52 pages • 1-hour read
The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen
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Themes
The Role of Community in Maintaining Faith
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of religious discrimination and violence.
A central conflict in The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen is the Orthodox Jewish community’s struggle to co-exist with their non-Jewish neighbors. The novel centers Hoodie’s Orthodox belief that a strong community is central to a fulfilled life and maintaining one’s personal faith. As the novel begins, Hoodie and his family have moved from the expensive town of Colwyn to the more affordable town of Tregaron. Although other families have moved with them, Hoodie misses the thriving Orthodox community in Tregaron because “everybody there had been Jewish, and everybody knew [him] and [his] family” (43). The presence of the community was a comfort to Hoodie and his family, especially on Shabbos, when they “would meet up with other families on the way to the synagogue, and [he] would walk with a big group of [his] friends, and [their] sisters would create flash mobs of girls running around” (83). Hoodie concludes that, in Colwyn, “everywhere you went, you were with your people. It felt like you were always among family” (113). The repeated use of the word “family” in these passages positions the Orthodox Jewish community as a loving, familiar presence in Colwyn—a community that made Hoodie and his immediate family feel comfortable and happy.
The novel extends this sense of community connection beyond Hoodie’s immediate circle to the Jewish community around the world. Hoodie’s friend Chaim encourages him to reconnect with his faith by thinking “about that feeling you get on Simchas Torah […] when you celebrate with all of your people, with every Jew” (78). Although the annual celebration of the Torah does not bring Hoodie joy in itself, he admits that “what makes [him] happy is that everybody around [him] is happy, that [he] can see joy on the faces of [his] family, and [his] friends” (79). In both passages, the emphasis on community celebration positions community engagement as central to Hoodie's faith. Later, while praying with his family on Shabbos, Hoodie feels powerfully moved in his spirit. Although he cannot identify the feeling, he believes that “whatever [it] was, it connected us, to God, but also to the rest of our people, the people we’d prayed with at the synagogue, our people back in Colwyn, our people and Israel, and all of the Jews who’d looked into the candlelight on their Shabbos tables over the centuries” (96). This passage identifies increasingly larger communities of Jewish people: the community in Tregaron, the old community in Colwyn, and the legacy of Judaism throughout history. The fact that Hoodie values this connection and legacy so deeply underscores the tension he feels as he grapples with the way the restrictions and expectations of his faith affect his life.
The Importance of Argumentation and Debate in Jewish Culture
Throughout The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, Hoodie and his friends and teachers fiercely debate the details of Jewish law. This willingness to disagree reflects the importance of argumentation and debate in Jewish culture. As Hoodie explains, the cultural emphasis on argumentation is ingrained in the sacred texts of Judaism: Because the Mishnah (the collected oral traditions of Judaism) is “based on old stories these guys’ dads told them […] it is a confusing document” (29). This confusion, Hoodie implies, evokes lengthy debate and interpretation. As a result, “for two thousand years, various rabbis tried to make sense of it, and they wrote down their commentaries, arguments, and contradictions” (29), which became the Gemara. Hoodie describes the Gemara as “a giant maze of Jewish laws, rules, thoughts, considerations, ruminations” (29). These passages suggest that the foundation of Jewish sacred texts is argumentation, interpretation, and debate to arrive at a consensus.
Blum’s novel roots both rigorous study of sacred texts and debate over their interpretation in centuries of Jewish educational tradition. As Zippy summarizes, “Jewish law has been up for debate for thousands of years, and it will stay that way” (156). This debate is reflected in Hoodie’s yeshiva, where Talmud can be “warlike.” Hoodie describes the debates between his classmates and Rabbi Moritz as a “battle of wits, knowledge, and […] wills” (28). The use of the terms “battle” and “warlike” in these passages positions fierce debate and argumentation as central to the learning process. Crucially, however, the debate is grounded in love and respect: “[A]s soon as [the debate] [is] resolved, the combatants [are] friends once again” (29). The novel’s yeshiva scenes depict that argumentation and debate are crucial to Jewish culture, especially Jewish education.
As he wrestles with his place in the Orthodox Jewish community, Hoodie takes advantage of this emphasis on debate and argumentation. Although he struggles with his Torah studies, he believes that “the most compelling reason to learn Talmud [is] so [he can] win arguments” (49). When confronted with his failure to live up to expectations, Hoodie positions himself not as a rebel, but as a participant in the tradition of debate, asking his friends, “[A]m I breaking laws I shouldn’t break, or am I the same as the person who pushed the Talmud slavery discussions into the metaphorical?” (107-8). Hoodie’s willingness to push the boundaries of his community reflects the long tradition of debate and argumentation in Jewish education.
The Dangers of Antisemitic Rhetoric
The primary external obstacle Hoodie faces in The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen is antisemitic rhetoric and violence aimed at his community. The novel indicates that antisemitic rhetoric has real-world consequences. For example, rhetoric utilized publicly by city leaders empowers violent instigators to enact harm on the Jewish community, and—by extension—the town of Tregaron of which they are a part. From the moment the Orthodox community moves into Tregaron, community leaders like Mayor Diaz-O’Leary use antisemitic rhetoric to slander their new neighbors. As Hoodie explains to Anna-Marie, the non-Jewish residents of Tregaron “[talk] about us like we [are] an invading army, like we [are] going to ride in on horseback with torches and pitchforks, to set their buildings on fire and slaughter them kosher-style” (16). The non-Jewish residents express fear that their new Jewish neighbors “[will] ruin their ‘way of life,’” as if they plan on “going to go home to home rounding up their bacon, confiscating their shellfish, systematically removing their car batteries on Friday afternoons” (16). These passages emphasize how harmful stereotypes rooted in antisemitism incite hostility, bigotry, and even violence against Orthodox communities.
Blum explores the concrete ramifications of this rhetoric in the novel’s climax: the Abramowitz Kosher market shooting. The idea of a Jewish invasion is echoed in the manifestos of the shooters who attack the market. The shooters warn that Jewish people “swarm like roaches” and tell readers that “there’s still time to stop the Jewish invasions” (130). Blum later reveals that the shooters came to Tregaron specifically because they had read “on the news how the Jews were invading, taking over the town […] as those crafty Jews are wont to do” (182). By reflecting the rhetoric used by Tregaron news media in the shooters’ manifesto, Blum connects the rhetoric spread by the non-Jewish citizens of Tregaron to its deadly consequences.
Blum uses the example of Anna-Marie and her friends to present harmful, antisemitic rhetoric as a learned behavior—passed down from adults to children. Anna-Marie’s friends refer to Hoodie and his yeshiva classmates as “werewolves,” “vampires,” and “freaks.” When Anna-Marie’s friends attack Chaim and Moshe, “they [wonder] aloud if Chaim [wears] his fedora to cover his Jew horns” (115). This language suggests that these teens have been implicitly taught by their parents to see the Jewish community as monstrous. Anna-Marie internalizes her mother’s antisemitic rhetoric and rejects Hoodie’s advances, telling him to “go to Babylon, dude […] go back to wandering the desert” (165). The ease with which Anna-Marie uses these insults suggests that she has heard them many times before, highlighting the learned nature of implicit and explicit antisemitic prejudice.
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