David E. Weber assesses his total identity as both an American and a member of the Jewish community. He shares experiences from his life that helped shape this identity, including feeling pride watching a Jewish character on TV as a child, and sadness when teased about his Jewish identity in school. Weber examines how his identity surfaces through communication, like using Yiddish words or displaying a mezuzah. He concludes that having both a Jewish and American identity can be seen as unusual but that embracing both aspects of his identity is important.

1. Author: David E. Weber
University of North Carolina at Wilmington

2. » Weber (2004) assesses his “total individual
identity”, or his social and cultural identity, as
both an American and also as a member of the
Jewish community.
» He summarizes his experience building his
identity, growing up with coexisting identities,
and the realizations he has come to understand
from his experience being both Jew &
American, while also explaining how his
identity surfaces in everyday life.

3. » Weber examines this topic by way of interpretive
approach as he uses past personal experiences to
make evident the “pivotal moments in the
construction of his Jewish identity.”
» Weber (2004) states, “These brief stories involve the
negotiation of-and perhaps occasionally, the
triumph over-the vulnerability I am describing.” As
he was relating the tensions and uneasiness that
many Jews feel in sustaining their presence in
mainstream American society.

4. » Weber (2004) speaks of conversational marking,
such as the phrase the “Jewish climber.” This
validates the existence of two separate identities,
both a Jew, and a climber. Also insinuating that
the relation between the two are “atypical,” or
unusual.
» He then concludes, “To have a Jewish identity
and a U.S. American one, then, is to be the
object of marked discourse.” Assuming that the
co-occurrence of both Jewish and American
identities is seen as “atypical” (Weber 2004).

5. » He states that identity surfaces in many ways.
However, most commonly for him they surface
when he makes “certain utterances” for
example, saying “Put some schmaltz [personal
warmth] into your oral reports” (Weber 2004),
to a group of his protestant students.
» Also, it emerges in silence through cultural
specific objects like a mezuzah (tubular prayer
container) that he has hung on his front door at
home.

6. » Identity also surfaces through dialogue with
others.
» Weber (2004) states, “As does any „aspect of
[total] identity‟ my Jewish identity also
occurs…in dialogue with others when I must
respond by formulating appropriate utterances in
reply to their utterances…by and through a
multitude of communication practices, then, I
„do being‟ Jewish.”

7. » Weber then presents various moments in his life
when he experienced adversity as well as
triumph, proving his dual identity as being both
validated, as well as uncommon.
» For example, when he was “eight years old and
watching Rawhide on the living room TV on Friday
night. In the episode, Shelley Berman guest stars as
Mendel, a Jewish peddler in the Old West. In one
scene, Mendel blesses the Sabbath wine sinuously
chanting guttural words familiar to me. Proud tears
trickle down my cheeks-I had chanted the same
words myself 90 minutes earlier at my family‟s
Sabbath dinner. It‟s unbelievable-never before have
I seen the life experience of a Jew appear on
screen!” (Weber 2004).

8. » Then, when he was “fourteen years old, in French II, we
bait the teacher at least a couple of times a week, to
move her out of subject matter and into more enjoyable
conversation. Today, a classmate baits me: we learn that
le bijoux means “jewel,” and Craig hisses, “That‟s „be
Jew‟ Dave,” and sadness heats up my face” (Weber
2004).
» Weber ends the article telling of his father‟s passing in
2002. When he was nine years old he received his first
siddur [book of prayers], which he located on the shelf
after forty years. He opens it and writes inside the front
cover, “My beloved father, Daniel Aaron Weber, passed
away on 27 August 2002…He was a great man.” Then
he proceeds to skim the book and comes across this
influential note he wrote when he was young, “My name
is David Weber, I am proud to be Jewish. I am a happy
little boy” (Weber 2004).

9. » Weber comes to the realization that his identity
is indeed exceptional. It may not be typical, and
without struggle, but what was important was
that he embrace it. And that is what he was able
to do.
» Weber was able to relate his experience in
learning to embrace his cultural identity through
recalling his experiences throughout life and
how each single event enabled his ability to
accept his “total individual identity.”

10. » “By and through a multitude of various
communication practices, then, I „do being‟
Jewish” (Weber 2004).
˃ Mr. Weber actively lives his identity through communication practices.
I love this quote because it poses a great discussion in understanding
how our own cultural identity surfaces, and in what ways we live that.
» Question 1
˃ How are communication and cultural identity applicable in your own
life?
˃ In what ways do your identity surface?

11. » “Such expectations influence a person‟s spoken
language choices, and a listener can infer from
these the speaker‟s beliefs about whether the
pairing of two specific identities is or isn‟t
typical, usual, or routine” (Weber 2004).
˃ People often gage whether or not others‟ identity(s) are normal, or not.
Again, it is a great discussion starter in making us think about how we
see our own identity, and even how our identity is seen by others.
» Question 2
˃ Would you say your own cultural identity is either typical, or atypical?
Why?