“Confounding Closed Systems”: Transforming the Boundaries of Jewish Identity in Rebecca Goldstein's Novel Mazel

Abstract

In contemporary Jewish American fiction, the themes of immigration and resettlement take on a renewed significance. In various short stories and novels, a threefold composition—(pre-war) life in Europe, the transatlantic journey and settlement in America—serves as a starting point for the contemplation of post-war Jewish American identity. Rebecca Goldstein's novel Mazel is an excellent example of this. The novel reconstructs the lives of three generations of women in a setting that covers both pre-war Europe and post-war suburban America. It portrays the complex mother-daughter relationships and depicts the different worlds that each woman inhabits—worlds that are unknown to the others. But this novel also deals with the notions of origin, belonging and not belonging, the possible continuity of tradition, and different definitions of Jewish identity. This essay suggests that Goldstein portrays a constant struggle with ethnic or communal identity—a struggle or tension structured around inclusiveness and exclusiveness—that results in a broadening of the concept of Jewish identity. The novel attains this by challenging and undermining fixed or predetermined ideas and dichotomies (man/woman, shtetl/outside world, tradition/modernity, Europe/America, past/present, descent/consent). Instead, Mazel eventually offers the idea of a more hybrid and flexible definition of Jewish identity that favours the fusion of a strong communal identity with the possibility of multiple affiliations. These ideas are specifically rendered through the character of Fraydel, the sister of one of the main protagonists.