This Is Not About Us traces the lives and stories of the Rubinsteins, a Jewish American family. While the novel is not entirely preoccupied with Judaism as a belief system, the primary characters all interact with their Jewish heritage. Jewish Americans make up roughly three percent of the American population, and most identify as Ashkenazi Jews. This sect originated in Eastern and Central Europe, and its modern-day members still preserve many of these regional traditions. Other members of the Jewish American population identify as Sephardic or Mizrahi, while still others do not identify with any particular sect. Some Jewish Americans identify as religious Jews, and others as cultural Jews.

While Jewish populations have been present in the United States since the country’s colonization, Jewish immigration to the US increased markedly in the 1800s due to persecution in Central Europe. These migration trends only saw further increases in the World War II era. Jewish Americans who have preserved their cultural ties typically celebrate a network of holidays, many of which are featured in This Is Not About Us. Such events and rituals include Passover, Yom Kippur, the bris, the Bat Mitzvah, shiva, and others. The Passover holidays “mark not only historical events in the development of the Jewish people, but also agricultural celebrations and the seasonal harvests in the land of Israel. These holidays are called pilgrimage festivals” (“Your Guide to Jewish Holidays: The Three Categories of Jewish Holidays, Celebrations and Commemorations.” My Jewish Learning).

In Goodman’s novel, the characters divide the Passover celebrations between various households in the chapter “Redemption Song.” Significantly, the family’s Passover celebrations instigate their reflections on suffering and freedom. In “Days of Awe,” the family later celebrates Yom Kippur. Also known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur is “a day on which the Israelites are to practice self-denial […] and to seek expiation for their individual and communal transgressions” (Your Guide to Jewish Holidays). In This Is Not About Us, Lily and Sophie are shocked when Sylvia takes Lily out for McDonald’s on Yom Kippur, because she is violating the terms of the day. The sisters also subvert cultural and religious expectation by bonding over a shared secret transgression instead of coming out with their “sins.”

Lily later celebrates her Bat Mitzvah in “This Is Not About Us.” The Bat Mitzvah is a coming-of-age ceremony in which young girls participate when they are 12. The ritual is meant as a rite of passage that allows young girls to assume responsibility for following Torah law. In Goodman’s novel, Lily works with Heather, her Bat Mitzvah tutor, to study the Torah and prepare for the ceremony. In yet another tradition, the family also sits shiva after Jeanne dies. This is a mourning tradition in which a family sits at home and abstains from work or pleasure, typically for a full seven days following the death of a loved one. However, the Rubinsteins only sit for one day due to their other scheduling conflicts. The bris is another tradition that appears in “Poppy.” This ceremony is typically for the circumcision of a newborn boy, and it also includes a ceremonial naming.

As a whole, Goodman’s representation of Jewish American life conveys the intersection between religion and culture, faith and secularism. While the older members of the Rubinstein family are more eager than others to uphold the religious traditions and way of life, the younger family members are more creative about how they uphold their traditions and maintain their connections to their forebears.