Jewish hereness

English

Etymology

Semantic loan from Yiddish דאָיִקייט (doikeyt): דאָיִק (doik) (“here” or “local”) +‎ ־קייט (-keyt) (“-ness”).

Noun

Jewish hereness (uncountable)

1. Synonym of doikeyt
   • 2018 April 16, Jacob Plitman, “On an Emerging Diasporism”, in Jewish Currents‎^[1]:

     Hereness isn’t just about place, but about people: centering our politics and spiritual project around those nearest to us, adopting neighborliness as political practice and intergenerationality as a matter of course. Hereness demands that we learn our local histories and resurrect hidden ones of our own. Hereness means we refuse to disappear into the interiority of our liturgy, and equally refuse to stop being Jews in public. Hereness forces us to consider critically our relationship with class and its ordering of our world. Hereness is weird and materialist and queer and fun and angry, and best of all it’s already happening.