Year: 1991
Type: article
Abstract: In the fall of 1990, I was asked to speak to an undergraduate honors seminar at Utah State University about being a Jew among Mormons.I warned the student assigned the task of recruiting me that first, I was not a practicing orthodox Jew, and that second, as a traditional Jewish saying emphasizes, "Where there are two Jews, there are at least three opinions."Thus, my opinion was only one of many.In other words, I could hardly "represent" Jews in Logan, much less some generally held Jewish point of view.That was all the "yes" the student needed, and I found that I was not only scheduled to speak for ten minutes, but also to answer questions afterwards.As the date of the seminar approached, I began to realize that the talk had taken on more significance than I had expected.The weekly honors seminar, called "Interactions," reaches beyond the university to the public, and my neighbors began telling me they were looking forward to my talk.So did staff at the library, former students, and faculty friends.I was alternately excited that I might attract a good turnout and nervous that I was about to be examined.Although I had thought of the question of being a Jew among Mormons as a question about Jews, I was becoming aware that many of my Mormon neighbors might perceive it as a question about Mormons.They might be thinking of the subject in terms like "How are we doing?Are we tolerable ?Are we tolerant ?"STEVE SIPORIN is associate professor of English and history in the Folklore program at Utah State University.He has curated a folk art exhibition and edited the accompanying book -" We Came to Where We Were Supposed to Be": Folk Art of Idaho.
DOI: 10.2307/45227874
Author: Steve Siporin
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1488083205