'I'm Just Jewish...': Defining Judaism in Bernard Malamud's 'The Magic Barrel' and Philip Roth's 'Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories'

During and after their immigration to the United States, many Jews, in an attempt to lead successful lives in America, distanced themselves from the religious element of their Jewish identity. Thus, the Jewish religion ceased to be the "organizing principle of Jewish existence" (Freedman 33). In the wake of the Holocaust many first and second generation Jews attempted to return to the religious aspects of their identities.;Throughout his short story collection The Magic Barrel, Bernard Malamud introduces several characters who come to define their religious Jewish identities in ultimately positive ways as a result of their recognition of Judaism as a universally sympathetic religion. Malamud's characters are re-affirmed in their Jewish faith because of Judaism's humanistic principles. Like Malamud, Philip Roth sees human sympathy as the most essential element of the Jewish religion. However, in Goodbye, Columbus Roth takes a far more critical, even cynical approach toward Jews who claim to be religious, but who fail to fully engage with the principle of human sympathy.