Tattoos ‘Spiritual Expression’ or Desecration?
Re “In Your Faith” (May 13): Tattoos are nothing new to many members of my congregation. They bear on their arms numbers given them not by artists, but by the concentration camp guards at Auschwitz. Therefore the tattoo etched on the back of Marina Vainshtein depicting scenes of the Holocaust raised the hackles of these real survivors.
For those who went through hell on Earth, the fitting act of triumph was not to bear more scars on the body. It was, as the voice of the Holocaust, Eli Wiesel, described it, to say Kaddish (a tribute to the memory of the deceased), to marry and raise their children. The triumph in life of these survivors here and in Israel, is the best “in your face” answer to Hitler and the pitting of one ethnic group against another.
Body art and body piercing, rather than expressions of Jewishness, are the equivalent of a kosher ham. Gashes in the body were rites of mourning of pagan societies, and the tattoo had its origin as a brand of a slave dedicated to a master or a pagan deity. The Jew, being dedicated to an intangible ethical deity, was existentially and legally free of all bondage--human or idolatrous.
I will confess that I can appreciate the artistry of tattoos and have friends with tattoos. That the wearer is Jewish does not make it an authentic expression of Jewish identity.
RABBI NORBERT WEINBERG
Hollywood Temple Beth El
Los Angeles
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Clearly, these tattooed Jewish youths--so intent on proclaiming their heritage--don’t know wherein lies its authentic uniqueness.
I respectfully offer a hint: It’s more than skin-deep.
Historically, God created the Jews to offer the world a holy alternative to our self-centered, rebellious human nature. Jewish history makes it painfully clear that the world does not appreciate such uncompromising challenge to its destructive pride.
The Jewish witness to reality has endured insofar as it has defined itself not simply apart from culture around it, but deliberately committed to the God revealed in Israel. Jewish integrity is not a matter of being against the world, but in being for that God. Anyone who tries that with any sincerity will find him or herself “in your face” enough toward the rest of the world, and need not contrive to stand out from the crowd.
REV. GORDON DALBEY
Santa Barbara
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You state in a bold subhead that “Many Jewish Gen Xers are. . . .” Please define “many.” I would wager that their numbers are minute.
Additionally, these misguided and ego-deficient young people are not celebrating any concept or form of Judaism, merely their own inability to get a life. What they are doing is in no manner “spiritual expression,” but a desecration of an ancient and vibrant faith.
USHER D. RUDIK
Van Nuys
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“In Your Faith” raises some questions that deserve answers from the Jewish Gen Xers who push this form of Jewish exhibitionism: What Jewish values does it embrace? What enduring spiritual uplift does it provide its practitioners? And, with its “in your face” character, how likely is it to generate a “back in your face” response?
FRED NATHAN
San Diego