The New American Girl Doll: Whose Version Of Jewish?

by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield
Special To The Jewish Week

Normally, I save my musings about American Girl dolls for home — we have three daughters ranging in age from 15 to 8, so it’s not unfamiliar territory. But comments about the new Jewish doll, released on May 31, are stunningly revelatory about common attitudes towards Jews and Jewishness in America. And I don’t mean comments on the part of the manufacturers, but on the part of many Jews.

Let’s start with the fact that this is the 10th doll in the American Girl historical doll series, but it’s being greeted by some as an event for which we have been waiting with as much anticipation as we do the coming of the Messiah. Why is that? What is it about us, about how

we think of our place in American popular culture that makes this doll so significant?

Of course, I understand the value of having dolls that reflect and affirm the experience of the kids who play with them. But I also like the fact that my youngest daughter chose a doll that is not even Caucasian, let alone Jewish when she picked out her (first) American Girl! It struck me that she was, in some deep and inarticulate way, far healthier than most of us.

When given the choice to pick from any doll she wanted, she chose based on a concept of beauty that went beyond how much the doll looked like her. Or even more significantly, she really saw her light brown doll as looking like her, because what that meant for my daughter was far more profound than skin tone.

Of course, ethnic pride is about something deeper than that, as well. And that is why it has been incredibly important for toy manufacturers to produce dolls that look like the kids who play with them — it builds their sense of normalcy in a culture that is dominated by people who do not look like them. But what are we to make of the need for Jews to have an ethnically Jewish doll?

Do we see ourselves like the African-American, Hispanic or Native American Indian cultures for which previous AG dolls were produced? Is ours a story of cultural oppression and consistent lagging behind in our ability to achieve the American dream? In fact, it’s just the opposite. We are, arguably, the most successfully integrated religious/ethnic minority in America. Ironically, we can’t seem to decide if that should make us proud or terrified.

And that is the real issue with this doll. It’s not clear how many Jewish children either need or want one. What’s clear is that their Jewish parents and grandparents would like them to want one and are eager to see them have this doll instead of one of the “gentile” ones. I wonder how this story would be covered if we found out that Christian Americans were less than thrilled if their kids wanted a little Jewish doll.
I also find it a little weird when people make declarations like “this is our history, right here in this doll.” Oh, really, which “our” do they mean? I know that a large percentage of American Jews have roots in Eastern Europe, but many today also have roots in Ireland, Mexico and Japan, just to name a few. And that doesn’t even address the fact that the first Jews to come to America more than 200 years before this doll’s parents arrived from Russia were Sephardim!

We are a community that has entered Jewish life through inter-marriage, adoption, conversion, etc. And it would be far more interesting to address what it means to identify and celebrate the Jewish values implicit in any of the nine previously created historical dolls, recognizing that for none of them was religion so defining as it is for little Rebecca Rubin.

It’s not that I think this Jewish doll is a bad thing. In fact, the more dolls the better ... except for my budget. I am just not sure why having dolls whose “life” stories are written by an author who struggled to come of age as a Jew in the ‘50s, and touted by those who still question the extent to which we have “arrived” in America, is the place to begin for little Jewish girls today.

The struggles of immigration and acculturation were real for many of the parents and grandparents who welcome this doll, but they are, happily I would say, not so real for those who would play with them. Unlike the stories of the other American Girl characters, whose struggles reflect the challenges that most kids contend with to this day, Rebecca Rubin struggles with anti-Semitism, the “December dilemma,” working on Shabbat, etc. These are hardly the challenges of most girls, even most Jewish girls, so why make them the focus of their play?

Could it be that we really don’t know how to celebrate the normalcy of Jewishness in contemporary America? How about the Jewishness of normalcy? I welcome the newest addition to the American Girl catalogue. I just hope that she does more than provide a reason to avoid questions like these. n
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the author of “You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism” and the President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

Signup for our weekly email newsletter here.

Check out the Jewish Week's Facebook page and become a fan! And follow the Jewish Week on Twitter: start here.