Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou

I know the author, whose twin children go to high school with my daughter, and have read many of her columns on religious issues in the local newspaper. The unfortunately-titled "Bagels and Grits", which sounds more like a book on comparative cooking and culture between the Northeast and south Louisiana, made me feel like I know Jennifer Moses a lot better, as I've now read the story of her religious journey from a secular Jewish teenager in Virginia to a woman who teaches Hebrew at her synagogue and writes columns on religious issues. Her journey and the book are inspired by of all things, volunteering a half-day a week in her new hometown of Baton Rouge, LA at an AIDS hospice. So many of the terminally-ill patients find comfort in their Christian faith that Ms. Moses begins to consider how a deeper spirituality might improve her own life. Her longstanding Jewish identity prevents her from going all the way to Christianity, but a new rabbi at a local synagogue helps her find her way to a deeper understanding of Judaism. She even becomes a bat-mitzvah, completing studies in Judaism and Hebrew that Jews generally do while teenagers. I found the story of Moses' rediscovery of Judaism in Baton Rouge (the "grits" part of the title) to be much more fascinating than flashbacks to her upper middle class upbringing in Virginia and young adult life in New York City (the "bagel" part). Still, Moses is a talented writer with a willingness to share quite personal information, making her book a quick read. One warning--if you're a big fan of Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson you might want to skip over Moses' two capsule reviews of that book. In her view, Mitch Albom's spiritual awakening doesn't quite measure up. I empathized more with Morrie's story than Mitch's, and didn't have such a negative reaction to the book, no matter its sentimentality. Four stars for a well-written, serious and informative account of one woman's spiritual journey that will probably be best enjoyed by those of us in the Baby Boomer generation.

When the author's husband decides to leave his job as a lawyer to take one as a law professor, the family moves from their upscale, metropolitan home in the upper east to the deep south. Initially Jennifer Moses does so with a set of stereotypical beliefs about her new home area. She has a feeling of smug superiority over her new neighbors who, to her, all sound alike and don't know about the good things in life. Moses is Jewish, in a by-name-only way. She never became a bat mitzvah as a young girl. Her father, who never let his daughters date on Friday nights and always went to shul on Saturdays, never pressed his religion on his family. The author has lived life on the outer edges of Judaism. Moving to the Bible Belt makes her question her ideas about God and probe into her relationship with Him. In her new surroundings "you can't live in Baton Rouge without bumping up against Jesus just about every time you walk out of the house...." While living in a world full of strangers, the one woman she's known every day of her life deals with cancer. How does a good Jewish daughter deal with a terminally ill mother? Unable to help her mother with the distance between them, she volunteers at a residential treatment facility where she works with AIDS patients. With a sense of humor and a willing spirit, she works with people who may not have much longer to talk about the important things in life. Moses conveys the changes in her life along with the reasons for them in a way that makes you feel as if you already knew all this-you'd just never put it into words. Reading, you feel as if you're having a conversation with a new neighbor and learning what makes her tick. You'll surely invite her over to chat again as she's entertaining, engaging, and caring. And when you close the door on her book, you can't help but smile ... and ponder the subjects she discussed. Armchair Interviews says: A very touching story well told.

Moses, Jennifer Anne. "Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou", The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007. $26.95. Seeking the Divine Amos Lassen My review copy of "Bagels and Grits" just arrived this afternoon as I was waiting for the delivery of furniture for my new place. I sat down with it and before I realized it I had read the entire book and I had the best time. Jennifer Moses is not new to the world of publishing. Articles she writes appear regularly in newspapers and magazines and she is a writer by profession. She is also a mother and volunteers at an AIDS hospice in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and also teaches Hebrew at her synagogue. If you did not know she was a writer, you could probably tell from her prose which abounds with grace and style combined with a noble wit. Her pages exude charm and you just want to find a way to get to her abode for a Shabbat dinner just so you can sit and chat with her. Moses writes about having moved from a liberal and affluent neighborhood of Washington, D.C. to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the land of gospel, crawfish and Christianity where everyone seems to be a friend of Jesus. After her move, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and attempt at communion with G-d. In doing so, she finds the differences in culture in this country and she shares them with us. Moses was raised as an observant Jew in the northeastern United States and G-d is no more than something far away. Upon arriving in the South and the Bible belt, she went through a period of crisis regarding faith while serving as a volunteer at an AIDS hospice. As she writes, Moses takes her back to her past and then to the present and her conflicts that she experiences in the South. The portraits that she gives of her childhood and of her parents is vivid and the picture of the G-d of her mother is just like an oil painting, executed in beautiful detail. That G-d was one who, in her mother's words, was one "of good works and of giving to the Democratic party". Her father carried the mantle of Judaism and it is with her father that Moses seeks a relationship with G-d. Even though she was raised as an observant Jew, more or less, her skewed vision of G-d later drove her to seek a communion with her maker. It is her trip South that is the catalyst for her quest. The people she meets in Baton Rouge seem to be constantly in communion with G-d but in the author's opinion some of the encounters the people have with the deity are absurd and ridiculous, causing her to recoil in anger. They, of course, add bits of local color to their visions of the divine and this riles her up. Yet it is these people that take Moses into their world and they take the reader as well. Moses feels both anger and jealousy when she sees and hears about the southerners beliefs and she yearns to "be filled with a faith so buoyant" that it would sweep her past herself, past memory and sorrow and into an eternal embrace with G-d. She finds it increasingly difficult to understand