Abstract

This essay considers the place of the Jewish literary intellectual, the Diaspora of Jewish public intellectuals from New York urban culture to the American universities, and the consequent transformation of public intellectuals into literary intellectuals. The beginning section, entitled "Situating Myself," discusses my own diaspora from a suburban enclave into the academic world and how I, like many Jews, have been a not always comfortable guest in the house of English Literature.

"Eating Kosher Ivy" considers the discomfort Jews felt with New Criticism and its emphasis on an ideal gentile reader, and the importance of the work of Leslie Fiedler in freeing Jews from the shackles of New Criticism. It stresses the work of important Jewish scholars who emphasized representation rather than aesthetics and proposed major synthe sizing visions of how literary periods functioned in terms of history and philosophy. The role of Jews as public intellectuals is considered at a time when Jews were still having difficulties finding a place in prestigious universities, especially those in the Ivy League. Jewish Studies was a way for scholars to rediscover themselves both as Jews and public intellectuals.