I am an American Jew and aware of the sensitivities involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I really got the 'Rhoda' flavor from studying my stepmother, Angela, who's Italian, not Jewish. There's really so little difference between the speech patterns and family attitudes of Jews and Italians in the New York area, anyway.
What is unusual about the United States - and it's something that I have never gotten used to - is that Jews here, there are so many of them, and they are so important to the culture.
I'm the New York Jew who actually grew up in Minnesota.
Harvard has been almost as important to the American Jewish community as the pork-sausage industry.
Most of the Jewish writer friends I have are American, and I feel closer to them because they're always obsessed with one issue - identity: what does it mean to be an American Jew?
As a first generation Jewish American, I have witnessed firsthand Jewish immigrants who have come to this Nation in order to create a better life for themselves, their families, and future generations.
I've liked being Jewish in America - there's a secular version of Jewishness there that's more about bagels and jokes than going to synagogues.
