Participant Observation: A Poem

A cultural anthropologist claims to have discovered

a living American Jew

not said to have finished or to be currently working on

a Passover Haggadah,

a novel with a Holocaust setting,

a treatise on the Arab-Israeli conflict

and how it could be solved,

a tome explicating Judaism from antiquity to the present,

a photography exhibit about Jews preparing food,

a photography exhibit about Jews eating food,

a photography exhibit about Jews tidying up after having eaten food,

a gender non-conforming adaptation of an archaic Yiddish play

that was translated into English decades ago —

preferably to be staged with klezmer accompaniment

and/or a gospel choir,

an abstract art portfolio inspired by fourth-wave feminist New Moon rituals

at Jewish retreat centers and in independent minyanim,

a graphic novel involving the Lower East Side

and/or the Upper West Side,

a collection of solipsistic autobiographical poetry

with a smattering of untranslated Yiddish and Hebrew words,

an album of Hanukkah-themed a cappella music and hip-hop songs,

or a documentary exploring antisemitism.

According to the anthropologist, Professor James Silken,

“This key consultant, a member of the American Jewish community,

remarked that there are already more Passover Haggadahs than Jews,

and acknowledged a personal lack of fluency

in Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, or Arabic,

asking, ‘Why would anyone need a volume

concerning Judaism or the Levant

from me?’

Less surprisingly, in a later interview

the key consultant emphasized:

‘I am, however, interested in hosting my own podcast

or starting a non-profit,

perhaps with a focus on Young Jewish Professionals.’”

Many ethnographic researchers

remain skeptical

of this would-be unprecedented finding —

with some going so far

as to charge Silken

with data manipulation,

an accusation the anthropologist sharply rejects.

“Those same people said the same sorts of things

and expressed the same incredulity

when I discovered there was an American city whose Jews

collectively decided to prioritize religious activities

and Jewish literacy.”