Jewish American Heritage Month

Got a little testy with my professional organization, The Endocrine Society, which I continue to hold in utmost esteem, dedicated its latest issue of Endocrine News to Asian American and Pacific Islander Month.  No challenge to the worthiness of these professional colleagues or to the many contributions that people of that background have made to enhance American life.  Recognition is due, respect is ongoing.  A number of other organizations have posted parallel recognition in print and electronic media.

Concurrently, somebody also designated this Jewish American Heritage Month.  Recognitions are much fewer.  A Google search largely posts recognition to places where Jewish presence is already well established, as in towns or universities with substantial Jewish representation.  An exception might be Notre Dame.  But my medical alma mater gives a thumbs up to Asians but no recognition to Jews.  Same with the Endocrine Society.  

At present, we Jews happen to be the daily besieged.  Asians can walk across campus without threatening gestures from others walking in the opposite direction.  Not true for the Jews this past academic semester.  From time to time a report appears that the parent organization was receptive to recognition but subject to the veto of the DEI infrastructure.   I have no means of confirming these allegations, though they are at least plausible.  Asian achievements, which are many, are perceived to follow diligence.  Jewish achievements, which are many, are perceived to follow privilege.

Jewish history in America has its patchwork of alliances and rejections.  Every major city has a medical center, often an upper-tier destination in the annual Residents Match, with a Biblically derived name.  They exist because the premier academic centers excluded regional Jewish physicians from staff appointments.  We have law firms with Ashkenazi names because white shoe firms once spurned Jewish law grads.  We have experience in dealing with being overlooked.  Whether the snootiness of the first half of the 20th century or exclusion by DEI officers today, we succeed by tenacity and diligence, not privilege.

What disturbs me, though, has been the rejection of the opportunity by my professional organization and my Jesuit alma mater to use the designated ethnic month to affirm that their Jewish members, who are being publicly assailed right now, is simply not compatible with organizational standards.  A month was assigned for recognition of our contributions because there are substantial contributions.  Neither my alma mater nor professional organization is hostile.  But neither displayed boldness when they might have.