This week I saw several articles/posts that made me think about what Jews believe today. The first was shared by Rabbi Freedman on TBJ’s facebook group; it was a link to a survey about Reform Jews views on Gd. I skimmed the survey and then read the article by Rabbi Shapiro of Springfield, MA. He wrote that with 40% of his Reform congregation responding, more than half of them believed in Gd and felt they had been in Gd’s presence at a holy moment in their life--ie birth of child, Bar/Bat Mitzvah of themselves or their children, wedding, Shabbat or festival service, in nature, or some other setting. Yet, their definitions of Gd were not necessarily “traditional”. For example, most did not believe that Gd neither rewarded nor punished in this life or even in the afterlife--which if you asked Jews 1000 years ago, many would have agreed. “
In the JewishWeek,( http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/lifting-our-heads-high-conservative-jews) Rabbi Steve Wernick, the CEO of USCJ, wrote about the recent population study of New York Jews. While not something to necessarily brag about, he noted that there was a clear distinction in the survey among Reform and Conservative Jews. Generally speaking, (not exclusively or in every case), Conservative Jews were more active than Reform on virtually every measure--whether observance, donations to their shuls or Federation, or education. So for every person that says, what's the difference between Reform and Conservative Judaism, besides the theological differences, there are some big practical ones, too.
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In the JewishWeek,( http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/lifting-our-heads-high-conservative-jews) Rabbi Steve Wernick, the CEO of USCJ, wrote about the recent population study of New York Jews. While not something to necessarily brag about, he noted that there was a clear distinction in the survey among Reform and Conservative Jews. Generally speaking, (not exclusively or in every case), Conservative Jews were more active than Reform on virtually every measure--whether observance, donations to their shuls or Federation, or education. So for every person that says, what's the difference between Reform and Conservative Judaism, besides the theological differences, there are some big practical ones, too.
Ignoring the numerous posts about the Supreme Court’s upholding the Constitutionality of the Affordable Healthcare Act, where I saw numerous articles about why affordable healthcare is a Jewish value, the most moving article I saw this week was from Rabbi Adam Frank of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Frank is the spiritual leader of Congregation Moreshet Yisrael. It is a mainly English speaking Conservative/Masorti congregation next the the Conservative yeshiva and the Fuchsburg Center in Jerusalem. Rabbi Frank is originally from Atlanta, although I did not know him, and he studied at the Ziegler Rabbinical Seminary at what is now the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.
I am going to read what he wrote, ask for some discussion, and then share 1 or 2 brief thoughts
(from http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=274708)
Rabbi Frank raises a point that Rabbi David Wolpe spoke about a few years ago. It’s much easier to market a bumper sticker. If we could easily say “this is Conservative Judaism”; we might have an easier time advertising ourselves. At the same time, Rabbi Frank doesn’t just speak of some sort of bumper sticker CJ. Rather, he is trying to speak of substantive issues. He is trying to raise the standard of observance and participation in the Conservative Jewish world. Living in Israel, he sees some of the diaspora challenges as false or imaginary.
For example, he speaks of walking to shul. He thinks that if people really cared about walking to shul, they would find a home that was within walking distance. While for some that may be true, I don’t think it is exclusively true. I know of several people who used to be walkers to their shuls, but then their shuls merged or moved and they were no longer around the corner. Financially, moving to the new neighborhood was not something they could afford and they began to reluctantly drive to shul. Alternatively, I can think of many people that would love to walk, and live with in theoretical walking distance, yet because of age or changing abilities, walking, even a short distance is no longer feasible.
Rabbi Frank wrote:
I believe that Conservative Judaism should focus its finite resources to strengthen its core rather than to expand its numbers.
I think this is a major discussion for us as a community. Do we focus on the people in the room or the people not in the room? Clearly we should not abandon either group, yet if we are always looking outward, we forget about the holiness in this room. At the same time, if we only look inward, we can become elitist, and forget the holiness that can be found outside these gorgeous windows.
I think Rabbi Frank raises a lot of interesting questions, some of which we will continue to discuss. Regardless of his answers, I think he gives us much to think about.
Though I serve a most public face of Conservative Judaism in Israel – certainly in the eyes of Diaspora Jewry – I speak neither for the movement nor for any of its institutions.
However, in this ever-changing landscape that is Conservative Judaism, I feel compelled to share the following: Conservative Judaism was birthed as a result of a modernizing Jewish population’s desire to continue to observe Jewish law in the face of new intellectual and political liberties that invited Jewish participation in this developing world.
Just as the early founders of Conservative Judaism adjusted and retooled approaches to Jewish tradition in reaction to changes in the modern world of its time in order to “conserve” Jewish practice, so too must present-day Conservative leadership adjust and retool Conservative Judaism to preserve Jewish practice – which means changing messages and ways of doing business that have shown themselves to fail in helping Jews maintain a fealty to Jewish observance.
Accordingly...
I BELIEVE that allowing demographic trends to dictate movement stances and synagogue policy is a misguided capitulation to a mostly non-engaged public.
I believe that Conservative Judaism’s most passionate youth are turned off by Conservative pragmatism over passion, ideology over actuality, by the snobbery termed “intellectual honesty” over the character building and shared sense of mission created by a community of Torah-observant people who believe that God has expectations of them.
I believe that intellect is different from wisdom and that the Conservative Movement has been unwise in placing too much emphasis on biblical criticism and not enough on psychology, emotions, and human needs as they relate to belief in God.
I believe that faith in God is not supposed to be put under a microscope for dissection.
I believe that many Conservative Jews would benefit from a clarion call that validates the belief in God and the belief in the literal Divinity of the Torah.
I believe the Five Books of Moses were given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.
I BELIEVE synagogues should sell off their large, expensive, empty sanctuaries and replace them with intimate havens whose size matches the demand of a 52-week community rather than a three-days-a year membership list.
I believe that Conservative synagogues should be communities that set public levels of expectations on its members in the areas of kashrut, Shabbat, Torah study and acts ofhessed (loving-kindness).
I believe Conservative Judaism should encourage our boys and men to wear kippot outside of school, synagogue and the home.
I believe that not living near the synagogue due to the cost of housing is an excuse that does not get used in the factual observant world.
I believe that membership to a shul should be a privilege.
I BELIEVE that the North American Solomon Schechter Day school system should require parallel learning for parents of students and require a level of observance from its member families.
I believe that teachers of Jewish studies in our Jewish day schools must have a commitment to living an observant lifestyle.
I believe that in a Jewish school environment that espouses pluralism of its students’ practices, the biggest lesson taught to the student is pluralism at the expense of Judaism.
I believe that the name “Conservative” contains no descriptive or prescriptive meaning. It communicates no sense of expectation or definition of its members’ philosophy or practice.
I believe that most of my modern Orthodox friends are “Conservative” and I believe that most of my Conservative friends are not.
I BELIEVE that for too long, Conservative leadership has tried to work behind the scenes.
I believe the leading bodies in the Conservative Jewish world should be rattling the cage at society’s indecencies.
I believe that religious leadership requires courageous, charismatic personality and upstanding character and that both can be taught and developed.
I believe that our seminaries must impose expectations on our rabbinical students that demand more than simply “being on the spectrum of Conservative Halacha.”
I believe that our observant Conservative Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s must have vibrant communities to join other than our institutional seminaries.
I believe that Conservative Judaism should focus its finite resources to strengthen its core rather than to expand its numbers.
I believe that the largest institutions of the Conservative Movement – USCJ, the Rabbinical Assembly, JTS, the ZSRS, the Women’s League and the Men’s Club must fund/financially support kollels of youthful, charismatic master teachers in city centers in order to create the foundations of communities for our committed adults, which will support the implementation of intensive, observant-based outreach.
I believe Conservative Jewish leadership neither embrace nor emphasizes enough that the Jews are a chosen people with a special, unrivaled relationship with God.
I believe that Conservative Judaism should more vocally espouse that the Land of Israel is holy ground where God’s presence in the world is felt strongest.
I believe that many Jews want and need the message that according to Judaism there is a correct way to live in this world and that there are absolute rights and wrongs that apply to ritual, as well as ethical, behavior.
I believe the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards should be viewed as the modern day Sanhedrin – but first it must start acting like a Sanhedrin by issuing edicts that are clear and worthy, humble and certain, relevant and important and unwavering.
I believe the Conservative Law Committee should repeal the ruling that permits driving on Shabbat and holidays.
AND I believe that parents of young families will appreciate their Conservative rabbi saying to them: Parents, you are not responsible for the level of Jewish literacy you were or were not gifted with during childhood; your parents are. Just as you are responsible for your child’s level of Jewish literacy.
Will your child feel panic or comfort with a siddur in her hands? Will your child be able to chant and understand the full kiddush on Friday nights? Know how to kasher a kitchen? Be able to open the chumash or Torah and read it in its original Hebrew? Will your child be able to explain why being Jewish is relevant and important, and why finding a Jewish partner is a no-brainer?
Will your child find comfort and pleasure upon entering a synagogue or will it cause anxiety and resentment? Will your child have the critical positive memories of living in a Shabbat-observant home?
Parents: even and especially if it means helping them to exceed your own level of knowledge, give your children the gift of literacy and the experience of their heritage, which will be the key that opens their Jewish futures... a gift that too few of us received from our own parents.
Rabbi Frank raises a point that Rabbi David Wolpe spoke about a few years ago. It’s much easier to market a bumper sticker. If we could easily say “this is Conservative Judaism”; we might have an easier time advertising ourselves. At the same time, Rabbi Frank doesn’t just speak of some sort of bumper sticker CJ. Rather, he is trying to speak of substantive issues. He is trying to raise the standard of observance and participation in the Conservative Jewish world. Living in Israel, he sees some of the diaspora challenges as false or imaginary.
For example, he speaks of walking to shul. He thinks that if people really cared about walking to shul, they would find a home that was within walking distance. While for some that may be true, I don’t think it is exclusively true. I know of several people who used to be walkers to their shuls, but then their shuls merged or moved and they were no longer around the corner. Financially, moving to the new neighborhood was not something they could afford and they began to reluctantly drive to shul. Alternatively, I can think of many people that would love to walk, and live with in theoretical walking distance, yet because of age or changing abilities, walking, even a short distance is no longer feasible.
Rabbi Frank wrote:
I believe that Conservative Judaism should focus its finite resources to strengthen its core rather than to expand its numbers.
I think this is a major discussion for us as a community. Do we focus on the people in the room or the people not in the room? Clearly we should not abandon either group, yet if we are always looking outward, we forget about the holiness in this room. At the same time, if we only look inward, we can become elitist, and forget the holiness that can be found outside these gorgeous windows.
I think Rabbi Frank raises a lot of interesting questions, some of which we will continue to discuss. Regardless of his answers, I think he gives us much to think about.
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