This week we faced a government shutdown and the publication of a poll about Jews and I found glaring similarities between them - both indicate that ideology is winning out over practicality and in both instances there is a failure of leadership. It really doesn't make a difference which side you are on regarding the government shutdown, the bottom line is that a minority of hard liners are holding the process of negotiating a settlement hostage to orthodox doctrine that while arguably admirable is just simply not practical and outright harmful to a majority of Americans. The Pew research poll on Jews indicates a depressing decline in the number of Jews who identify themselves as such but a growing number of hard line ideologues gaining strength through a stubborn refusal to find unity.
Take for instance a letter published this week by Agudath Israel of America basically calling out Yeshivat Chovevei Torah as a non-orthodox institution. YCT, an Orthodox Yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss an Orthodox rabbi and now led by Rabbi Asher Lopatin have committed the sin of giving women a larger say in religious life and for reaching across the aisle to dialogue with rabbis and leaders from other denominations. It certainly does not help that the supposed centrist Rabbinical Council of America will not allow YCT graduates to become members nor will they recognize their ordination.
Oh, these ideologues will use as proof the solid growth of Orthodoxy to justify closing more doors to liberal thinking. If we just go by numbers then they are in fact correct. Look as well to the Reform movement, still the largest denomination of Judaism but many, myself included, feel that the numbers are somewhat skewed because the threshold to entry is frankly not that high. The Reform spend a lot of time and resources doing outreach to the non-Jewish spouse in intermarried couples and little to strengthen the identity of those Jews already in their camp.
The Tea Party will look to the electoral gains they made in recent elections as proof that sticking to doctrine is a recipe for success and will shun any compromise regarding the budget. At least in the case of the government shutdown there is no lunatic fringe on the left refusing to compromise. The poster boy for the ire of the Tea Party is a President who has proven time and again a willingness to compromise and governs from the center. It is not a stretch to believe that the President's race is a major factor in the blind hatred he engenders from the Right Wing nuts. But that is a whole other subject.
Leadership in both instances have failed us. Our political leaders both left and right have turned the other way as the influence of money has ambushed and kidnapped the process of governing. Our leaders have proven time and again that it is easier to save big business than it is to bail out the little guys hurt by the reckless behavior of those very same businesses. Individuals who commit lesser crimes than the fat cats on Wall Street are prosecuted regularly while those fat cats pay fines that amount to slaps on the wrist and are almost never criminally prosecuted. Compromise or middle ground on those issues seems to have gone the way of the rotary phone.
So too our religious leaders. Rather than finding a way to be inclusive they slowly draw a larger divide against those that don't think like them. Orthodoxy might be strengthening and even growing in numbers but no one will say that Orthodoxy is becoming more tolerant. The face of Modern Orthodoxy has so drastically changed that it is unrecognizable to those of my generation who grew up in the 1960's and 70's. Soon, the Modern Orthodoxy I grew up in will replace the Conservative movement as centrist Judaism and likely be called something else. The new Modern Orthodoxy will be people with college and/or professional degrees who wear black hats or long skirts. The paradigm is shifting and in the process we will lose Jews who cannot find a home in any denomination the same way we are losing the Silent Majority of Americans who feel alienated by the political process.
What we need is nothing short of a reverse revolution, one that validates the ideologies of all but finds a middle ground where we can all live together. Saner heads must prevail or ten years from now Judaism and America will look nothing like they do now.
Take for instance a letter published this week by Agudath Israel of America basically calling out Yeshivat Chovevei Torah as a non-orthodox institution. YCT, an Orthodox Yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss an Orthodox rabbi and now led by Rabbi Asher Lopatin have committed the sin of giving women a larger say in religious life and for reaching across the aisle to dialogue with rabbis and leaders from other denominations. It certainly does not help that the supposed centrist Rabbinical Council of America will not allow YCT graduates to become members nor will they recognize their ordination.
Oh, these ideologues will use as proof the solid growth of Orthodoxy to justify closing more doors to liberal thinking. If we just go by numbers then they are in fact correct. Look as well to the Reform movement, still the largest denomination of Judaism but many, myself included, feel that the numbers are somewhat skewed because the threshold to entry is frankly not that high. The Reform spend a lot of time and resources doing outreach to the non-Jewish spouse in intermarried couples and little to strengthen the identity of those Jews already in their camp.
The Tea Party will look to the electoral gains they made in recent elections as proof that sticking to doctrine is a recipe for success and will shun any compromise regarding the budget. At least in the case of the government shutdown there is no lunatic fringe on the left refusing to compromise. The poster boy for the ire of the Tea Party is a President who has proven time and again a willingness to compromise and governs from the center. It is not a stretch to believe that the President's race is a major factor in the blind hatred he engenders from the Right Wing nuts. But that is a whole other subject.
Leadership in both instances have failed us. Our political leaders both left and right have turned the other way as the influence of money has ambushed and kidnapped the process of governing. Our leaders have proven time and again that it is easier to save big business than it is to bail out the little guys hurt by the reckless behavior of those very same businesses. Individuals who commit lesser crimes than the fat cats on Wall Street are prosecuted regularly while those fat cats pay fines that amount to slaps on the wrist and are almost never criminally prosecuted. Compromise or middle ground on those issues seems to have gone the way of the rotary phone.
So too our religious leaders. Rather than finding a way to be inclusive they slowly draw a larger divide against those that don't think like them. Orthodoxy might be strengthening and even growing in numbers but no one will say that Orthodoxy is becoming more tolerant. The face of Modern Orthodoxy has so drastically changed that it is unrecognizable to those of my generation who grew up in the 1960's and 70's. Soon, the Modern Orthodoxy I grew up in will replace the Conservative movement as centrist Judaism and likely be called something else. The new Modern Orthodoxy will be people with college and/or professional degrees who wear black hats or long skirts. The paradigm is shifting and in the process we will lose Jews who cannot find a home in any denomination the same way we are losing the Silent Majority of Americans who feel alienated by the political process.
What we need is nothing short of a reverse revolution, one that validates the ideologies of all but finds a middle ground where we can all live together. Saner heads must prevail or ten years from now Judaism and America will look nothing like they do now.
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