Positive Jewish American Lit Take 2

So I’m back with some more thoughts about our Jewish-American book Confessions of a Closet Catholic. Several topics were discussed in class that pertained to my initial concerns with this book. First and foremost I was upset at the mocking undertone of the Catholic religion. Yet, after our class discussion I can better understand this aspect of the story. The main character Justine is in fact a young confused teenager. Her confusion with both the Jewish and Catholic faiths can be attributed to her inexperience, not her neglect or insincerity. Growing up I cannot even remember thinking about any religion other than Catholicism, let alone experimenting with one. I commend the main character on her efforts to explore another religion and I finally understand this portion of the story.

My second concern dealt with this book being viewed as a negative example of Jewish-American literature. I was relieved to find many of my classmates shared this concern with me. This was especially prevalent when we were asked to judge some example texts in our discussion groups. We found it hard to judge our book because no one in my group had any background knowledge of the Jewish culture. Therefore, more research would be necessary before bringing any Jewish-American literature into the classroom!

After class most of my reassurance for Confessions of a Closet Catholic being a positive diversity book still comes from the Silver article. This idea was further reiterated during a whole class discussion. We agreed as a class that the content does not always have to be positive for the book to be a positive diversity resource. The article and this discussion helped me understand that just because the contents are pessimistic, the book can still be an excellent example of diverse children’s literature.

One exciting topic discussed in class was about a documentary called Paper Clips about a middle school class project meant to honor Holocaust victims. The class decided to collect a paperclip to represent every victim of the Holocaust. This simple class project turned into a national event when millions of paperclips were delivered to the school in support of its goals. This is an amazing story I had never heard up before. After viewing the trailer for the movie online, I hope to watch it soon to find out more about this incredible story!