Willow being Jewish

[nightshade]

Was Willow a good representation of a Jewish teenager?

As she becomes more involved in magic she talks about being Jewish less, but it's mentioned often in the first three seasons.

 

[Spanky]

I don't think there is a representation of a Jewish teenager, as people practice it differently. That being said, I never really got the impression she was Jewish as you never saw anything that would make you think so, other than a few throwaway lines here and there.

 

[Athene]

I don't think Willow was really into being Jewish it's just that her parents were Jewish.

 

[spikenbuffy]

I would have liked her being more jewish, if that wouldn't be against her being in love with Tara of course.

 

[Taake]

I feel her Jewishness was, kind of like religion in general on the show, very nominal. If pressed I imagine she was Reform, as she pretty free to follow her own conscience in regards to what was right or wrong practices (e.g. not celebrating Christmas seemed like a conscious choice) and her parents - except for the brief MOO experience with her mother - seemed very untroubled by her shift towards Wiccanism (she doesn't mention any averse reactions, though, of course, that may be because her parents essentially vanished)

This is a pretty interesting article

How Jewish is Willow Rosenberg?

A theological and philosophical essay that examines how the character of Willow relates to her Judaism in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

www.btvsonline.com

which argues that she started out as Orthodox and ended up more in the neighborhood of Kabbalah.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Yes and no. I don't think Willow was intended to represent the American experience for a late Generation X upper middle class Jewish American. Her parents were stereotyped stocked characters, they got a few jokes out of it. She also puts a stone on Tara's grave, as is custom. Any attachment to Judaism is either non-existent or reduced to anti-Christian sentiment. However, that may just be Jewish life in Southern California at the turn of the millennium. Parents are ethnically Jewish, attend temple on the High Holy Days, but the culture holds no claim on the children. Jews today are largely non- religious and highly intermarried, how would you protray that? So, this is my opinion. A Jewish character providing representation, sure, a Time capsule of what Jewish life was like in 2000? Not really, but with a qualified maybe.