Jacqueline Rose Disappoints on Marilyn Monroe

She purports to look into Marilyn Monroe's mind and writes:

At the very least it should suggest that, wherever Monroe belongs – and there is an argument for saying she never belonged anywhere – it isn’t in the expected place. If Monroe offers an image of American perfectibility, we shouldn’t be surprised to find behind that image, as its hidden companion, a host of other images through which that same – perfectible – America indicts itself

But not once mentions her conversion to Judaism although she comes close:

Miller himself made no secret or apology for the redemption he sought in her (that they sought in each other).

Odd for an academic who is  know for her work on psychoanalysis and feminism.

After all

the Spring 2010 issue of Reform Judaism magazine has published newly released letters from the rabbi who officiated at the conversion of Marilyn Monroe. The letters reveal that Monroe was not only a serious and heart-felt convert to Judaism, she continued to identify as Jewish after her divorce from Jewish playwright Arthur Miller...The letters show that Marilyn had rejected the fundamentalist Protestant upbringing of your youth many years earlier, and that her desire to become Jewish was self-motivated, although her relationship with Arthur was clearly an influential one. "She indicated that she was attracted to Judaism by being impressed with Jewish people that she knew, especially Mr. Miller," the rabbi writes. "She said that she was aware of the great characters that the Jewish people had produced and that she had read selections from Albert Einstein's Out of My Later Years ... She indicated that she was impressed with the rationalism of Judaism -- its ethical and prophetic ideals and its concept of close family life."

So, what does this tell us of...Prof. Rose and her Judaism?


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