Ob-La-Di, Omicron, Life Goes On

Not in Heaven · Jan 13, 2022 · 1h 4m

Nostalgia is in vogue these days—in politics, pop culture and food trends—and Judaism is no different. As North American Jewry evolves, nostalgia for our mid-20th century cultural traditions, from deli sandwiches to the Yiddish language and Holocaust remembrance, has taken hold as perhaps the dominant definition of Western Jewish identity.

Rachel B. Gross has studied these trends for her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice. She argues that, in an era of conventional religious decline, this focus on nostalgia should be considered the new North American Jewish…