There are two people the title of Rebecca Dana’s memoir Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde, which is appropriate in this book, for it spins around an axis pulled taut between opposite poles. Rebecca Dana, a reporter for the Daily Beast and Newseek, and formerly with the Wall Street Journal, has assembled not only an unstintingly honest exposé of her searching self, but also an étude on such subjects as life lived “in deferment” and the significance of something called “communities of meaning.” This book surprised me; it swept me up with its soulful exploration of faith and virtue.
Ms. Dana begins by laying out in honest terms her ambition
to emulate Carrie Bradshaw, the heroine of TV’s wildly successful Sex and the City. Her dream of capturing
and living the glamorous life grows out of a middle-class upbringing long on
scholastic achievement but short on familial love. When her ideal urban romance
falls apart she finds, against all her instincts, an apartment in a Brooklyn
neighborhood dominated by an arch-conservative Jewish sect, the Lubavitchers.
Hesitantly she moves in with a larger-than-life young rabbi from Russia, called
Cosmo. Cosmo is very dramatic about his sex life (it’s a struggle), his
grooming (subject to change), and his faith (quickly evaporating). This
character and his milieu allow the author to slow down and understand other
facets of life, like home and faith.
And here we find the axis on which this energetic narrative
spins. Ms. Dana’s attraction to Manhattan’s glitz and glamor must suddenly compete
with the appeal of the hearthside joys of family, which are a revelation to
her. She shows a very discerning eye when it comes to her new acquaintances;
she recognizes the degree to which Lubavitcher women are restricted in their lives,
but she can also cull wisdom from scholarly men in the community. From one she
picks up the concept of communities of meaning, in which groups hold common
values and goals, and use common spectra to measure worth. She also posits that
her current need to scrimp and work extra hard for a promised payoff has a
direct parallel in the Jewish faith, in which believers defer joy in this life
for rewards in the hereafter.
The author even manages to structure her memoir like a
novel. Late in the story, her boss Tina Brown organizes a high-profile
conference of highly celebrated and influential women, focusing on violence
against women. Amid talks given by African women recounting rape and
mutilation, seminars conducted by Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large
for Global Women’s Issues, and Barbara Walters, Ms. Dana is taken up by how
noble and uplifting the gathering is. While imagining what it would be like to
go to a picturesque, out-of-the-way corner of the globe to end conflict and
free women from oppression, she finds herself seated next to Candace Bushnell,
the beautiful and classy creator of Sex
and the City. Ms. Bushnell’s attendance at the conference, and her patient suffering of the
author’s fawning, unite the book’s two thrusts, and provide Ms. Dana with an
understanding and appreciation of her own way forward. The author handles the
moment in a very assured and honest way. It’s really gutsy, and it works really
well.
Ms. Dana yolks her superior intellect and her
no-holds-barred honesty into a powerful team, and the result is a gratifying ride
indeed.
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