Charles Bernstein, (Born 1950, New York) Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Bernstein grew up on the upper West Side of Manhattan and attended the Bronx High School of Science. He graduated from Harvard College. From 1989 to 2003, he taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was co-founder and Director of the Poetics Program and a SUNY Distinguished Professor. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In your opinion, what importance, if any, does the existence of a Jewish state has to you personally and to Jewish people in general?
“Israel provided a necessary sanctuary after the Systematic Extermination of the European Jews in the 1940s.”
Do you feel committed in some way to defend the future existence of Israel?
“Yes, as I do with my own country, the United States of America. I do worry that many policies of the Israel government make this more precarious — both the support of non-Israelis and the existence of Israel.”
Do you feel morally responsible for Israel’s actions (such as its management of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict)?
“I feel responsible for the actions of the U.S. government, as I am an American citizen. In this sense, I feel responsible for U.S. actions regarding Israel and in the Middle East — many of which I oppose, as for example the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.”
In your opinion, what is the main thing Israelis fail to understand about the reality of being Jewish outside of Israel?
“The reality of being Jewish inside the state of Israel.”
How would you describe Israel’s policy (formally and in practice) regarding its relationship with the Diaspora?
“Jewishness is diasporic (at least since the exodus from Egypt). Here I echo Edmond Jabès view that the Jew is always in exile. The one-time Polish Jew is part of the diaspora whether settling in Brooklyn or Tel Aviv. The idea that Israel provides an end to the diaspora is akin to the worship of the Golden Calf in Exodus. Jews in Israel, just as Jews in American, risk losing their connection to Jewishness when they become entirely assimilated as Israelis or Americans.”
In your opinion, does Israel have an obligation to defend and help Jewish communities in need?
“It is not for me to say what Israel’s obligations are; this is something for Israelis to decide. But, first, it strikes me that Israel, like the United States, has an obligation to help those within its borders, who are in need, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. The U.S. does a poor job of this. For those outside its borders, Israel remains a sanctuary of Jewish refugees and no doubt Jews all over the world feel a need to defend and help other Jews in need or under threat. But Israel also faces a need to defend and help those, including refugees, just beyond its borders. That remains a defining problem, and a defining threat, for the Israeli state. Let me add: I am for secular government, that is, government that bars religion authorities from making laws. I also do not accept that any religious sect defines Jewish identity, which is multiple.”
Have you ever been to Israel?
“Yes.”
If an Israeli tourist should ever come across your hometown, which experience should he/she not miss?
“Radical Poetics and Secular Jewish Practice, ed. Daniel Morris and Stephen Paul Miller (University of Alabama Press, 2010)”.
Anything you would like to add?
I’m an observant Jew. I look closely at the things around me, as if they were foreign.”
