Jews, God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America.
Joselit, Jenna Weissman
Jews, God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America. By Jeffrey
Shandler. New York: New York University Press, 2009. v + 340 pages.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings throughout the
1930s, American Jews could tune into WEVD and hear the
"incomparable" Sheindele the Chazente give voice to some of
Judaism's most cherished liturgy in a program underwritten by
Planters Edible Oil Company. Elsewhere within the sonic landscape, a
recording of Yossele Rosenblatt's fabled performance of "Eyli,
Eyli" was sponsored by the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, the
manufacturers of Sunshine Biscuits, a product that the renowned cantor
credited with having saved his life while he was on tour. "In all
the Jewish homes that I visit[ed] throughout the country they serve
Sunshine Kosher Cookies," Rosenblatt told his fans, offering his
own seal of approval on the tasty treat (23).
Tempting as it may be to roll one's eyes and cluck one's
tongue at this union of consumerism and Judaism or to pass it off as a
dark and dire consequence of Americanization, Jeffrey Shandler's
new book takes an entirely different, and much welcome, tack. It
situates these and dozens of other latter-day phenomena within a
refreshingly new and eye-opening context: that of the relationship
between religion and the media, both old and new. Although the field of
media studies has had a lot to say about the Jews and Hollywood or the
Jews and stand-up comedy, it has been insufficiently attentive to the
impact of the media on the meanings and practices of modern Judaism.
Jews, God, and Videotape intends to change all that. "Far from
being incompatible or destructive, new media can enable a wealth of
possibilities for enhancing religiosity," it ringingly affirms,
suggesting through a series of closely considered case studies, the
multiple ways in which modern Jewish life has been redefined, let alone
enriched, through its encounter with sound recordings, film,
photography, and the internet (12).
Casting a broad net and a sharp eye, Shandler's account opens
with an analysis of how sound recordings of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries transformed liturgy into repertoire and
would-be daveners (worshippers) into an audience, and concludes with a
look at how Lubavitcher Hasidim at the dawn of this century presciently
made use of the internet to nurture a global, if virtual, sense of
community in the wake of its rebbe's death. The growing role that
personal videography plays in marking rites of passage; the impact of
interfaith greeting cards on the celebration of both Christmas and
Hanukkah; and the relationship between cinematic evocations of the Old
World and the pilgrimages to which they give rise are also given their
due in this pioneering book. Putting it all together, Jews, God and
Videotape makes a powerfully compelling case for integrating the study
of media practices within that of modern Jewish history and ethnography.
Even so, this book is not without its shortcomings. For one thing,
it tends to be much too fond of locutions such as "alterity,"
and "imbrication," those contemporary instances of
academic-speak that camouflage rather than clarify. For another, the
narrative is often crammed with dutiful citations from the extant
literature, generating a kind of academic ventriloquism. A review of the
literature is one thing; it's quite another to have Shandler's
penetrating insights punctuated every other sentence by some one
else's; I, for one, would be happier reading what he has to say.
More pointedly still, Jews, God and Videotape has all of the virtues and
all of the defects associated with its genre: each of the case studies
contained within its pages could be more tightly woven together so that
they add up, cumulatively, instead of leading somewhat independent
lives. Toward that end, a stronger and more robust conclusion that
pulled everything together would have brought this volume to a stunning
close.
But these are quibbles. All I know is that after making my way
through this wide-ranging and incisive book, I will never listen to
music, surf the net, send a greeting card, screen a film, watch TV, or
take a photograph, let alone a trip, in quite the same way again.
Jenna Weissman Joselit
The George Washington University
