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December 8, 1995

Responses to American Jewish Committee Queries (1995)

Jewish Unity Combating Assimilation Zionism Religion & State
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Am Echad (1998)

Introd: If I asked one symbol cond'n A-J tody: And greatst challeng: converg ? → that Yes, we hv a future! 1. Survival A-Jy imperiled 2 factors: Numbers: Intrmrrg – 52%... Current 13M → 5-6M in one gen'n... Also: demographics: Since '60, world Jy=ZPG; A-J=NPG. Don't be consoled by bromide "outreach" = mantra (ST: Chelm... build clinic at foot mt.) Only bright spot: Orthx/ultra-Orthx growth But what of maj'y Js?... Tragedy!!! 2. 2nd: Disunity: UNITY Jewish people – urgent, yet undustrial size yawn... will not preach... But clear: עם אחד = critical Q: Jewish survival/continuity. Most disturb'gt memory my youth: beg WWII
Jewish Unity Combating Assimilation

Note

Segregationism vs. Inclusivism (1988)

The polemic between Center and Right on the proper approach to the non-Orthodox community must be viewed in a broader historical prospective. In normative Jewish society, which obtained from the Talmudic Age through the Middle Ages and until the Emancipation, heterodox ideas and conduct were viewed as aberrant behavior, and treated as such. Even if the bearers of such unorthodox views were organized into a community, they were treated as individuals rather than as a collectivity. Thus, no credibility was given to the Karaites as an organized religious grouping. Instead, Karaites were treated as individuals who had strayed from the straight and narrow path of the Torah, and one took either a hard-line rejectionist approach to them or, as was the case with Maimonides, a more accommodating and accepting approach. In either case, this was an attitude towards Karaites, not to Karaism. It was always understood that such heterodox groups represented deviations from the norm, and that eventually they would disappear by being reabsorbed in the historic flow of main stream Torah Judaism. Hence, heresy as a community phenomenon was simply not considered, and reduced to a simple collection of individual heretics who had no historical staying power.All this was unquestionably true as long as the overwhelming majority of Jews identified with the broad outlines of the Torah tradition. Individual aberrations could then be dismissed as transient phenomena in the history of the faith. All this changed with the Emancipation and the Enlightenment. For more than two centuries now, various forms of heterodox thought and behavior have attracted a great majority of Jews everywhere. Secularism has proved one of the most powerful foes Torah has ever encountered, and it has insinuated itself into the very bloodstream and sinews of the body of Judaism. The quiet give-and-take between Judaism and the environing cultures of the Jewish people, that understated the very real dialogue between Tora…
Jewish Unity Combating Assimilation

Article

Wholeness and Wholesomeness (1995)

I begin from a very simple, holistic premise. Jewish identity is a constellation of values that are linked and integrated with each other, that defy attempts at subdivision or isolation, and that are expressed in both attitude and behavior. It is based on a vision of personal responsibility to God and His creatures, to an on-going commitment to study and to moral self-improvement, and to an interrelationship of all Jews in an over-arching community. The point is not original. It is but a restatement of the well-known proposition by Shimon the Righteous in Pirkei Avot regarding the props upon which the world stands. I believe that to wrest one set of values from the others, as if each did not require the reinforcement and sustenance that the others provide, is an enterprise doomed to failure It is akin to the surgical separation of the organs of a body; it is meaningful only if performed on a corpse, for otherwise, it will kill a living organism, It is this premise that informs my view of all the issues being confronted in this volume. Consider, as an example, the relationship between Israel and American Jewry. I take no great risk in stating unequivocally that Israel remains a central issue for every concerned Jew, affiliated or not. However, as the direct threat to Israel's physical survival has apparently receded, and as we move away from her founding generation, the difficulties and contradictions of her domestic social and political condition emerge. Israelis cannot agree about the role of religion in their lives, the legal definitions of personal status, and the implementation of a human rights policy — let alone diplomatic negotiations and peace initiatives. Why be surprised at the lack of unanimity among her American supporters? Under these conditions, short of direct military attack, the cogency of traditional appeals for resources and political support begin to fade seriously. Now, this reflects a more important phenomenon, the not-very-gradual decrease in…
Combating Assimilation Zionism