to call the Orthodox Jews [gjoddam
fanatics (258). FJis letter to Tzuref is also very telling in regards to Elis con
nection to his Jewish identity:
Woodenton, as you may not know, has long been the home of well-to-do Protes
tants. It is only since the war that Jews have been able to buy property here, and
for Jews and Gentiles to live beside each other in amity. For this adjustment to
be made, both Jews and Gentiles alike have had to give up some of their moreextreme practices in order not to threaten or offend the other. Certainly such
amity is to be desired. Perhaps if such conditions had existed in prewar Europe,
the persecution of the Jewish people, o f which you and those 18 children have
been victims, could not have been carried out with such successin fact, might
not have been carried out at all. (262)
According to Eli, the Woodenton Jews have given up their extreme practices in
order to live comfortably among non-Jews. However, the many Protestants of
Woodenton have no voice in Roths story. After all, it is the Jews who continually
assert their discomfort with the presence of the yeshiva. Therefore, the assimi
lated Jews of the town respond passionately to Tzuref and his yeshiva (ostensibly
without prompt from the Woodenton Gentiles) because in theirparanoid[my
italics] and reactive suspicions, [the Woodenton Jews] consider themselves in
jeopardy, at risk of being seen as Jews (Aarons 9). Moreover, that Eli would
speculate to a group of Holocaust survivors that the Holocaust might have been
less successful or perhaps avoided altogether if European Jews had worked to
assimilate to European culture is both tactless and grossly uninformed. Halio
describes Eli as by no means heartless or insensitive (32), yet his words toTzuref certainly make him seem that way. Perhaps then Elis letter to Tzuref
functions to indicate how put upon Eli feels as a representative of his commu
nity. Put another way, given the nature o f Elis transformation in the story, it may
be unfair to accuse him of being inconsiderate. He does, after all, feel forTzuref
and the children, [just as] he feels for his community, whose members increas
i l hi l h di h h l i (32)
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In his letter to Tzuref, Eli requests that [t]he religious, educational, and
social activities of the Yeshiva at Wooden to n ... be confined to the Yeshiva
grounds [and] Yeshiva personnel are welcomed in the streets and stores ofWoodenton provided they are attired in clothing usually associated with
American life in the 20th century (262). The second of Elis conditions refers
to the unnamed Orthodox Jew attired in a black hat [and] suit (261), the
traditional garb of Hasidic Jews. Tzuref sends an immediate and extremely
succinct response: The suit the gentleman wears is all hes got (263), which
instantly calls attention (both for Eli and for the reader) to the trauma caused
by the Holocaust.
Clothing, like food in Goodbye, Columbus, is associated with Jewish
identity in Eli, the Fanatic. For the Jews of Woodenton, the Hasidic Jews
black suit and hat undeniably identifies him not only as distinctively Jew-
ish but as distinctively different from the other inhabitants o f Woodenton.
Victoria Aarons claims that the Jews of Woodenton are to the yeshiva Jews
what the gentiles are to the Jews of W oodenton ...the Woodenton yeshiva
calls to attention that there are Jews, calls attention to the Jews as a flagrant
symbol o f difference (16). Shostak, on the o ther hand, argues that [t] he
intense discomfort the Woodenton Jews feel in the presence of [the Orthodox
Jews] who are simply attempting to be the Jewish selves they know (and were
prohibited and nearly annihilated during the lives in Europe from which
they have escaped) finds a focus in their appearance, especially their clothing
(119). Thus, the presence of the yeshiva is just as problematic to the Wooden-
ton Jews as is the presence of the Hasidic refugee who is easily distinguished
by his black clothing. Both bring unwanted attention to the Jewish identities
that the towns Jews have sought to undermine for the sake of assimilating.
Therefore, when Eli dresses himself in the Hasids black suit he is distinguish-
ing himself from his fellow Woodenton Jews, who define themselves by theiraccomplishments in the American economy (Halio 21).
Though critics generally praise Eli, the Fanatic as one of the better sto-
ries in the collection, there are many who have criticized it. Stanley Hymen
claims that though the story reaches one high point of power and beauty...
the rest of the story is rambling and diffuse (37). Likewise, Irving and Har-
riet Deer write that Elis transformation cannot be understood or accepted by
his neighbors, for it is private and also dishonest in the sense that Eli can no
more own the experiences that make orthodox dress a truthful expression of
the Greenies identity, than he can disown that part of himself which belongs
to Woodenton (qtd. in Guttman 177). These sorts o f critiques seem to be
unfairly based on the storys basic limitations. Roth ends his story by claiming
that the sedative Eli receives from the hospital interns did not touch it down
where the blackness had reached (298), which indicates that what the reader
has witnessed is Elis first step toward a longer journey of spiritual enlighten-
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tate a lasting change in terms of his acceptance of his cultural (and perhaps
religious) identity. Halio, for instance, reads the story as an exposure of the
essential truth concerning the loss of values, of tradition and identity [that]Eli Peck finally comes to recognize and, in his bizarre but necessary way, tries
to restore (35). In a broader sense, Isaac asserts that, taken as a whole, Eli,
the Fanatic explicates what Goodbye, Columbus merely implies: Ameri-
can Judaism has become the willing servant of an immoral society, corrupted
by the very force it should oppose (191). The Wooden ton Jews, in short,
have lost sympathy with Tzuref and the other Holocaust survivors they
have, therefore, denied the ethical obligations of their Jewish identities just
as they have denied their ethnic identities to their WASPish neighbors and
themselves. Thus, the perception...that [Roths] fiction has compromised
the integrity o f JewishAmerican cultural identity (Parrish, The End of
Identity 85) is both inaccurate and off point. With stories such as Eli, the
Fanatic Roth is working to expose the hypocrisy inherent in claiming to be
Jewish while refusing to practice the Jewish principal of universal sympathy.
RELIGIOUS INTEGRIT Y INGOODB YE, COLUMBUS
AND FIVE SHORT STORIES
The remaining stories in Goodbye, Columbus (Epstein and You Cant Tell
a Man by the Song He Sings) are not necessarily relevant to this discussion,
and therefore have not been discussed in this essay. Though both of the sto-
ries could be seen as dealing with elements o f Jewishness, neither of them
directly addresses the contradictory or hypocritical nature of specific Jews
which seems to be one major focus of the other stories in the collection. Still,
it would be reductive to attempt to come to any singular conclusion about
Goodbye, Columbusas a whole. Despite the fact that Roth was only twenty
six when the collection was published, Goodbye, Columbus's depths andcomplexities] show him . . . to be a surprisingly mature writer (Halio 36).
Generally speaking, throughout the four stories that I have discussed, Roth
seems to be working not only to expose the inconsistencies that existed within
some modern JewishAmerican individuals but also to show individual Jews
struggling with their Jewish identities. Osherson writes that Judaism is often
identified with a particular set o f beliefs or with specific religious observances
or with ethnic identities (bagels and lox, heresmy Judaism). Yet our Jewish
identities are often expressed by what we do and the choices we make; identityis truly provisional to our choices and behaviors in the world (240). Many
Roth scholars would deny that Roth is, in any way, a moralist in the tradi-
tional sense. As Robert Greenberg argues, Roth distinguishes between artistic
and moral responsibility; and regarding his artistic work, he disavows moral
responsibility (496). Especially in terms of his later work, Roths tone is too
cynical and too reliant on comic detachment (494) to be called moralistic
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Goodbye, Columbus.Rather, my argument is that whether Roth is intention-
ally being a moralist or not, with Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Storieshe
was writing a collection that is consistent with the basic moral principles ofthe Jewish faith. Roth does this by showing an acute awareness that some Jews
tend to view Jewish identity as a set of traditions as well as an ethnic identity,
as opposed to a way of acting. In Goodbye, Columbus the Patimkins iden-
tify with their religious identities (though they aim to surgically remove that
identity from their children) bu t assimilate by means o f becoming American
materialists and succumbing to the alluring nature of American social hier-
archy. Jewish authority figures in The Conversion of the Jews define their
Jewishness in contrast to the Gentiles in general and to the Christians in par-
ticular. Private Grossbart utilizes his Jewish identity in order to receive special
privilege in Defender o f the Faith. And in Eli, the Fanatic, Roth is con-
cerned with the failure to acknowledge Jewish suffering (even by other Jews)
(Rothberg 56). Thus, by criticizing the way contemporary Jews act, Roth has,
perhaps unwittingly, aligned himself with the Old Testament prophets who
condemned Jews for their lack o f sympathy.
Still, Roths criticisms are aimed not at the institution of Judaism as a whole
but at certain individuals with in it who, in the aftermath of the Holocaust,
came to undermine what is most essential about Jewish identity. Oshersonwrites that while he was growing up in an affluent suburban neighborhood
(outside of New York City) in the 1950s he came to associate Judaism with
smugness, insularity, and materialism (3). And though readers might easily
find fault with many Jewish characters in Goodbye, Columbus, those readers
would do well to remember those Jews who oppose and overcome them.
Though Neil Klugman is in many ways a flawed individual, he does come to
see the Patimkins as a materialistic and morally compromised Jewish family.
Oscar Freedman refuses to allow God to be defined by tension between Jewsand Christians. Nathan Marx rejects Jewish favoritism in favor of sympathetic
and universal justice. And Eli Peck comes to differentiate himself from his
fellow Woodenton Jews by making a connection not just with formerly perse-
cuted Orthodox European Jews but with himself and his true Jewish identity.
And as Parrish contends, his protagonists story matters to the extent that it
reflects the transformation of the group of which he is a part (The End of
Identity 87).
In The Facts: A Novelists Autobiography, Roth writes at length about his
struggles with Jewish critics throughout his early career. In one of the most
memorable scenes in the book, he discusses his participation on a panel dis-
cussion, along with Ralph Ellison and Pietro di Donato, at Yeshiva University
in 1962. After the three participants spoke, the moderator directed his first
question at Roth: Mr. Roth, would you write the same stories youve writ-
ten if you were living in Nazi Germany? (127). Roth discusses his inability
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minutes realizes that I was not just opposed but hated. Still, Roth claims
that he had no intention as a writer of coming to be known as controversial
and, in the beginning, had no idea that my stories would prove repugnantto ordinary Jews (124). The fact that Roth is so consistently nonplussed by
critiques such as this one demonstrates that such readings say more about the
anxieties of the reader than they do about Roth. And as Isaac states, Roths
collection serves to pose a valid question to his readership: To what extent
can a civilization compromise its values in order to survive, and still retain its
distinct and original integrity? (192).
NO TES
1. I refer to both the book, Goodbye, Columbus and die novella, Goodbye, Colum-
bus frequently throughou t this article. From this poin t on the italicized Goodbye,
Columbusrefers to the entire collection [Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories] and
the nonitalicized Goodbye, Columbus refers to the title story o f the collection.
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C o p y r i g h t o f P h i l i p R o t h S t u d i e s i s t h e p r o p e r t y o f P u r d u e U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s a n d i t s c o n t e n t
m a y n o t b e c o p i e d o r e m a i l e d t o m u l t i p l e s i t e s o r p o s t e d t o a l i s t s e r v w i t h o u t t h e c o p y r i g h t
h o l d e r ' s e x p r e s s w r i t t e n p e r m i s s i o n . H o w e v e r , u s e r s m a y p r i n t , d o w n l o a d , o r e m a i l a r t i c l e s f o r
i n d i v i d u a l u s e .