[Bananafish] presentations and questions

[Yocum, Daniel R Civ 21 CES/CEOE]

I did not know about his bar-mitzvah, if his mother did not convert then
his bar-mitzvah would be fraudulent.  This could explain his move
towards Catholicism, if his mother did not convert then he would not
have been accepted by the Jewish community.  He could attend services
etc but would not have had any synagogue community rights halakicaly.

Daniel



The facts is that his mother, Irish-Catholic, apparently pretended to be

jewish in order to marry her husband, Sol. Doris (salingers' sister) and
J.D 
only found out in their 20's that infact they were NOT jewish even
though he 
had has his bartmitzvha (I imagine that in those years the mother-jewish

legacy was much more relevant). There must be some sort of rebuttal 
there...which might have istigated embracing eastern cultures so fondly.

Also..there are some elements in the Kabbalah which are infact very
similar 
to eastern cultures, though he chose to dig into them...resorting to 
catholic driven appraisal. in his tacitness, he oubviously took the most

stereotypycal elements of the nyc jewish society (well off bourgeoise in
a 
park avenue apartment) and added a catholic spin to it...the house is 
described are worn out, shabby, as Bessie (which would have brought the 
Jewish heritage in the first place)...meekness and modesty attaining
more to 
the Christian setting.
my view..
:)
V.M.