家園不僅為猶太人提供精神上的庇護和指引,還是他們感悟生命和身份建構的載體。在小說《猶太警察工會》中,邁克爾·夏邦以猶太人對家園的想象為背景,聚焦他們在不同歷史時期的家園選擇,反思猶太人的身份建構歷程。夏邦既不贊同猶太身份的美國化,也不支持以色列同化模式,而是倡導一種"走出去"的家園選擇,鼓勵猶太人在追求獨立、自由的身份意識的基礎上,建構具有猶太精神內核的新型猶太人的民族身份認同。夏邦提出的這一民族身份建構理念,為當代猶太人建構自我身份和塑造猶太性提供了一種思路,反映了作者對后大屠殺時代猶太人生存命運等問題的密切關注。

Homeland not only provides Jews with spiritual shield and guidance,but also embodies their reflection on life and their construction of identity.In The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,Michael Chabon explores Jews’imagination of homeland by focusing on their choices of homeland during different historical periods and reflecting on their struggle with the construction of Jewish identity.To Chabon,neither Americanization nor Israelization of Jewish identity is good enough.Instead,he advocates the"rushing out"option in building their homeland and encourages Jews to pursue independence and freedom first before embarking on an earnest effort to construct a new Jewish identity based on their spiritual essence.Chabon’s approach to create the national identity offers the contemporary Jewish people a new idea in constructing self-identity and Jewishness and underlies his concern over Jews’existence and fate in the post-Holocaust era.