It’s that time of year again.
Jewish newspapers and magazines around the country are writing stories about the growing phenomenon of Jewitches. Most of the articles have the standard cast of characters — interviews with Jewitches reassuring people they are not evil and responses from horrified or open-minded, yet skeptical, Rabbis.
What so many of these articles seem to miss is that there is no single, unified definition of a Jewitch. There’s no test to pass, no initiation, no Bat Mitzvah. The term fits you, so you use it. There are many subsets of Jewitchery, but within each there are many variations beyond the basic description. The diversity within this small world can be astonishing. And it’s not just happening in America. There are Jewitches in Israel, Canada, Australia, and Europe.
When the traditionalists are interviewed they are usually asked questions without explanation or definition. People think they know what magick, Pagan, and even polytheism mean; but they only know their own definitions. Let’s look specifically at polytheism. People mistakenly believe that all Pagans are truly polytheistic; often they are actually Pantheistic or Panentheistic. Many believe in a central source of Divinity and the gods either spring from that source or are facets of it. This actually is not that different from Judaism with its chorus of heavenly characters. It just isn’t a big stretch to equate a pantheon of gods with the angelology of Judaism. Only the most limited definition of monotheism would not be able to include the views of much of the Pagan community.
There are Jewitches who are ethnically Jewish, but now practice Wicca or another Pagan religion. This group does not claim Judaism as religion, rather as a tribal or ethnic affiliation. They often work symbols and rituals of Judaism into their spiritual practice, but primarily, do not observe the Jewish holidays.
Others, like myself, practice a Shamanic, Earth-based, Magickal form of Judaism, celebrating the Jewish holidays, but in entirely new ways. There is less emphasis on traditional Torah interpretation and laws and more emphasis on experience and personal interpretation of the traditions. In some cases solstices and other earth-based or Pagan holidays are added to the calendar as modern additions like Yom HaShoah or Israel Independence Day.
There are others who are trying to reconstruct the pre-temple religion and some who are more traditional, and even Orthodox, Jews who have an interest in the Occult or Kabbalah.
The really amazing thing is how well everyone gets along. Generally when you put an Orthodox, a Conservative, and a Reform Jew in a room ? each thinks the other is wrong. The experience in the Jewitch community is entirely different. We all learn from each other and do our best to respect and revel in the diversity of opinion and ideas.
But, what most people really want to know is, “What are you going as for Halloween?”
A witch — what else!
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You can catch Carly in her witch costume at the annual Drum Circle at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC on October 30th.
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