I am suspicious, perhaps foolishly, of the official Israeli reports of the number of American Jews who have made aliya, not because I think that we are being deceived but because I sense that there are those who do not go through official channels when they settle in Israel and therefore are not counted. It was announced during the summer that fewer than 500 olim had come to Israel from North American in the first half of 2006. This seems fewer than the number that Nefesh B'efesh, the organization that receives enormous financial support from Evangelical Christians, claims to have brought to Israel via its well-publicized flights. How could the figure be so low?
Even if it is the case that there are American Jews - for instance, some charedim - who have made aliya without formally making aliya, the total is astoundingly low and this is without taking into account those who return within several years or sooner because they could not make a go of it in Israel or for some other reason.
Aliya statistics are pitiful when compared with the population movement in the other direction, meaning the Israelis who are yordim, as they have left Israel. There are many tens of thousands of yordim in the United States alone. Statistics do not tell the entire story, not even the entire quantitative side and certainly not the qualitative aspects. The migration of Israelis to these shores has propped up our population statistics, offsetting to an extent the massive losses resulting from Judaic abandonment. When we reckon, as we should, the offspring of ex-Israelis who now live here, as a consequence of yerida there are probably hundreds of thousands of Jews in the United States whose roots at some point were in Israel.
Aliya, on the other hand, has had a minimal impact on American Jewish numbers. Tens of thousands in a population of five or six million is not significant. However, overwhelmingly aliya is an Orthodox phenomenon and according to demographers the Orthodox come to no more than 10% of American Jews. Therefore, the impact on this sector has been significant. When Orthodox aliya is considered in generational terms encompassing the offspring of those who made aliya - and in many families, their offspring as well - American Orthodoxy has experienced meaningful population loss because of aliya.
That's the quantitative side. Qualitatively, how has aliya and yerida affected religious, intellectual and cultural Jewish life in Israel and the United States? It is difficult to assess the qualitative impact of yerida on either Israel or this country because there is scant evidence that Israel has lost much or that the U.S. has benefited. In the aggregate, the ex-Israelis and their families have not been sufficiently integrated into American Jewish communal life. It seems at times that there is a tacit understanding that neither they nor we - the important exception is Chabad - are much interested in the yordim being actively involved in Jewish affairs. They remain deeply committed to Israel where they have family, but they add little to Jewish life here, with the important exception of their numbers.
Aliya, although low in numbers, has resulted in qualitative gains and losses. Among those who have left, many were among the best and brightest that American Jewry has produced. Invariably, these are young men and women of true spirituality, deepfelt Judaic commitment and decency who possess skills that are valuable to the Jewish people. These qualities have been transferred to the Jewish State because those who made aliya could not see a future for themselves and their families that did not include living in the land that is our heritage. They have contributed enormously to Israel, blessing the land and people that they are committed to in multiple ways. When I am in Israel, I see them everywhere and marvel at their goodness and their endless reservoir of love for the Torah, for the land and for the people.
Israel's enormous gain from American aliya is American Jewry's great loss. When we read about a shortage of rabbis for our synagogues and principals for our day schools and when we bemoan the intellectual aridness of American Jewish life and the paucity of elevated leadership, we are being confronted with the aftershocks of the spiritual drain and brain drain resulting from aliya. Of course, there are other contributory factors arising from weaknesses in the fabric of American Jewish life, yet the deficit resulting from the departure of so many people of talent and deepfelt commitment is real.
This deficit is most pronounced among the Orthodox, notably in the modern and centrist sectors where aliya is most strongly felt as a transcendent religious obligation. The moderns and centrists have by and large maintained their numbers on these shores despite aliya. What they haven't maintained is spiritual elegance, for they are entrapped in a value system that emphasizes pursuit of material things and pleasures. We need only contrast the lifestyle of family members who have made aliya with their close relatives who have remained here.
Nor have the charedi sectors been immune from the same influences. It is telling that in American charedi life in the first years of this millennium, there isn't a towering religious figure. For decades, chassidic and yeshiva-world Jews were inspired by Torah leaders who were born and educated in pre-Holocaust Europe. They are gone, replaced by people of far lesser stature. For leadership, most charedim now look to Israel and this is true of the modern and centrist sectors of Orthodoxy.
There are individuals of true merit and religious and spiritual grandeur in our community. What American religious Jewry lacks is the quality of leadership that has been crucial in our religious life in every place of significant Jewish settlement. We can be thankful, at least, that Orthodox Jews in this country have contributed their best and brightest to Israel.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
The Sad State of the Conservative Movement
Borrowing from the world of politics where bad news is often leaked in advance of it being announced officially, the Conservative movement is letting it be known that before long its "halacha" experts will do what they have been doing for a long while and give their stamp of approval to what is halachically forbidden by sanctioning gay ordination and unions. This obviously is not bad news for a large majority of those who continue to identify as Conservative. They welcome each lowering of religious standards, each new interpretation that accords with what is happening in their lives as they drift even further away from religiosity. It is bad news for Conservatism.
Actually, the movement is trying to have it both ways, a stratagem that was used previously without success. Like the old joke about the rabbi who told two people in dispute that each was right, approval is to be given to a paper arguing that gay unions are permissible and to a second paper arguing that they are not. This is a heck of a way to run a religion.
We can now understand why Conservatism is beset by tzoros, why membership is declining and Conservative schools and synagogues are being closed. Since the forces in American and Jewish life that induce support for gay unions and other misinterpretations of halacha are dynamic, it's not likely that a Stop sign will be put up any time soon on processes that are harming the movement. The facts on the ground in Conservative homes point to increased acceptance of intermarriage and patrilineality and decreased adherence to religious obligations. The reality at the Jewish Theological Seminary and other key Conservative institutions is growing student support for defining Judaism downwards. These students are the Conservative rabbis of the future and many will also be leaders of the movement. They are a far cry in both learning and commitment from their predecessors.
In some sense, it makes sense for Conservatives to move in this direction. If the movement opts for greater religiosity or just stays where it is, membership losses are certain to escalate. The Conservative's traditional wing is relatively small and there are few adherents that it can attract by strengthening religious standards. Accordingly, it may be best to follow the path of Reform, letting the traditionalists drift further away, perhaps associating with the most modern of the Modern Orthodox or the break-away Union for Traditional Judaism that was established when the Conservatives approved the ordination of women.
The problem with this approach is that the Conservatives are losing many of their best and most committed, which was a subtext of the remarkable speech given by former JTS Chancellor Ismar Schorsch in his farewell address. He certainly is not in what is now the Conservative mainstream. What is in doubt is whether he remains a Conservative.
Another problem with the strategy of jettisoning the little that remains to be conserved is that the Reform already occupy the territory the Conservatives are moving into and they have developed a brilliant game plan for presenting their abandonment of Judaism in pseudo-religious terms.
Although it will not yield large numbers, my advice is for the Conservatives to give religion a try by tightening rather than loosening standards. This would surely mean even more defections to Reform or to the ranks of the unaffiliated, yet what would emerge is a stronger movement. Smaller would be, in short, stronger, as the Orthodox have demonstrated. The alternative, which is now the approach being taken, means a slow death for the movement.
When once before I gave unsolicited advice to the Conservatives, some Orthodox wanted to know why I might help a movement that I have sharply criticized. The answer is that what is happening is, while probably inevitable, bad news for American Jewry. This is evident in the crisis facing many Solomon Schechter schools. In the aggregate, they are significantly more religiously purposeful than nearly all other non-Orthodox day schools. Enrollment declines accompanied by financial difficulties have resulted in the closing of a number of Solomon Schechters and others are on the endangered list. They are usually replaced by transdenominational or Community day schools that are much weaker Jewishly. This translates into a loss for the Jewish future.
Conservative rabbis and leaders need to do more for Jewish education. One place to start is to provide significant funding to the movement's day schools and not to rely almost exclusively on tuition income. I am not confident that Arnold Eisen, JTS's incoming Chancellor who will be the movement's top leader, is sufficiently committed to meaningful Jewish education. He is thoughtful and talented and in a number of ways a good man, but he is not a religious figure. It is a mistake on both administrative and ideological grounds not to separate the JTS and the movement's leadership positions.
Throughout the network of Orthodox outreach activities there are Conservative Jews who are attracted by the meaningful classes and other educational opportunities. This demonstrates the eagerness of these Jews to study and to grow in Judaism. In Conservative synagogues, too often the educational pattern is Judaism light and the results reflect this.
As Conservatism continues to be challenged by membership losses, the prospect is for additional excuses to reduce what Judaism requires of Jews. This may buy some time, but not much. It will exact a large cost. Conservatism is no longer at a crossroads. That point was crossed a long time ago. What lies ahead looks bleak. The key question is not whether the movement can be salvaged because ultimately it cannot. The question is whether while it is still operational, the Conservative movement can make a contribution to American Jewish religious life.
Actually, the movement is trying to have it both ways, a stratagem that was used previously without success. Like the old joke about the rabbi who told two people in dispute that each was right, approval is to be given to a paper arguing that gay unions are permissible and to a second paper arguing that they are not. This is a heck of a way to run a religion.
We can now understand why Conservatism is beset by tzoros, why membership is declining and Conservative schools and synagogues are being closed. Since the forces in American and Jewish life that induce support for gay unions and other misinterpretations of halacha are dynamic, it's not likely that a Stop sign will be put up any time soon on processes that are harming the movement. The facts on the ground in Conservative homes point to increased acceptance of intermarriage and patrilineality and decreased adherence to religious obligations. The reality at the Jewish Theological Seminary and other key Conservative institutions is growing student support for defining Judaism downwards. These students are the Conservative rabbis of the future and many will also be leaders of the movement. They are a far cry in both learning and commitment from their predecessors.
In some sense, it makes sense for Conservatives to move in this direction. If the movement opts for greater religiosity or just stays where it is, membership losses are certain to escalate. The Conservative's traditional wing is relatively small and there are few adherents that it can attract by strengthening religious standards. Accordingly, it may be best to follow the path of Reform, letting the traditionalists drift further away, perhaps associating with the most modern of the Modern Orthodox or the break-away Union for Traditional Judaism that was established when the Conservatives approved the ordination of women.
The problem with this approach is that the Conservatives are losing many of their best and most committed, which was a subtext of the remarkable speech given by former JTS Chancellor Ismar Schorsch in his farewell address. He certainly is not in what is now the Conservative mainstream. What is in doubt is whether he remains a Conservative.
Another problem with the strategy of jettisoning the little that remains to be conserved is that the Reform already occupy the territory the Conservatives are moving into and they have developed a brilliant game plan for presenting their abandonment of Judaism in pseudo-religious terms.
Although it will not yield large numbers, my advice is for the Conservatives to give religion a try by tightening rather than loosening standards. This would surely mean even more defections to Reform or to the ranks of the unaffiliated, yet what would emerge is a stronger movement. Smaller would be, in short, stronger, as the Orthodox have demonstrated. The alternative, which is now the approach being taken, means a slow death for the movement.
When once before I gave unsolicited advice to the Conservatives, some Orthodox wanted to know why I might help a movement that I have sharply criticized. The answer is that what is happening is, while probably inevitable, bad news for American Jewry. This is evident in the crisis facing many Solomon Schechter schools. In the aggregate, they are significantly more religiously purposeful than nearly all other non-Orthodox day schools. Enrollment declines accompanied by financial difficulties have resulted in the closing of a number of Solomon Schechters and others are on the endangered list. They are usually replaced by transdenominational or Community day schools that are much weaker Jewishly. This translates into a loss for the Jewish future.
Conservative rabbis and leaders need to do more for Jewish education. One place to start is to provide significant funding to the movement's day schools and not to rely almost exclusively on tuition income. I am not confident that Arnold Eisen, JTS's incoming Chancellor who will be the movement's top leader, is sufficiently committed to meaningful Jewish education. He is thoughtful and talented and in a number of ways a good man, but he is not a religious figure. It is a mistake on both administrative and ideological grounds not to separate the JTS and the movement's leadership positions.
Throughout the network of Orthodox outreach activities there are Conservative Jews who are attracted by the meaningful classes and other educational opportunities. This demonstrates the eagerness of these Jews to study and to grow in Judaism. In Conservative synagogues, too often the educational pattern is Judaism light and the results reflect this.
As Conservatism continues to be challenged by membership losses, the prospect is for additional excuses to reduce what Judaism requires of Jews. This may buy some time, but not much. It will exact a large cost. Conservatism is no longer at a crossroads. That point was crossed a long time ago. What lies ahead looks bleak. The key question is not whether the movement can be salvaged because ultimately it cannot. The question is whether while it is still operational, the Conservative movement can make a contribution to American Jewish religious life.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Inartful Restitution
Without apology, I cannot join the large mixed Jewish and non-Jewish chorus offering hymns of praise celebrating the return of major works of art pilfered by the Nazis to some distant cousin or great niece of their former Jewish owners. I do not begrudge the good fortune of those who picked affluent forbearers. The problem is that righting these Nazi wrongs raises the question of why other property stolen from Jews has not received comparable attention, while even claims for restitution that were filed shortly after the Holocaust received short shrift.
Marie Altman, the closest surviving relative in the family that owned the Gustav Klimt painting that recently fetched $135 million, thanks to the circumstance that Ronald S. Lauder was sufficiently prescient to select a fabulously wealthy mother, is quoted as saying, "so far, fate has been very good to me." Fate wasn't good to millions of murdered Jews, nor to the hundreds of thousands who survived but now have died without their rightful claims being addressed. So far, fate hasn't been kind to the steadily dwindling number of survivors who still survive and for whom restitution hasn't been made.
The Nazis and their collaborators in all places where Jews lived stole whatever they could get their hands on, including homes, businesses, communal property, money and personal possessions. Why is the return of artwork more morally or legally compelling than the return of all else that the murdered and persecuted Jews possessed?
A good part of the answer - unfortunately it's a good answer - is that the scale of Nazi theft makes return and restitution just about financially and politically impossible. Are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Poles and Ukranians to be removed from their homes? Or are many tens of billions of dollars available to recompense Jews for homes stolen, businesses stolen, community facilities stolen, personal property stolen? As an aside, thousands of fervently religious Jews will soon travel to Uman in Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah, an exercise in mass stupidity conducted on land that remains soaked with the blood of untold hundreds of thousands of Jews slaughtered over the centuries by the ancestors of those who will now benefit financially from the visits of religious Jews to their country.
Art is different from other property because quantitatively it is limited and qualitatively it has unlimited cache. Great art is enveloped in celebrityship and this results in sleuths ferreting out stolen pieces that are now possessed by major museums. A private home in Lodz doesn't have comparable appeal.
Claims were made for the return or restitution of looted property but organized American Jewry turned a deaf ear. In at least one situation, involving the return of stolen German property to their rightful owners, the Jewish restitution bureaucracy did its best to prevent the families who were the victims from getting their property back. In the end, instead of stolen property going to the owners, it went into the grubby hands of the restitution organizations. So far as I know, the disgraceful story was told only by Netty Gross in The Jerusalem Report.
More shameful still was our community's reaction to the stealing of Jewish souls. As the fate of European Jewry became known, parents - we will never know how many - awaiting their murder or shipment to death camps gave their children to neighboring Gentiles for "safe-keeping," some to individuals and others to orphanages or other institutions, usually operated by Catholic groups. When the war ended, an indeterminate number of these children were returned to their parents if they survived and, if not, to other relatives. Since most parents did not survive, many children were not returned, even when relatives brought proof of their Jewish roots, and they were raised as Catholics. We recently learned that Pope Pius XII ruled that Jewish children who had been baptized could not be returned. Only the Orthodox made an effort to reclaim stolen Jewish souls. They had some success, but many were never returned and nearly all were lost entirely to Judaism.
While in Israel several years ago, I saw a deeply moving Israeli documentary on Polish Jews that focused on a handful of Poles who had discovered their Jewish heritage. The central story was of a Polish priest who had recently learned that his parents were Chassidim. Their picture was on the wall, flanked on one side by Sh'ma Yisrael and by a crucifix on the other side. With tears streaming down his face, the priest said that G-D had made him what he is and he cannot reject either of his heritages.
As the Holocaust recedes into history, our memory and emotional reaction to the horrible events have expanded. This may seem strange, yet it is as it should be because in the early years after the Holocaust we blocked out the horrors. They were too powerful for us to confront. It was as if we were too close to an intense flame.
We can now look at what befell our people and we can react to the crimes that occurred. This is good. What is not good is the corollary exploitation of the destruction of European Jewry as a matter of dollars and cents. Our activity and advocacy highlight a restitution agenda, as if there can be restitution for the crimes against our people. Increasingly, Holocaust-memory is an exercise in greed and even worse. Our remembrance of what happened two generations and more ago should be more than a money game. When it is treated as a money game, those who now benefit forget the suffering that Jews, including their relatives, experienced, and come to feel that fate has been good to them.
Individuals should pursue their claims. For our community, the agenda must be different. The Holocaust must remain a searing tragedy and not an exercise in alleged restitution.
Marie Altman, the closest surviving relative in the family that owned the Gustav Klimt painting that recently fetched $135 million, thanks to the circumstance that Ronald S. Lauder was sufficiently prescient to select a fabulously wealthy mother, is quoted as saying, "so far, fate has been very good to me." Fate wasn't good to millions of murdered Jews, nor to the hundreds of thousands who survived but now have died without their rightful claims being addressed. So far, fate hasn't been kind to the steadily dwindling number of survivors who still survive and for whom restitution hasn't been made.
The Nazis and their collaborators in all places where Jews lived stole whatever they could get their hands on, including homes, businesses, communal property, money and personal possessions. Why is the return of artwork more morally or legally compelling than the return of all else that the murdered and persecuted Jews possessed?
A good part of the answer - unfortunately it's a good answer - is that the scale of Nazi theft makes return and restitution just about financially and politically impossible. Are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Poles and Ukranians to be removed from their homes? Or are many tens of billions of dollars available to recompense Jews for homes stolen, businesses stolen, community facilities stolen, personal property stolen? As an aside, thousands of fervently religious Jews will soon travel to Uman in Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah, an exercise in mass stupidity conducted on land that remains soaked with the blood of untold hundreds of thousands of Jews slaughtered over the centuries by the ancestors of those who will now benefit financially from the visits of religious Jews to their country.
Art is different from other property because quantitatively it is limited and qualitatively it has unlimited cache. Great art is enveloped in celebrityship and this results in sleuths ferreting out stolen pieces that are now possessed by major museums. A private home in Lodz doesn't have comparable appeal.
Claims were made for the return or restitution of looted property but organized American Jewry turned a deaf ear. In at least one situation, involving the return of stolen German property to their rightful owners, the Jewish restitution bureaucracy did its best to prevent the families who were the victims from getting their property back. In the end, instead of stolen property going to the owners, it went into the grubby hands of the restitution organizations. So far as I know, the disgraceful story was told only by Netty Gross in The Jerusalem Report.
More shameful still was our community's reaction to the stealing of Jewish souls. As the fate of European Jewry became known, parents - we will never know how many - awaiting their murder or shipment to death camps gave their children to neighboring Gentiles for "safe-keeping," some to individuals and others to orphanages or other institutions, usually operated by Catholic groups. When the war ended, an indeterminate number of these children were returned to their parents if they survived and, if not, to other relatives. Since most parents did not survive, many children were not returned, even when relatives brought proof of their Jewish roots, and they were raised as Catholics. We recently learned that Pope Pius XII ruled that Jewish children who had been baptized could not be returned. Only the Orthodox made an effort to reclaim stolen Jewish souls. They had some success, but many were never returned and nearly all were lost entirely to Judaism.
While in Israel several years ago, I saw a deeply moving Israeli documentary on Polish Jews that focused on a handful of Poles who had discovered their Jewish heritage. The central story was of a Polish priest who had recently learned that his parents were Chassidim. Their picture was on the wall, flanked on one side by Sh'ma Yisrael and by a crucifix on the other side. With tears streaming down his face, the priest said that G-D had made him what he is and he cannot reject either of his heritages.
As the Holocaust recedes into history, our memory and emotional reaction to the horrible events have expanded. This may seem strange, yet it is as it should be because in the early years after the Holocaust we blocked out the horrors. They were too powerful for us to confront. It was as if we were too close to an intense flame.
We can now look at what befell our people and we can react to the crimes that occurred. This is good. What is not good is the corollary exploitation of the destruction of European Jewry as a matter of dollars and cents. Our activity and advocacy highlight a restitution agenda, as if there can be restitution for the crimes against our people. Increasingly, Holocaust-memory is an exercise in greed and even worse. Our remembrance of what happened two generations and more ago should be more than a money game. When it is treated as a money game, those who now benefit forget the suffering that Jews, including their relatives, experienced, and come to feel that fate has been good to them.
Individuals should pursue their claims. For our community, the agenda must be different. The Holocaust must remain a searing tragedy and not an exercise in alleged restitution.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Self-Indulgence In Religious Jewish Life - RJJ Newsletter
The battle against self-indulgence and the pursuit of pleasure in religious Jewish life is over, with those who still preach the message of restraint in full rout. They continue to give mussar, speaking to audiences of religious Jews who seem deeply moved by what they hear and determined to heed the plea that Torah living requires moderation and hatznea leches. Then for most - there are some who practice what has been preached - it is back to the old stand, back to gratuitous materialism and hedonism. There are the must-do expensive trips to ever-more exotic places, the redoing of homes that already reek with affluence, the show-off SUVs and the determination to nestle in the lap of luxury.
The battle that is over was never fought. The white flag was raised at the outset, for most of us are too weak spiritually to resist the imperative to buy and spend, to show off. For too many on this gravy train, tzedakah obligations are scarcely on the itinerary. Interestingly, the superrich whom I have known recognize that they have nothing to prove and generally fulfill their tzedakah responsibilities. It's the ordinary affluent - and their ranks are growing - and those who aspire to affluence who are most bit by the bug of self-indulgence.
We hear that American values and behavior are to blame. Are they? We live in a society where goods and services, experiences and fantasies are deliberately packaged and marketed to entice us. Can we escape the alluring message that this or that pleasure or extravagance is something that is easily within reach and something that we must have? The difficulty arising from the baneful influence of those among whom we live is pinpointed by Rambam in a notable section in Hilchos Deos (The Laws of Moral Conduct). "It is human nature," he writes, "that man is influenced in his thoughts and actions by his friends and associations and behaves in accordance with the way people behave where he lives." In a society embedded in instant gratification, we are ensnared and cannot escape.
It is convenient in this matter and others to attribute our bad behavior and errant values to the wrongful ways of non-Jews amongst whom we dwell. We obviously are affected by outside influences, yet somehow we manage to escape the behavioral attributes that we want to escape and remain a people who dwell apart. We do not escape the clutches of materialism and self-indulging because we do not want to escape them. We want to have, in the main, our religious cake and eat it too, but we also want to have some wiggle room to enjoy society's goodies. If we would only look in the mirror, we would see that the root problem - our spiritual decay - arises from within.
When Rambam speaks of a community's harmful influence, he does not have in mind a community of Gentiles. He has in mind a community of Jews, indeed a community of observant Jews. Elsewhere, he rules that a religious Jew must live in a community that has the full attributes and institutions of our religious life. Our vulnerability to the pursuit of pleasure and materialism results from internal defects, from intentions and values that we refer to as the Yetzer Ho-rah, which is nothing other than powerful destructive inclinations that are part of our make-up.
In the discussion in Tractate Yevamos regarding prospective converts, we learn that they are cautioned immediately prior to conversion not to expect "an abundance of wealth" after they join the Jewish people. The avoidance of wealth is essential to their spiritual growth after conversion. In the words of ArtScroll that are based on Rashi, "if the Jews were to enjoy an abundance of material resources, a condition that invariably invokes arrogance and vanity, they would be more susceptible to sin than other nations in similar circumstances."
Our greater susceptibility to sin is attributed in Tractate Sukkos to the Yetzer Ho-rah abandoning other nations - which means that he leaves them alone - and then concentrating the full force of his evil-doing on the Jewish people. We are more vulnerable than others and the degree of our vulnerability expands as we enter the path of self-indulgence. When we abandon restraint, our shield of kedusha is pierced and we are endangered spiritually. The more religious we are, the more endangered we may become, in line with the Talmudic maxim, "Kol hagadol me'chavero, yitzro gadol hemenu." (Whoever is greater than his fellow man, his evil inclination is greater than his fellow man's.)
Our spiritual grandeur dialectically puts us at greater risk and when we invite into our lives, even ever so slightly, values that are incompatible with our spiritual grandeur, there is great prospect that much worse will follow. This is the lesson learned from the tragic story of the daughter of Nakdimon Ben-Gurion in the period immediately after the destruction of the Second Temple, as recounted in Tractate Kesuvos.
The process of being enveloped and conquered by a spirit of self-indulgence that is antithetical to kedusha is the reverse of the process described by Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in Mesilas Yesharim for the acquisition of kedusha. That process begins with a determined effort to attain a measure of kedusha that results in the reward of sanctity as a gift from G-D. When those of us who want to live sanctified lives put out a small welcoming-mat to self-indulgence, base inclinations that are dormant within us are aroused and they seize the opportunity to lead us away from kedusha.
We have traveled too far on a questionable path and even those who have not the means or the desire to transgress are ensnared. Neither the example of our parents who lived lives of modesty and restraint and were thankful for the little that they had or the words of Torah leaders whom we respect are sufficient barriers against excess. In a few days, a contingent of thousands of religious Jews will be off to a distant place to commemorate Rosh Hashanah, not in Israel but in Uman in the Ukraine, a land that is still soaked with the blood of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Jews who were slaughtered over the centuries. This exercise in vanity is enveloped in claims of piety. Truly, there is no one who the Yetzer Ho-rah likes more than a religious Jewish fool.
Nearly everywhere in our community we see the insatiable appetite for luxury and pleasure. If only our impulse to give tzedakah would keep pace. Rav Moshe Feinstein, ztl, was careful not to criticize Orthodox Jews, yet he was critical of our failure to fulfill the maaser obligation. A generation ago, he wrote in a tshuva that most Orthodox Jews do not give sufficiently. The situation has gotten worse.
We are not commanded to be hermits. It is not a mitzvah to be poor. Our religion is one of engagement with the world and this includes the world of commerce. It is good to succeed in business and investments. It is not sinful to be affluent. The sin is in the misuse of affluence. The greatest tragedy arising from our self-indulgence is the wrongful lesson being taught to our children and grandchildren. They are being taught to want and even to demand. They are being taught to worship the false god of magia li - it is coming to me. Because self-indulgence is a dynamic force, the level of want and demand and indulgence rises steadily. Why would we want to harm our children?
Reversing the process of self-indulgence may be beyond our present reach. There are no reasons for optimism. What we can do is to take a small step on the path of self-denial and that may be a building block to greater acts of restraint. Our journey on the path of self-indulgence began with a small step that made us vulnerable. If we start to say "no," we may come to recognize that our lives are enriched as a consequence.
The battle that is over was never fought. The white flag was raised at the outset, for most of us are too weak spiritually to resist the imperative to buy and spend, to show off. For too many on this gravy train, tzedakah obligations are scarcely on the itinerary. Interestingly, the superrich whom I have known recognize that they have nothing to prove and generally fulfill their tzedakah responsibilities. It's the ordinary affluent - and their ranks are growing - and those who aspire to affluence who are most bit by the bug of self-indulgence.
We hear that American values and behavior are to blame. Are they? We live in a society where goods and services, experiences and fantasies are deliberately packaged and marketed to entice us. Can we escape the alluring message that this or that pleasure or extravagance is something that is easily within reach and something that we must have? The difficulty arising from the baneful influence of those among whom we live is pinpointed by Rambam in a notable section in Hilchos Deos (The Laws of Moral Conduct). "It is human nature," he writes, "that man is influenced in his thoughts and actions by his friends and associations and behaves in accordance with the way people behave where he lives." In a society embedded in instant gratification, we are ensnared and cannot escape.
It is convenient in this matter and others to attribute our bad behavior and errant values to the wrongful ways of non-Jews amongst whom we dwell. We obviously are affected by outside influences, yet somehow we manage to escape the behavioral attributes that we want to escape and remain a people who dwell apart. We do not escape the clutches of materialism and self-indulging because we do not want to escape them. We want to have, in the main, our religious cake and eat it too, but we also want to have some wiggle room to enjoy society's goodies. If we would only look in the mirror, we would see that the root problem - our spiritual decay - arises from within.
When Rambam speaks of a community's harmful influence, he does not have in mind a community of Gentiles. He has in mind a community of Jews, indeed a community of observant Jews. Elsewhere, he rules that a religious Jew must live in a community that has the full attributes and institutions of our religious life. Our vulnerability to the pursuit of pleasure and materialism results from internal defects, from intentions and values that we refer to as the Yetzer Ho-rah, which is nothing other than powerful destructive inclinations that are part of our make-up.
In the discussion in Tractate Yevamos regarding prospective converts, we learn that they are cautioned immediately prior to conversion not to expect "an abundance of wealth" after they join the Jewish people. The avoidance of wealth is essential to their spiritual growth after conversion. In the words of ArtScroll that are based on Rashi, "if the Jews were to enjoy an abundance of material resources, a condition that invariably invokes arrogance and vanity, they would be more susceptible to sin than other nations in similar circumstances."
Our greater susceptibility to sin is attributed in Tractate Sukkos to the Yetzer Ho-rah abandoning other nations - which means that he leaves them alone - and then concentrating the full force of his evil-doing on the Jewish people. We are more vulnerable than others and the degree of our vulnerability expands as we enter the path of self-indulgence. When we abandon restraint, our shield of kedusha is pierced and we are endangered spiritually. The more religious we are, the more endangered we may become, in line with the Talmudic maxim, "Kol hagadol me'chavero, yitzro gadol hemenu." (Whoever is greater than his fellow man, his evil inclination is greater than his fellow man's.)
Our spiritual grandeur dialectically puts us at greater risk and when we invite into our lives, even ever so slightly, values that are incompatible with our spiritual grandeur, there is great prospect that much worse will follow. This is the lesson learned from the tragic story of the daughter of Nakdimon Ben-Gurion in the period immediately after the destruction of the Second Temple, as recounted in Tractate Kesuvos.
The process of being enveloped and conquered by a spirit of self-indulgence that is antithetical to kedusha is the reverse of the process described by Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in Mesilas Yesharim for the acquisition of kedusha. That process begins with a determined effort to attain a measure of kedusha that results in the reward of sanctity as a gift from G-D. When those of us who want to live sanctified lives put out a small welcoming-mat to self-indulgence, base inclinations that are dormant within us are aroused and they seize the opportunity to lead us away from kedusha.
We have traveled too far on a questionable path and even those who have not the means or the desire to transgress are ensnared. Neither the example of our parents who lived lives of modesty and restraint and were thankful for the little that they had or the words of Torah leaders whom we respect are sufficient barriers against excess. In a few days, a contingent of thousands of religious Jews will be off to a distant place to commemorate Rosh Hashanah, not in Israel but in Uman in the Ukraine, a land that is still soaked with the blood of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Jews who were slaughtered over the centuries. This exercise in vanity is enveloped in claims of piety. Truly, there is no one who the Yetzer Ho-rah likes more than a religious Jewish fool.
Nearly everywhere in our community we see the insatiable appetite for luxury and pleasure. If only our impulse to give tzedakah would keep pace. Rav Moshe Feinstein, ztl, was careful not to criticize Orthodox Jews, yet he was critical of our failure to fulfill the maaser obligation. A generation ago, he wrote in a tshuva that most Orthodox Jews do not give sufficiently. The situation has gotten worse.
We are not commanded to be hermits. It is not a mitzvah to be poor. Our religion is one of engagement with the world and this includes the world of commerce. It is good to succeed in business and investments. It is not sinful to be affluent. The sin is in the misuse of affluence. The greatest tragedy arising from our self-indulgence is the wrongful lesson being taught to our children and grandchildren. They are being taught to want and even to demand. They are being taught to worship the false god of magia li - it is coming to me. Because self-indulgence is a dynamic force, the level of want and demand and indulgence rises steadily. Why would we want to harm our children?
Reversing the process of self-indulgence may be beyond our present reach. There are no reasons for optimism. What we can do is to take a small step on the path of self-denial and that may be a building block to greater acts of restraint. Our journey on the path of self-indulgence began with a small step that made us vulnerable. If we start to say "no," we may come to recognize that our lives are enriched as a consequence.
The Accusatory State
If you want to know how badly the Lebanon war went for Israel, just consider this: Within three days of the start of hostilities, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Lebanon called for a cease fire. The obvious reason is that Israel had seriously damaged Hezbollah. But when the cease fire came, many Israelis believed that their country had failed. Nasrallah wasn't killed, rockets continued to fall in the North until the cease file came and key objectives weren't achieved. Finger-pointing began immediately and it has become a national phenomenon.
There were failures and mistakes in intelligence, military preparedness and planning, strategy and, most seriously, in the lack of preparedness for the socio-economic consequences of the war to Israelis in the North. Israel did not win the war because there was no war to win. There was the goal to hurt Hezbollah and to punish Lebanon severely for tolerating a terrorist state with a state. That goal was met. With the exception of the Six Day War, since 1948 Israel hasn't won outright any war and that will not change, primarily because of powerful diplomatic constraints. But Israelis aren't satisfied with partial results. There is a childish expectation that Rambo-like Israel can quickly wipe out all of the bad guys.
When this doesn't happen because it cannot, there must be high-powered investigations, fault must be found and heads must roll. There is no guillotine, but the "guilty" must be identified, pilloried and sacked.
If the finger-pointing were limited to major national security events, the practice would be understandable, yet also lamentable because of its overuse. This is not the case. Israel has become an accusatory state, a country engulfed by an endless parade of complaints of real or imagined wrongdoing by public officials in which the instrumentalities of democratic government are ignored. This development is nasty and dangerous because it poisons Israeli life and has the collateral effect of deterring top-flight people from engaging in public service.
The accusatory state has several prongs, with the Supreme Court being the primary architect. In its composition and practices it is sharply anti-democratic. It has usurped the authority to interfere in all matters of public policy, including routine administrative appointments. Accusatory petitions are filed nearly daily, with the court scarcely reflecting on the appropriateness of this activity. The attitude, as expressed by a former Chief Judge, is that the court has to play this role because no one else in government can be trusted.
The accusatory mentality or culture is especially evident in police activity. In large measure because of security needs, Israel's police have a distinctive role. As an apparent trade-off they play a small role in crime prevention or detection. When cars were being stolen wholesale and shipped immediately to Arab chop shops, the police stood idly by. Their response to the epidemic of home burglaries is not any better, a circumstance that results in homeowners putting bars on their windows because they know they cannot rely on the police.
But give the Israeli police the opportunity to investigate public figures and they quickly awake from their lethargy, operating on the principle that those whom they are investigating are guilty until proven innocent. Why the police have this role is a question that isn't asked. Nowadays, they are super-busy investigating loads of officials, from President Moshe Katsav whose presidential residence they raided late at night to lesser personages. In recent days, they netted two big fish, Tsahi Hanegbi, a former government minister, whose alleged crime strikes me as engaging in routine patronage and politics, and Haim Ramon, the Justice Minister, who apparently kissed a woman against her will. It is stupid and dangerous to criminalize what Ramon may have done, which is not to defend him. I assume that the law that criminalizes such behavior applies in its majesty to all who live in Israel. If it is properly enforced, Israel will either have to build many additional penal facilities or perhaps release the Palestinians it is holding to make room for the many others who have committed Ramon's crime.
What is intriguing about the police's determination to promote sexual morality is the blind eye and worse shown toward the well-documented and widespread sexual slavery practiced in Israel, as incredibly and shamefully many women are brutalized, prostituted and sold as property. Surely, we should be thankful for their vigilance in the Ramon matter.
Ordinary Israelis seem to relish the accusatory state, perhaps believing that there is an excess of corruption and maybe also because it relieves some of the tension from living dangerously. They seem not to understand that there is a cost in driving good people away from public service, as well as the poisoning of public life.
It's time for Israel to recognize that for some misjudgments or missteps, civil penalties are usually more appropriate than overkill. It's time for Israel's police force to get into the crime fighting business. It's time for Israel's Supreme Court to get out of the business of having a welcoming mat for all who have accusations to make.
I do not advocate tolerance of wrongdoing, whether financial or sexual. With, I think, the exception of Shimon Peres, over the past twenty years every Prime Minister has been under prolonged investigation, in some instances for possible trivial wrongdoing. Israel's presidents haven't done much better, nor the Chief Rabbis. It's comforting to know that no matter how powerful they may be, wrongdoing is not being tolerated.
The problem is that many of the targets scarcely did wrongs that merit full-fledged criminal investigation. What is the benefit when the police engage in extended trivial pursuits, hounding public officials on trivial charges based on trivial evidence? What is the benefit if the accusatory state continues to grow, as it must and will unless it is checked by a sense of restraint and proportion?
There were failures and mistakes in intelligence, military preparedness and planning, strategy and, most seriously, in the lack of preparedness for the socio-economic consequences of the war to Israelis in the North. Israel did not win the war because there was no war to win. There was the goal to hurt Hezbollah and to punish Lebanon severely for tolerating a terrorist state with a state. That goal was met. With the exception of the Six Day War, since 1948 Israel hasn't won outright any war and that will not change, primarily because of powerful diplomatic constraints. But Israelis aren't satisfied with partial results. There is a childish expectation that Rambo-like Israel can quickly wipe out all of the bad guys.
When this doesn't happen because it cannot, there must be high-powered investigations, fault must be found and heads must roll. There is no guillotine, but the "guilty" must be identified, pilloried and sacked.
If the finger-pointing were limited to major national security events, the practice would be understandable, yet also lamentable because of its overuse. This is not the case. Israel has become an accusatory state, a country engulfed by an endless parade of complaints of real or imagined wrongdoing by public officials in which the instrumentalities of democratic government are ignored. This development is nasty and dangerous because it poisons Israeli life and has the collateral effect of deterring top-flight people from engaging in public service.
The accusatory state has several prongs, with the Supreme Court being the primary architect. In its composition and practices it is sharply anti-democratic. It has usurped the authority to interfere in all matters of public policy, including routine administrative appointments. Accusatory petitions are filed nearly daily, with the court scarcely reflecting on the appropriateness of this activity. The attitude, as expressed by a former Chief Judge, is that the court has to play this role because no one else in government can be trusted.
The accusatory mentality or culture is especially evident in police activity. In large measure because of security needs, Israel's police have a distinctive role. As an apparent trade-off they play a small role in crime prevention or detection. When cars were being stolen wholesale and shipped immediately to Arab chop shops, the police stood idly by. Their response to the epidemic of home burglaries is not any better, a circumstance that results in homeowners putting bars on their windows because they know they cannot rely on the police.
But give the Israeli police the opportunity to investigate public figures and they quickly awake from their lethargy, operating on the principle that those whom they are investigating are guilty until proven innocent. Why the police have this role is a question that isn't asked. Nowadays, they are super-busy investigating loads of officials, from President Moshe Katsav whose presidential residence they raided late at night to lesser personages. In recent days, they netted two big fish, Tsahi Hanegbi, a former government minister, whose alleged crime strikes me as engaging in routine patronage and politics, and Haim Ramon, the Justice Minister, who apparently kissed a woman against her will. It is stupid and dangerous to criminalize what Ramon may have done, which is not to defend him. I assume that the law that criminalizes such behavior applies in its majesty to all who live in Israel. If it is properly enforced, Israel will either have to build many additional penal facilities or perhaps release the Palestinians it is holding to make room for the many others who have committed Ramon's crime.
What is intriguing about the police's determination to promote sexual morality is the blind eye and worse shown toward the well-documented and widespread sexual slavery practiced in Israel, as incredibly and shamefully many women are brutalized, prostituted and sold as property. Surely, we should be thankful for their vigilance in the Ramon matter.
Ordinary Israelis seem to relish the accusatory state, perhaps believing that there is an excess of corruption and maybe also because it relieves some of the tension from living dangerously. They seem not to understand that there is a cost in driving good people away from public service, as well as the poisoning of public life.
It's time for Israel to recognize that for some misjudgments or missteps, civil penalties are usually more appropriate than overkill. It's time for Israel's police force to get into the crime fighting business. It's time for Israel's Supreme Court to get out of the business of having a welcoming mat for all who have accusations to make.
I do not advocate tolerance of wrongdoing, whether financial or sexual. With, I think, the exception of Shimon Peres, over the past twenty years every Prime Minister has been under prolonged investigation, in some instances for possible trivial wrongdoing. Israel's presidents haven't done much better, nor the Chief Rabbis. It's comforting to know that no matter how powerful they may be, wrongdoing is not being tolerated.
The problem is that many of the targets scarcely did wrongs that merit full-fledged criminal investigation. What is the benefit when the police engage in extended trivial pursuits, hounding public officials on trivial charges based on trivial evidence? What is the benefit if the accusatory state continues to grow, as it must and will unless it is checked by a sense of restraint and proportion?
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Forty Years Later
This column appears on the front page of this week's issue of The Jewish Press.
Forty years ago, I wrote an article called "The New Style of American Orthodox Jewry" that was published in Jewish Life, then the magazine of the Orthodox Union. Its opening words were, "It is common knowledge by now that Orthodox Jewry in this country is making rapid advances and is, in a real sense, the healthiest segment of American Jewry."
This was written at a time when the Orthodox were fewer in number than we are now, and many who identified themselves as Orthodox were so by affiliation and not by practice. They were no more than marginally or nominally observant and soon they or their children would fall away. Among those whose religious commitment was on firmer ground, there was sharp internal conflict over Israel, relations with the Conservative and Reform movements and other critical issues. Day school enrollment was a third of today's number and the influence of religious Jews in Jewish communal life was limited, as secular and non-Orthodox groups were dominant. The Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel did not have Washington offices.
All told, it was perhaps premature, if not arrogant, to describe Orthodoxy as I did in 1966.
I was prescient, but not prophetic. What I sensed were developments with roots in the 1950's. The new Orthodox style was assertive and independent, even militant, as the Orthodox broke away from positions embraced by the larger community.
When Congress in the mid-1960's enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and included parochial schools in grant programs, Orthodox leaders testified and advocated on behalf of this breakthrough legislation. The National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA) filed briefs in support of the statute and challenged the claim that opponents spoke for all of American Jewry. Our aim was to promote the interests of religious Jews, not to be popular.
For all of their bruising internal battles, the Orthodox were able to set aside their disagreements and even bitterness to present a unified position on government aid to parochial schools, as well as the emerging field of the rights of Sabbath observers and religious persons. We directly confronted the Federation world, challenging its wretched record of non-support of day schools and hostility to religious causes and institutions.
It's telling that in 1969, Rabbi Irving Greenberg - even then the hyper-Modern Orthodox leader - led a group of young protestors who disrupted the annual meeting of the Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare Funds to demand aid to day schools. Their advocacy bore fruit.
There were other achievements, arising from our unity on public issues despite our diversity and discord on religious issues. We were willing to go it alone, to be outsiders. Because we were outsiders, we had greater influence.
It is forty years later. We have two Washington offices, access at the White House and in other high places. There are more of us - and more of us have the capacity to be influential. On some levels, there is less intra-Orthodox friction. Federation leaders and Jewish machers break bread with us. They are our buddies. In short, we have made it. We are insiders. Everything should be coming up roses, at least in the public domain.
The record shows otherwise. President Bush and Congress, whose political conservatism matches the political ideology of most Orthodox Jews, gave us the first major piece of Federal education legislation since the 1960's, the "No Child Left Behind Act." All religious schoolchildren were left out. In New York, where presumably we have clout, until the recent tax relief legislation there wasn't anything to follow up on the significant achievements of the 1960's and 1970's, primarily the textbook and mandated service programs that have assisted our schools.
Protection of Sabbath observers is all but a dead issue, although discrimination against them is still practiced in abundance. The New York Federation has sharply cut back the relatively little it does for yeshivas and day schools. In 1967 I chaired a conference on "Government Aid to Parochial Schools How Far?" - the expectation being that what had been achieved was a prelude to greater accomplishments. They never materialized.
What happened? Why are we so feeble, even as we have access and visibility, even as we broadcast claims of influence?
As with most historical questions that ask why this or that happened or did not happen, there is no simple or single answer. No one planned to derail that which was unfolding a generation or more ago. Part of the explanation is in lifestyle changes, in conditions that have reduced our ability to advocate what we believe in. Not in our religious life but in public affairs. Volunteerism is in decline in America and so is the role of ideas. Within Orthodox life, askanos or lay leadership is nearly as dead as the dodo. Most of us who might be active or creative are too busy and we leave the job to organizations whose agenda inevitably revolves around their self-interest, to the detriment of the larger community.
This is evident in the evaporation of intra-Orthodox cooperation in the crucial area of public affairs. Yes, there is greater internal unity than there was when sparks flew over membership in rabbinical bodies with the non-Orthodox and the draft of young women into the Israeli Army. But there was, back then, an ethos of cooperation on public affair issues. Our major organizations joined in COLPA's briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts.
There is little contact today, however, whether directly through meetings or over the phone. Strange as it may seem, among the yeshiva-world Orthodox there is a greater likelihood of sitting down with Federation and secular leaders than with other Orthodox. In short, the abandonment of cooperation has resulted in the diminution of our influence.
This is linked in turn to the root cause of current Orthodox feebleness in public affairs. What I wrote forty years ago holds the key to what has changed. We had then broken away from mainstream American Jewry, explicitly not wanting to be part of what had harmed the prospect for Jewish continuity. We insisted on our independence, on the right to advocate religious interests and to challenge the establishment. We weren't interested in being popular or having access. Being outsiders was just fine, if that status would yield results. Emphatically, we did not exalt being outsiders as a goal unto itself; rather, we recognized that by their abandonment of what had kept Judaism alive, the Jewish establishment made us into outsiders.
The tax relief legislation just enacted in New York resulted largely from the efforts of the Sephardic Community Federation, a Syrian Jewish organization that deliberately presents itself as an outsider. Without its advocacy, there would be no legislation. This group is also searching for creative approaches to the constitutioal issues raised by governmental activity that assists parochial schools. Here, too, mainstream Orthodoxy is asleep.
The abandonment of advocacy is also evident in the neglected field of protecting religious persons in the workplace and elsewhere. This neglect has harmful consequences because hard-working religious Jews are often stuck in jobs that offer no advancement, while others cannot get jobs for which they are certainly qualified. Strangely, the rank and file of Orthodox Jewry derives little comfort from the stream of organizational press releases announcing phantom achievements.
One fantasy advanced by those who have little to show in the legislative and legal arenas is that there are behind-the-scenes achievements that are so "top secret" that they cannot be discussed. Of course there are private arrangements, but to maintain that the key interests of Orthodox Jews are being advanced in this fashion is to promote a falsehood. Legislation and litigation are public activities.
What about the Federations and the expanding world of Jewish foundations? There, too, we have abandoned advocacy in exchange for meaningless access, as in the shameful silence when the New York Federation two years ago terminated basic grants to yeshivas and day schools. There is the collateral shamefulness in the snide attitude toward the few of us who are willing to challenge what Federation did to hurt Jewish schools that are struggling to get by.
I might note that in recent years, even as certain of the Orthodox have achieved access to Federation, there is growing Federation support for intermarriage-related activities and other dubious projects that are promoted as "continuity."
Our recent paltry record can be contrasted with what was achieved about forty years ago. Camp Sternberg, which has assisted thousands of Orthodox families, was established because pressure was put on Federation. Nowadays, Federation gives a pittance to Sternberg.
But that's not the story I want to tell. Several years after Sternberg opened, Federation attempted to gain control. This effort was publicly resisted and defeated. Ohel Children's Home is another example from around this period. Its establishment and recognition by governmental agencies came about because dedicated people who were more interested in meeting our communal needs than in being popular fought Federation's efforts to derail Ohel.
If situations like Sternberg and Ohel would arise in 2006, it is doubtful that our leadership would have the courage to fight for our community's needs. There would be Orthodox insiders cautioning, "Be quiet, don't make trouble. We have friends at Federation and we will make a deal."
After all, they haven't fought Federation on behalf of yeshivas and day schools -why, then, should we expect them to take on the establishment when the stakes are even smaller?
As Jewish philanthropy has shifted toward private foundations established by persons who have amassed great wealth, once more the Orthodox community is missing an opportunity, although insiders have exploited their contacts to benefit the institutions and organizations in which they are involved while failing to advocate on behalf of our schools and other broad communal needs.
Working with one foundation, I have achieved much for yeshivas and day schools, without using my contacts to benefit the institutions affiliated with the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, which I serve as president. It saddens me that there isn't another person in Orthodox life who has even attempted to do likewise. If we do not make our case to philanthropists who have the means to help, how can we expect them to support our schools?
The record is worse yet with respect to restitution and Holocaust funds, a field where "top secret" does apply as Orthodox insiders have quietly sed their access to produce immense benefits to their own groups, while purposely neglecting the more legitimate needs of our schools and the larger community. I am certain that this is a story that will never be fully told.
Today's Orthodoxy - call it the new new style of American Orthodoxy - craves access and acceptance and has a fawning relationship with those who are hostile to religious values and practices, as was evident at the Siyum Hashas when honor was accorded to Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and others who have fought against religion and what Orthodox Jewry stands for.
Our new style is epitomized by Agudath Israel's Am Echad project which is no more than an empty slogan that brings no one closer to Yiddishkeit while it purposely sends out the message to secular Jews - many of whom are not Jewish according to halacha - that despite their opposition to what we believe and practice, we are one people. This despite their acceptance of intermarriage, advocacy of gay marriage and much else that is alien to our idea of peoplehood.
Are we one people today, given the wholesale abandonment of religiosity? Forty years ago, when intermarriage was a small fraction of what it is now and when most Jews still practiced certain essentials of our faith, our Torah leaders did not trumpet an empty slogan of Am Echad. Rather, we asserted our independence.
In the 1950's, when by all counts we should have been weak and when our independence resulted in the loss of support for our yeshivas, we fought, under the transcendent leadership of the great rosh yeshiva of Lakewood, Rav Aharon Kotler, and other Torah giants, against the induction of women into the Israeli Army and we rejected membership in boards of rabbis with non-Orthodox clergy.
These were not popular decisions. They did not make us insiders; instead, they fortified our status as outsiders. They were also courageous actions and ultimately they had beneficial results.
I do not advocate that we be militant for militancy's sake. We must continue to do outreach and we must reach out to secular Jews in other ways. Much of my time is spent working with persons outside of Orthodoxy, but this emphatically does not entail the stifling of advocacy of our causes, particularly the needs of our schools.
We must have the dignity and the courage to assert our differences. We must have the wisdom not to embrace access and popularity at the expense of our dignity and independence.
When we crave acceptance by those who in their lives and communal work reject what Torah Judaism mandates, we are less effective. That is or should be the lesson of the last forty years.
As we say in our tefilos, "Baruch hu-Elokainu she-baranu l'chevodo, v'hivdilanu min ha-toim, v'nasan lanu toras emes, v'chaye olam nata b'socheinu." "Blessed is He, our God, who created us for His glory, separated us from those who stray, gave us the Torah of truth and implanted Eternal Life within us."
Forty years ago, I wrote an article called "The New Style of American Orthodox Jewry" that was published in Jewish Life, then the magazine of the Orthodox Union. Its opening words were, "It is common knowledge by now that Orthodox Jewry in this country is making rapid advances and is, in a real sense, the healthiest segment of American Jewry."
This was written at a time when the Orthodox were fewer in number than we are now, and many who identified themselves as Orthodox were so by affiliation and not by practice. They were no more than marginally or nominally observant and soon they or their children would fall away. Among those whose religious commitment was on firmer ground, there was sharp internal conflict over Israel, relations with the Conservative and Reform movements and other critical issues. Day school enrollment was a third of today's number and the influence of religious Jews in Jewish communal life was limited, as secular and non-Orthodox groups were dominant. The Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel did not have Washington offices.
All told, it was perhaps premature, if not arrogant, to describe Orthodoxy as I did in 1966.
I was prescient, but not prophetic. What I sensed were developments with roots in the 1950's. The new Orthodox style was assertive and independent, even militant, as the Orthodox broke away from positions embraced by the larger community.
When Congress in the mid-1960's enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and included parochial schools in grant programs, Orthodox leaders testified and advocated on behalf of this breakthrough legislation. The National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA) filed briefs in support of the statute and challenged the claim that opponents spoke for all of American Jewry. Our aim was to promote the interests of religious Jews, not to be popular.
For all of their bruising internal battles, the Orthodox were able to set aside their disagreements and even bitterness to present a unified position on government aid to parochial schools, as well as the emerging field of the rights of Sabbath observers and religious persons. We directly confronted the Federation world, challenging its wretched record of non-support of day schools and hostility to religious causes and institutions.
It's telling that in 1969, Rabbi Irving Greenberg - even then the hyper-Modern Orthodox leader - led a group of young protestors who disrupted the annual meeting of the Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare Funds to demand aid to day schools. Their advocacy bore fruit.
There were other achievements, arising from our unity on public issues despite our diversity and discord on religious issues. We were willing to go it alone, to be outsiders. Because we were outsiders, we had greater influence.
It is forty years later. We have two Washington offices, access at the White House and in other high places. There are more of us - and more of us have the capacity to be influential. On some levels, there is less intra-Orthodox friction. Federation leaders and Jewish machers break bread with us. They are our buddies. In short, we have made it. We are insiders. Everything should be coming up roses, at least in the public domain.
The record shows otherwise. President Bush and Congress, whose political conservatism matches the political ideology of most Orthodox Jews, gave us the first major piece of Federal education legislation since the 1960's, the "No Child Left Behind Act." All religious schoolchildren were left out. In New York, where presumably we have clout, until the recent tax relief legislation there wasn't anything to follow up on the significant achievements of the 1960's and 1970's, primarily the textbook and mandated service programs that have assisted our schools.
Protection of Sabbath observers is all but a dead issue, although discrimination against them is still practiced in abundance. The New York Federation has sharply cut back the relatively little it does for yeshivas and day schools. In 1967 I chaired a conference on "Government Aid to Parochial Schools How Far?" - the expectation being that what had been achieved was a prelude to greater accomplishments. They never materialized.
What happened? Why are we so feeble, even as we have access and visibility, even as we broadcast claims of influence?
As with most historical questions that ask why this or that happened or did not happen, there is no simple or single answer. No one planned to derail that which was unfolding a generation or more ago. Part of the explanation is in lifestyle changes, in conditions that have reduced our ability to advocate what we believe in. Not in our religious life but in public affairs. Volunteerism is in decline in America and so is the role of ideas. Within Orthodox life, askanos or lay leadership is nearly as dead as the dodo. Most of us who might be active or creative are too busy and we leave the job to organizations whose agenda inevitably revolves around their self-interest, to the detriment of the larger community.
This is evident in the evaporation of intra-Orthodox cooperation in the crucial area of public affairs. Yes, there is greater internal unity than there was when sparks flew over membership in rabbinical bodies with the non-Orthodox and the draft of young women into the Israeli Army. But there was, back then, an ethos of cooperation on public affair issues. Our major organizations joined in COLPA's briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts.
There is little contact today, however, whether directly through meetings or over the phone. Strange as it may seem, among the yeshiva-world Orthodox there is a greater likelihood of sitting down with Federation and secular leaders than with other Orthodox. In short, the abandonment of cooperation has resulted in the diminution of our influence.
This is linked in turn to the root cause of current Orthodox feebleness in public affairs. What I wrote forty years ago holds the key to what has changed. We had then broken away from mainstream American Jewry, explicitly not wanting to be part of what had harmed the prospect for Jewish continuity. We insisted on our independence, on the right to advocate religious interests and to challenge the establishment. We weren't interested in being popular or having access. Being outsiders was just fine, if that status would yield results. Emphatically, we did not exalt being outsiders as a goal unto itself; rather, we recognized that by their abandonment of what had kept Judaism alive, the Jewish establishment made us into outsiders.
The tax relief legislation just enacted in New York resulted largely from the efforts of the Sephardic Community Federation, a Syrian Jewish organization that deliberately presents itself as an outsider. Without its advocacy, there would be no legislation. This group is also searching for creative approaches to the constitutioal issues raised by governmental activity that assists parochial schools. Here, too, mainstream Orthodoxy is asleep.
The abandonment of advocacy is also evident in the neglected field of protecting religious persons in the workplace and elsewhere. This neglect has harmful consequences because hard-working religious Jews are often stuck in jobs that offer no advancement, while others cannot get jobs for which they are certainly qualified. Strangely, the rank and file of Orthodox Jewry derives little comfort from the stream of organizational press releases announcing phantom achievements.
One fantasy advanced by those who have little to show in the legislative and legal arenas is that there are behind-the-scenes achievements that are so "top secret" that they cannot be discussed. Of course there are private arrangements, but to maintain that the key interests of Orthodox Jews are being advanced in this fashion is to promote a falsehood. Legislation and litigation are public activities.
What about the Federations and the expanding world of Jewish foundations? There, too, we have abandoned advocacy in exchange for meaningless access, as in the shameful silence when the New York Federation two years ago terminated basic grants to yeshivas and day schools. There is the collateral shamefulness in the snide attitude toward the few of us who are willing to challenge what Federation did to hurt Jewish schools that are struggling to get by.
I might note that in recent years, even as certain of the Orthodox have achieved access to Federation, there is growing Federation support for intermarriage-related activities and other dubious projects that are promoted as "continuity."
Our recent paltry record can be contrasted with what was achieved about forty years ago. Camp Sternberg, which has assisted thousands of Orthodox families, was established because pressure was put on Federation. Nowadays, Federation gives a pittance to Sternberg.
But that's not the story I want to tell. Several years after Sternberg opened, Federation attempted to gain control. This effort was publicly resisted and defeated. Ohel Children's Home is another example from around this period. Its establishment and recognition by governmental agencies came about because dedicated people who were more interested in meeting our communal needs than in being popular fought Federation's efforts to derail Ohel.
If situations like Sternberg and Ohel would arise in 2006, it is doubtful that our leadership would have the courage to fight for our community's needs. There would be Orthodox insiders cautioning, "Be quiet, don't make trouble. We have friends at Federation and we will make a deal."
After all, they haven't fought Federation on behalf of yeshivas and day schools -why, then, should we expect them to take on the establishment when the stakes are even smaller?
As Jewish philanthropy has shifted toward private foundations established by persons who have amassed great wealth, once more the Orthodox community is missing an opportunity, although insiders have exploited their contacts to benefit the institutions and organizations in which they are involved while failing to advocate on behalf of our schools and other broad communal needs.
Working with one foundation, I have achieved much for yeshivas and day schools, without using my contacts to benefit the institutions affiliated with the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, which I serve as president. It saddens me that there isn't another person in Orthodox life who has even attempted to do likewise. If we do not make our case to philanthropists who have the means to help, how can we expect them to support our schools?
The record is worse yet with respect to restitution and Holocaust funds, a field where "top secret" does apply as Orthodox insiders have quietly sed their access to produce immense benefits to their own groups, while purposely neglecting the more legitimate needs of our schools and the larger community. I am certain that this is a story that will never be fully told.
Today's Orthodoxy - call it the new new style of American Orthodoxy - craves access and acceptance and has a fawning relationship with those who are hostile to religious values and practices, as was evident at the Siyum Hashas when honor was accorded to Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and others who have fought against religion and what Orthodox Jewry stands for.
Our new style is epitomized by Agudath Israel's Am Echad project which is no more than an empty slogan that brings no one closer to Yiddishkeit while it purposely sends out the message to secular Jews - many of whom are not Jewish according to halacha - that despite their opposition to what we believe and practice, we are one people. This despite their acceptance of intermarriage, advocacy of gay marriage and much else that is alien to our idea of peoplehood.
Are we one people today, given the wholesale abandonment of religiosity? Forty years ago, when intermarriage was a small fraction of what it is now and when most Jews still practiced certain essentials of our faith, our Torah leaders did not trumpet an empty slogan of Am Echad. Rather, we asserted our independence.
In the 1950's, when by all counts we should have been weak and when our independence resulted in the loss of support for our yeshivas, we fought, under the transcendent leadership of the great rosh yeshiva of Lakewood, Rav Aharon Kotler, and other Torah giants, against the induction of women into the Israeli Army and we rejected membership in boards of rabbis with non-Orthodox clergy.
These were not popular decisions. They did not make us insiders; instead, they fortified our status as outsiders. They were also courageous actions and ultimately they had beneficial results.
I do not advocate that we be militant for militancy's sake. We must continue to do outreach and we must reach out to secular Jews in other ways. Much of my time is spent working with persons outside of Orthodoxy, but this emphatically does not entail the stifling of advocacy of our causes, particularly the needs of our schools.
We must have the dignity and the courage to assert our differences. We must have the wisdom not to embrace access and popularity at the expense of our dignity and independence.
When we crave acceptance by those who in their lives and communal work reject what Torah Judaism mandates, we are less effective. That is or should be the lesson of the last forty years.
As we say in our tefilos, "Baruch hu-Elokainu she-baranu l'chevodo, v'hivdilanu min ha-toim, v'nasan lanu toras emes, v'chaye olam nata b'socheinu." "Blessed is He, our God, who created us for His glory, separated us from those who stray, gave us the Torah of truth and implanted Eternal Life within us."
Friday, June 16, 2006
Has the Day Passed for Day Schools?
A year ago, we were occupied with the scheme hatched by Five Towners upset over the very high and ever-rising day school tuition charges. That quarter is now silent, not because there hasn't been another increase and the problem is being addressed, but because running into brick walls is not an experience that induces continuity.
There are signs that day schools are a declining priority on the communal agenda. True, New York has enacted a tax credit that includes day school parents and this resulted in large measure from the advocacy of the Sephardic Community Federation. It is, however, an achievement that will have a minimal impact. As for the community, with few exceptions day schools are once more neglected stepchildren. Following the trauma, even panic, resulting from the frightening 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, there was a meaningful uptick in communal support. Even prior to NJPS, in New York the great philanthropist, Joseph Gruss of blessed memory, invested enormously in day schools and leveraged his support to get Federation to join in the Fund for Jewish Education which helped a large number of yeshivas and day schools.
The trend is now in the other direction. In the important expanding field of private Jewish philanthropy, except for a small number of key foundations, day schools are little more than a footnote. At the Federation level, the annual extravaganza known as the General Assembly devotes no more than one panel session to day schools. Two years ago in a transcendental awful decision, the New York Federation terminated basic grants to yeshivas and day schools. The response from those who still pass as Orthodox leaders was silence.
The nearly universal attitude is that day school education is far less a communal service than a product provided to a select group of parents who should pay the bill. As a consequence, there is pain in many homes and schools and scarcely anyone cares. A growing number of parents on the margins of our religious life reject day school for their kids because of the high cost. We do not see their faces in the vast American crowd. What we see is expanding enrollment, fed primarily by the high Orthodox fertility rate, particularly among the fervently Orthodox.
This masks other realities, such as enrollment decline in Solomon Schechter schools, in some measure because of the problems afflicting the Conservative movement. Some Solomon Schechters have closed and others are headed in that direction. A few days ago, I received an email from a Solomon Schechter that I helped last year, pleading for support as "we are desperately seeking funds so that we can open in September." Apart from the four schools that I serve as president, I am involved in one way or another in dozens of day schools, right now including a large institution with a noble record that is experiencing much difficulty.
I sense that the day school situation is rougher than it has been in a long while. In the Rosh Hashanah letter to be sent in September to alumni of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, I write that "although my RJJ activity is voluntary, it has encompassed at times forty or more hours a week, which is to say that I am not a typical yeshiva president. Yet, it has always been difficult to put together the resources we need to meet our obligations. This lets me understand how hard it must be for the vast majority of yeshivas and day schools that do not have a president or lay leaders as active as I am."
As a postscript, over the past five years I have appended a note to the column published during Chanukah asking for support for RJJ. Total contributions over this entire period do not exceed $5,000.
Financial hardship has long come with the territory called religious Jewish education. What is worrisome is the declining interest in these schools, in their now being ranked behind camps, Israel and other activities as instrumentalities for promoting Jewish continuity. There is some logic to this among the non-Orthodox because their children are found only in relatively small numbers in day schools. What is tragic is the Orthodox abandonment of day schools, of course not for their own children but as outreach vehicles for children from marginally observant homes. The sad, steep decline of Torah Umesorah is an important factor in this unfortunate story and it also highlights the failure of Orthodox leaders at both the Rabbinic and lay levels.
This is reflected in the continued and inexcusable Orthodox leadership silence two years after the termination of the basic grants and, perhaps more shockingly, in the sharply declining enrollment in schools serving immigrant and outreach families. The day school census I conducted in 2003 showed a significant drop in enrollment since the 1998 census and there are clear indications that the trend is continuing and perhaps accelerating. While mainstream Orthodox schools once served such families, most now accept only applicants from fully Orthodox homes, either because of space reasons or because of ideological considerations. Thousands of children who could be part of a glorious Jewish future are being lost to Judaism.
There are Orthodox lay leaders whose primary goal is establishment access. They look at their role not in terms of advocacy but in terms of "let's make a deal." If they have made any, likely its for the benefit of the institutions they are involved in, not for the full range of yeshivas and day schools. While they refuse to advocate for day schools, they snidely criticize those who do. It should occur to them that if the Orthodox do not advocate on behalf of these most vital institutions, it cannot be expected that the rest of the Jewish world will pick up the slack.
There are signs that day schools are a declining priority on the communal agenda. True, New York has enacted a tax credit that includes day school parents and this resulted in large measure from the advocacy of the Sephardic Community Federation. It is, however, an achievement that will have a minimal impact. As for the community, with few exceptions day schools are once more neglected stepchildren. Following the trauma, even panic, resulting from the frightening 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, there was a meaningful uptick in communal support. Even prior to NJPS, in New York the great philanthropist, Joseph Gruss of blessed memory, invested enormously in day schools and leveraged his support to get Federation to join in the Fund for Jewish Education which helped a large number of yeshivas and day schools.
The trend is now in the other direction. In the important expanding field of private Jewish philanthropy, except for a small number of key foundations, day schools are little more than a footnote. At the Federation level, the annual extravaganza known as the General Assembly devotes no more than one panel session to day schools. Two years ago in a transcendental awful decision, the New York Federation terminated basic grants to yeshivas and day schools. The response from those who still pass as Orthodox leaders was silence.
The nearly universal attitude is that day school education is far less a communal service than a product provided to a select group of parents who should pay the bill. As a consequence, there is pain in many homes and schools and scarcely anyone cares. A growing number of parents on the margins of our religious life reject day school for their kids because of the high cost. We do not see their faces in the vast American crowd. What we see is expanding enrollment, fed primarily by the high Orthodox fertility rate, particularly among the fervently Orthodox.
This masks other realities, such as enrollment decline in Solomon Schechter schools, in some measure because of the problems afflicting the Conservative movement. Some Solomon Schechters have closed and others are headed in that direction. A few days ago, I received an email from a Solomon Schechter that I helped last year, pleading for support as "we are desperately seeking funds so that we can open in September." Apart from the four schools that I serve as president, I am involved in one way or another in dozens of day schools, right now including a large institution with a noble record that is experiencing much difficulty.
I sense that the day school situation is rougher than it has been in a long while. In the Rosh Hashanah letter to be sent in September to alumni of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, I write that "although my RJJ activity is voluntary, it has encompassed at times forty or more hours a week, which is to say that I am not a typical yeshiva president. Yet, it has always been difficult to put together the resources we need to meet our obligations. This lets me understand how hard it must be for the vast majority of yeshivas and day schools that do not have a president or lay leaders as active as I am."
As a postscript, over the past five years I have appended a note to the column published during Chanukah asking for support for RJJ. Total contributions over this entire period do not exceed $5,000.
Financial hardship has long come with the territory called religious Jewish education. What is worrisome is the declining interest in these schools, in their now being ranked behind camps, Israel and other activities as instrumentalities for promoting Jewish continuity. There is some logic to this among the non-Orthodox because their children are found only in relatively small numbers in day schools. What is tragic is the Orthodox abandonment of day schools, of course not for their own children but as outreach vehicles for children from marginally observant homes. The sad, steep decline of Torah Umesorah is an important factor in this unfortunate story and it also highlights the failure of Orthodox leaders at both the Rabbinic and lay levels.
This is reflected in the continued and inexcusable Orthodox leadership silence two years after the termination of the basic grants and, perhaps more shockingly, in the sharply declining enrollment in schools serving immigrant and outreach families. The day school census I conducted in 2003 showed a significant drop in enrollment since the 1998 census and there are clear indications that the trend is continuing and perhaps accelerating. While mainstream Orthodox schools once served such families, most now accept only applicants from fully Orthodox homes, either because of space reasons or because of ideological considerations. Thousands of children who could be part of a glorious Jewish future are being lost to Judaism.
There are Orthodox lay leaders whose primary goal is establishment access. They look at their role not in terms of advocacy but in terms of "let's make a deal." If they have made any, likely its for the benefit of the institutions they are involved in, not for the full range of yeshivas and day schools. While they refuse to advocate for day schools, they snidely criticize those who do. It should occur to them that if the Orthodox do not advocate on behalf of these most vital institutions, it cannot be expected that the rest of the Jewish world will pick up the slack.
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