There has never been a more fraught (to use understatement) time to be Jewish in the United States. Never a time when it was so politically weaponized for a “with us or against us” purpose (one such example being the “pro-Israel” defense of, “You’re antisemitic if you don’t support it”). And even saying something as simple and straightforward as that could be deemed as an affront. A sign of somehow being anti-Palestine. With this in mind, a particular passage from Philip Roth’s 1997 novel, American Pastoral (often cited as one of his best works), feels especially salient this year. It’s one that speaks to not only the inherent Jewish instinct to self-erase by blending in with the “Christians,” but also to what Roth, through his alter ego of Nathan Zuckerman, deemed to be the ultimate “American pastoral”: Thanksgiving. A small twenty-four-hour window for a “dereligionized” (ergo, “depoliticized”) holiday. In theory. Though Roth seemed not to foresee a time when everything would be politicized, for every occasion. Even so, his assessment of Thanksgiving is not entirely wrong:

And it was never but once a year that they were brought together anyway, and that was on the neutral, dereligionized ground of Thanksgiving, when everybody gets to eat the same thing, nobody sneaking off to eat funny stuff—no kugel, no gefilte fish, no bitter herbs, just one colossal turkey for two hundred and fifty million people—one colossal turkey feeds all. A moratorium on funny foods and funny ways and religious exclusivity, a moratorium on the three-thousand-year-old nostalgia of the Jews, a moratorium on Christ and the crucifixion for the Christians, when everyone in New Jersey and elsewhere can be more irrational about their irrationalities than they are the rest of the year. A moratorium on all the grievances and resentments, and not only for the Dwyers and the Levovs but for everyone in America who is suspicious of everyone else. It is the American pastoral par excellence and it lasts twenty-four hours.”

What Roth means by the notion of “American pastoral” (not to be confused with American Gothic, though that painting does have a touch of the “idyllic” in it) is the “romantic” view of suburban landscapes (a.k.a. “nature” by American standards) compared to the sinister, “against nature” cityscape. But, of course, it’s no secret that the seediest shit happens in the “pastoral” milieu (see: Blue Velvet). Regardless, the city and those who live in it are still upheld as the exemplar of the “Sodom and Gomorrah” narrative. Hence, a certain Orange Führer’s decision to make places like Los Angeles and Chicago a political battleground, complete with the presence of the National Guard. While immigration was at the center of this, the intent on the Orange One’s part is to take to the next level what his forebear, Ronald Reagan, felt about city ilk. Those heathens, those “anti-Americans.”

And even though those “debauched city folk” have Thanksgiving celebrations too, they’re not the ones held up as the “beacon” of what the holiday “means.” (Even if, at its core, what it means is total subjugation, still conveniently glossed over with the power of the American marketing scheme.) No, the U.S. still doesn’t want such “hooey” notions as a “chosen family” to catch hold. This being what “big city types” are known for doing: flocking to a metropolis to find a new (and, in many cases, more accepting) family via the friends they make along the way. Indeed, there’s an entire genre of TV shows that speak to this very subject: Living Single, Friends, Sex and the City, Broad City and, recently, I Love LA (thank fuck at least one show of this breed can get out of NYC, though let us not forget about Tales of the City and Insecure). Many of them with Thanksgiving episodes (in point of fact, there’s a Thanksgiving episode in every season of Friends). All such shows being set in the city (as that word being in many of the titles would like to emphasize). Pointedly, not in the suburbs. Where “real” families live (which is probably why Full House is set in San Francisco, because the Tanners are still ultimately presented as an “off-kilter” family). As various administrations throughout U.S. government’s history would like to remind. And in ways hardly subtle. Take, for instance, one of many horrifying speeches from the aforementioned Reagan. This particular one being from an appearance he made in March of 1983 at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals:

There’s a great spiritual awakening in America. A renewal of the traditional values that have been the bedrock of America’s goodness and greatness. One recent survey by a Washington-based research council [conveniently, the name of that council was not given] concluded that Americans were far more religious than the people of other nations. Ninety-five percent of those surveyed expressed a belief in God, and a huge majority believe the Ten Commandments had real meaning in their lives. And another study found that an overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of adultery, teenage sex, pornography, abortion and hard drugs. And this same study showed a deep reverence for the importance of family ties and religious belief.”

Reagan also referred to the many ramped-up “attempts to water down traditional values [that phrase repeated like a hammer to the head and a glaring euphemism meant to indicate anyone not straight, Christian and white] and even abrogate the original terms of American democracy. Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.” Of course, Reagan wouldn’t explicitly state that “traditional values” meant Christian (read: non-Jewish) ones—though saying this at an evangelical convention makes the statement implicit. And yes, he would probably view kugel, gefilte fish and bitter herbs as “funny stuff” to eat. Most certainly at any kind of holiday celebration intended to honor American history. Or rather, a very specific version of American history, and one that so likes to exclude the non-Christian and/or non-white narrative (Jews obviously included within this category).

And so, while Roth posited that Thanksgiving was the one American holiday where religion doesn’t have to get involved, it’s impossible to detach it—even from a bland, “one menu fits all” (thus, “neutral”) occasion such as this. Which is hardly neutral or depoliticized at all in that religion was also at the core of why European settlers were so adamant about subjugating and “civilizing” the Native Americans they viewed as “infidels.” It should also come as no surprise to see what happens as a consequence of what Reagan called America’s “spiritual awakening” whenever a Republican majority rules in that the country was settled by Puritans. Literally the most puritanical people are the ascendants of modern-day Americans. It appears to be no coincidence that such lineage often rears its ugly and psychotic head when it comes to present-day behaviors and attitudes in the U.S. Especially on Thanksgiving Day, “when everyone in New Jersey and elsewhere can be more irrational about their irrationalities than they are the rest of the year.”