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May 1969

Modern Orthodoxy's Identity Crisis (1969)

Modern Orthodoxy
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Crisis of Modern Orthodoxy (1969)

Sir – A news report in your August 1 issue concerning my views on “Modern Orthodoxy’s identity crisis,” was accurate in summarising my position on the need for “Modern Orthodoxy” to interpret its outlook religiously and unapologetically. Your editorial on the subject, however, misstates my view’s vis-a-vis the differences of opinion that prevail in England. While I appreciate your flattering remarks, I fear that your concluding paragraph vitiates the kind things you said about me. Any objective person who is acquainted with my views and those of Rabbi Louis Jacobs will be astonished to learn that “Rabbi Lamm’s thoughts are almost a paraphrase of the approach of Dr. Jacobs which made him unacceptable to our Orthodox Establishment.”I suspect that Dr Jacobs will take exception to this assertion equally with me. I have consistently in- sisted that Judaism must be based upon the halachic commitment and the acceptance of Torah min ha-shamayim, and have opposed Franz Rosenzweig’s approach per- mitting a subjective selection of which laws and observances to per- form. For this reason I am clearly “ Orthodox,” and am so affiliated, whereas Dr Jacobs has apparently abandoned this position and has so indicated by his membership in the Conservative movement’s Rabbini- cal Assembly.There is no need to belabour the issue. To be critical of Orthodoxy does not and should not make one’s Orthodoxy suspect, nor is it grounds for declaring one’s views a “ paraphrase ” of one who is dissociated from this community. Indeed, without in any way com- mitting Dr Jakobovits to prior approval of my opinions, I feel that the Chief Rabbi would not dis- agree with my contention that our engagement with the world, and particularly our involvement in higher “ secular ” education, should be based- on a solid reli- gious basis rather than on undigni- lied vocational excuse.I regret that my views, which you apparently found worthy enough to bring to the attention of your readers, should have been obf…
Modern Orthodoxy

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Modern Orthodoxy Without Apologies (1992)

1. Bfr spk MO: AJ, & Orthxy in gen; contemplt A-Jy:... or choshech: (a) good nws: mr Tor, highr standrs Orthx synggs, mr ,כשר; day schls; publctns (b) but plenty vry bad news too (+ recessn): (c) CJF ’90 survy: 52% intmrrg! ..React'n? (d) mny soclgsts, J Idrs"? Adapt! Accept! (e) fresh blood... So: bad nws=good nws. avoid probl w phony conversns, patrlneal (ST: Gulf War-no gas mask- "I'm Reform; evrythg optional") (f) time bgin-brth, not > mrrg...-ST: חועלם ‘’rion/slip mountn/hosptal valley)Turn: us Orthx Js:Beset crtcs 8- assaild ill-wshers allsides. W oftn at fault: stratgs nt alwysproductv (Bx:"Who is J" polemic carried ontoo 10ng)/apprchs unreasnbl/senstvty othrsdulld. BUT ...our fundmntl commit't, tht fwhch w stand/by whch live/ready die-holy/precious/ineffbl. & w stand by it w-oapolgies!- we=Orthdx - w-o apologs!- our ‘,!‘אמלנל גרמי, תלממ ר&י firm!n matter deris'n, "cogntv minrty"...Fc: Grt-neck- our resolv homsxlty-abbrtxi not faltrevn if genetc (so is desire all formsimmrlty- our attud role women (tho stll influx)wll nvr turn into totl egaltrnsm offunction in violatn דזלכזה- vlue place humn life wll nvr prmit abideeuthnsia/abortn on dmand/encrgtsuicide- onslaught agnst our views ומ&ורה rm חיwll contnue rlntlssly; bt not falter!-If w blv indeed in חלרל -( השמלם, thtmeans:Torh is means t reach שמלה itself!- anyone whose loylty Tor shaky bee wminorty--t b pitied bee shows: dsn't knowwhr comng fr, 8- whr destny is takg hm/her.For w ar sons of giants. In our veinscourses blood... & let us act th part!-ST. Ch N Bialik/vst NY skyserprs/ ,לל^לקן״&nyxx^|7/T. A.t^yxx^jT 7ןל< e>y 2 >^ל ל^ל ...eithrw reach f sky, byond clouds - or scratchrs& scraprs, blind t glory tht was ours &awaits us; bee can be ours if w havecourage & resolv- so much f Orthxy w-o apologiesFe: Grt-neck2nd:Self-Image MO (Note: didn’t say CO- altho same thng - but avoid sillydebates..MO/CO/Datiim...)- Both aspects: Orthx 8- Mod; so:Noun/Adjctv. we: Mod …
Modern Orthodoxy

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Modern Orthodoxy's Identity Crisis - Synopsis (1969)

According to Rabbi Norman Lamm, one of the leading young scholars of Orthodoxy in the United States, modern Orthodoxy is going through a largely unnecessary “identity crisis,” deriving from its failure to work out a successful synthesis on strong theological grounds between its “two Orthodoxies.” This failure “to interpret itself to itself,” Rabbi Lamm said, “derives from a remarkable intellectual timidity, which we should long ago have outgrown,” towards the positions of those both to the Left and the Right of modern Orthodoxy in the United States. Rabbi Lamm, the spiritual leader of the Jewish Center of New York and a professor of Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, sharply criticised the “humiliating apologetic posture” of modern Orthodoxy towards those to the Left of the movement. “We seemed to be saying that while we hold on to the practices and doctrines of the Jewish tradition, we are really just like everybody else, perhaps even more so. We appeared to be whispering, in unbecoming shyness, that we were not really foreign or dirty.” At the same time, he continued, modern Orthodoxy has been “almost masochistically apologetic” towards the Right wing of Orthodoxy, which disapproves of its educational policy of engaging in secular studies. To this group, he said, modern Orthodoxy has presented “the lamest of apologies – vocational necessity.” Thus, “our whole existence is based on a practical economic concession – the need of a college degree in order to get a better job,” instead of on sound halachic grounds. Rabbi Lamm said that the problem of modern Orthodoxy is that it has not yet itself accepted “openly and directly on the basis of our major contribution to Jewish life in this century: that it is our religious duty, our sacred responsibility, to live the whole Torah tradition in the world, instead of retreating from a world in which there is literally no longer any place left to retreat to. As long as this condition of spiritual and intellectual diffi…
Modern Orthodoxy