Ulysses In 80 2026: The Readers Pub—A Conversation with Our Readers

Robert Nicholson made a comment and he said, but Bloom is not a Jew.

And that really floored me.

I think the history is his mother's not Jewish.

His father's Jewish.

And my understanding of the Jewish faith is that it's through the mother.

So what do you have to say about that?

So who wants to chime in on that? I agree with you.

What's interesting for me is this read after learning Bloom is not a Jew or he is Hungarian.

When that question comes up, for those of us that are Jewish or Yiddish or have ancestral background, he throws in these Yiddish words that have no English translation.

Meshuggah.

I heard Meshuggah and was like, okay, that's a real indicator that he's letting us know something.

There was another one in Lestergonians, the comparison between Yom Kippur and the fast.

I don't think that's accidental.

Joyce himself is both Catholic and not

Catholic.

Everything you read with him is steeped in Catholic tradition and catechism and Latin translation.

I think that extends to Bloom's Jewishness.

He's perceived as one.

He experiences anti-Semitism, but he doesn't really believe in it.

He's not really one of the faithful.

I mean, the first scene we have with him is eating a pork kidney.

He's not kosher.

In today's assignment or session, he's talking about the plantation in Palestine or the selling of property in Palestine for the plantation of different fruit trees.

And he goes on about that for a while.

And I can't remember what episode is it in which he is going into a church and making all sorts of comments to himself about what's happening and not totally buying into it and making comments that he's very skeptical about what is happening.