Summoned
Identification and Religious Life in a Jewish Neighborhood
On a typical weekday, men of the Beverly-La Brea Orthodox community wake up early, beginning their day with Talmud reading and prayer at 5:45am, before joining Los Angeles' traffic. Those who work "Jewish jobs" – teachers, kosher supervisors, or rabbis – will stay enmeshed in the Orthodox world throughout the workday. But even for the majority of men who spend their days in the world of gentiles, religious life constantly reasserts itself. Neighborhood fixtures like Jewish schools and synagogues are always after more involvement; evening classes and prayers pull them in; the streets themselves seem to remind them of who they are. And so the week goes, culminating as the sabbatical observances on Friday afternoon stretch into Saturday evening. Life in this community, as Iddo Tavory describes it, is palpably thick with the twin pulls of observance and sociality. In "Summoned", Tavory takes readers to the heart of the exhilarating – at times exhausting – life of the Beverly-La Brea Orthodox community. Just blocks from West Hollywood's nightlife, the Orthodox community thrives next to the impure sights, sounds, and smells they encounter every day. But to sustain this life, as Tavory shows, is not simply a moral decision they make. Being Orthodox is to be constantly called into being. People are reminded of who they are as they are called upon by organizations, prayers quorums, the nods of strangers, whiffs of unkosher food floating through the street, or the rarer Anti-Semitic remarks. Again and again, they find themselves summoned both into social life and into their identity as Orthodox Jews. At the close of Tavory's fascinating ethnography, we come away with a better understanding of the dynamics of social worlds, identity, interaction and self – not only in Beverly-La Brea, but in society at large.
About the Author
Iddo Tavory is assistant professor of sociology at New York University. He is co-author of "Abductive Analysis: Theorizing Qualitative Research", also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Reviews
"'Summoned' tremendously sharpens our understanding of what identity, self, social interaction, and culture really mean. Tavory broadens and enriches our understanding of social life and its actors; how other individuals, communities, and worldviews all intersect and combine to shape our lives, in ways both subtle and far-reaching. This book is fascinating and highly original. A superb ethnography" – William Helmreich, author of "The World of the Yeshiva"
"'Summoned' is an imaginative study of an urban neighborhood occupied by a sectarian Jewish community which makes great demands on its members, and manages to organize – in a setting not especially conducive to such an effort – a full social and religious life. Though the imageries of Orthodoxy and celebrity are quite different – a religious landscape of redemption on the one hand, and that of tabloids, bikinis and television shows on the other – Tavory demonstrates how they both occupy social worlds in which their identification is both invoked and made meaningful. He makes a compelling and interesting theoretical case based on extensive and comprehensive research" – Howard S. Becker, author of "What About Mozart? What About Murder?"
"This finely observed, beautifully crafted ethnography takes the reader into the intricate life of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community thriving in ultra-secular Los Angeles. At once witty and deeply serious, 'Summoned' describes the moral obstacle course religious Jews face as they navigate the neighborhood, the identities and commitments evoked in everyday interactions, and the exquisite judgment required to enact religious obligations. At a deeper level, 'Summoned' offers a new way of thinking about the interconnections among situations and anticipated situations that determine the density of summoning to which we are all subject. Masquerading as a study of an exotic sect in a lively urban neighborhood, Tavory's analysis of how ultra-Orthodox Jews are 'summoned' – grabbed by the world around them and reminded of who they are and what they are supposed to be doing – turns out to be not only about these fascinating groups and their strange ways, but about all of us" – Ann Swidler, author of "Talk of Love: How Culture Matters"
