The theme of this year's forum addressed both institutional and personal challenges faced by Orthodox Jews regarding their relationship with Jews who are not Orthodox, both within and beyond the US. The 13 selected papers address the problem from historical, halakhic, educational, sociological, and ideological perspectives. Among their topics are Orthodox educators in non-Orthodox Jewish educational settings, internal Orthodox debate with a focus on birthright and other similar programs, the Orthodox professional in non-Orthodox communal agencies, the halakhic status of the secular Jew, and halakhic views toward different Jews. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Relationship of Orthodox Jews with Believing Jews of Other Religious Ideologies and Non-Believing Jews

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2010 Yeshiva University Press
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60280-140-0

Contents

Contributors...........................................................................................................................................................................................ixSeries Editor's Preface Robert S. Hirt................................................................................................................................................................xiiiIntroduction Adam Mintz...............................................................................................................................................................................xvii1. The Relationship of Orthodox Jews with Believing Jews of Other Religious Ideologies and Non-Believing Jews: The American Situation in Historical Perspective Jonathan D. Sarna.....................12. Encountering the Other: Birthright Israel, Jewish Peoplehood, and the Opportunities and Dangers of Religious Journeys Sylvia Barack Fishman........................................................273. Orthodox Educators in Non-Orthodox Jewish Educational Settings Jack Bider..........................................................................................................................514. Beyond Outreach: The Abraham Joshua Heschel School-A Case Study in Inter-denominational Collaboration Ahuva Halberstam.............................................................................855. The American Model: Internal Orthodox Debate with a Focus on Birthright and Other Similar Programs Mark Dratch.....................................................................................1316. The Orthodox Professional in Non-Orthodox Communal Agencies Marc D. Stern..........................................................................................................................1517. Beyond the Pale? Reflections Regarding Contemporary Relations with Non-Orthodox Jews Aharon Lichtenstein...........................................................................................1878. The Halakhic Status of the Secular Jew: A Question of Public, Not Personal, Halakhah Yuval Cherlow.................................................................................................2259. Halakhic Views Toward Different Jews Yona Reiss....................................................................................................................................................24310. What A Difference Place Makes: Reflections on Religious-Secular Divides in Israel and in America Jeffrey Saks.....................................................................................25911. Relationships Between Religiously Observant and Other Troops in the IDF: Vision Versus Reality Stuart A. Cohen....................................................................................27912. It's A Small, Small World: Secular Zionism Through the Eyes of a Religious-Zionist Parashat HaShavua Pamphlet Yoel Finkelman......................................................................31313. Lessons Religious Zionism Can Learn From Modern Orthodoxy in America: Civil Marriage in Israel Marshall Breger....................................................................................351Orthodox Forum Twenty-First Conference List of Participants............................................................................................................................................393Index..................................................................................................................................................................................................397

Chapter One

The Relationship of Orthodox Jews with Believing Jews of Other Religious Ideologies and Non-Believing Jews: The American Situation in Historical Perspective

Jonathan D. Sarna

A central paradox underlies "the relationship of Orthodox Jewish with believing Jews of other religious ideologies and non-believing Jews in America." On the one hand, Orthodox Jews, non-Orthodox Jews, and non-Jews periodically trumpet the "unity of Israel"-whether as an ideal, a presumed reality, or an administrative convenience. On the other hand, they likewise take cognizance of the "disunity of Israel," which they alternatively cheer, lament, or ignore. Historically, Orthodox Jews in particular have long faced conflicting goals: some have stood first and foremost for cherished religious principles while others have placed primary emphasis on preserving Jewish unity. In the American setting, most often these two goals have proved impossible to reconcile.

In Colonial America, before anyone knew of "Orthodox Jews," much less of other Jewish religious ideologies, the problem of how to relate to Jews who "dayly violate the principles [of] our holy religion, such as Trading on the Sabath, Eating of forbidden Meats & other Henious Crimes" arose in New York in 1757. The Parnasim and Elders of the city's only synagogue, Shearith Israel, basing themselves upon biblical and rabbinic tradition, took a hard line:

Whoever for the future continues to act contrary to our Holy law by breacking any of the principles command [principal commandments?] will not be deem'd a member of our Congregation, have none of the Mitz[v]ote of the Sinagoge Confered on him & when Dead will not be buried according to the manner of our brethren.

Within six months, following what appears to have been significant pressure, they reconsidered:

Whosoever may thinck that they are quallified but wrongfully debard being called to Sepher or any other Mitz[v]ote in Sinagoge, they are requested of themselves or their Friends for them to acquaint the Ruling Parnaz of the same, that none who are worthy may be unjustly neglected or deprived Thereof. The Parnasim like fait[h]ful Sheepards call into the fold the wandring sheep, leaving the ways of men to the Righteous God, not doubting but every member of this Community is convinced the Parnasim & Elders had anything else in view in the last Exhortation but the establishing & supporting our holy religion.

Absent state support, synagogues in colonial North America depended on voluntary contributions. Coercive measures aimed at strengthening religious discipline proved unpopular, especially in a colony like New York where many believing Protestants were openly latitudinarian in their faith. As a result, colonial American synagogues learned to patrol the "edges" of irreligious behavior, much as New England congregational parishes of the time did. Torn between irreconcilable goals-the desire to combat sinful behavior and the need to preserve communal consensus-synagogue leaders blazoned the possibility of censure but generally pulled back in the face of dissent.

The American Revolution introduced a new element into the question of how to relate to Jews of other religious ideologies. In addition to overthrowing the British, the Revolution also discredited the Anglican Church, with its hierarchic model of organization. The congregational form of governance characteristic of Protestant dissenters from Anglicanism came to characterize much of American religion, and especially American Judaism. Already in the days of George Washington, congregations proved reluctant to cede authority, even to the prestigious "mother" congregation, Shearith Israel of New York. That unwillingness explains, in part, why Washington received three different letters from American Jews (one from the congregation in Savannah, another from Newport, and a third from congregations in Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond), rather than just one letter from a united Jewish community. Each congregation cherished its independence.

In addition, the new world of American religion, which did away with restrictive colonial laws and monopolistic church establishments, came to be characterized by a series of principles that would have far-reaching effects on American Judaism. Four of these are particularly important to our theme: (1) religious freedom, (2) church-state separation, (3) denominationalism ("the religious situation created in a land of many Christian churches and sects when none of them occupies a privileged situation and each has an equal claim to status"), and (4) voluntaryism ("the principle that individuals are free to choose their religious beliefs and associations without political, ecclesiastical, or communal coercion"). The fact that America fully legitimated individual religious freedom as well as a plethora of religious options, and banned government from favoring any particular religious movement or from prescribing religious "heresy," dramatically distinguished the post-Revolutionary United States from every other country where Jews then lived.

The decades that followed witnessed a whole series of confrontations that pitted synagogue leaders in America against malcontents, some of whom we might anachronistically characterize as "believing Jews of other religious ideologies." In 1782, for example, Mikveh Israel congregation in Philadelphia banned Jacob I. Cohen from marrying a widow, Esther Mordecai, who had converted to Judaism years before; the marriage of a kohen to a giyyoret is, of course, halakhically forbidden. The marriage took place in any case, defiantly witnessed by three distinguished Philadelphia Jewish laymen (including Haym Salomon), who married the couple privately. Having been apprised of Jewish law, they knowingly placed Cohen's liberty and happiness above its dictates.

Three years later the same congregation complained to Rabbi Saul Halevi Loewenstamm in Amsterdam that a local businessman named Mordecai Mordecai, the son of a rabbi from Telz, took the law into his own hands on two separate occasions. First, in an apparent attempt to reconcile members of his extended family, he performed an unauthorized Jewish marriage ceremony on a previously intermarried couple, his niece, Judith Hart, and her unconverted husband, Lt. James Pettigrew. On another occasion he openly flouted synagogue authority by performing the traditional last rites on Benjamin Clava, an identifying but intermarried Jew whom the synagogue, as a warning to others, had ordered buried "without ritual ablution, without shrouds, and without funeral rites." On both occasions Mordecai vigorously defended his actions, insisting that he knew Jewish law better than those who judged him. Seeking to enlist Rabbi Loewenstamm on their behalf, the congregation's leaders explained that "In this country ... everyone does as he pleases.... Yet, the Kahal [community] has no authority to restrain or punish anyone, except for the nominal penalty of denying them synagogue honors, or of withholding from them sacred rites. However, these vicious people completely disregard such measures and continue to attend our synagogue, because under the laws of the country it is impossible to enjoin them from so doing." In other words, Jews in post-Revolutionary America were making their own rules concerning how to live Jewishly, and there was little that the synagogue could do about it.

As confrontations multiplied, a new generation of American Jews, born after the American Revolution, successfully challenged the model of American Judaism that had existed to that time. In the 1820s, Jews in the two largest American Jewish communities, New York and Charleston, seceded from the "established synagogues" of their communities and formed new ones: in New York the Ashkenazic synagogue, B'nai Jeshurun, and in Charleston, The Reformed Society of Israelites for Promoting True Principles of Judaism According to Its Purity and Spirit. The hallowed "synagogue-community" model of American Judaism, which assumed that each community would be organized around a single synagogue that unified Jews and governed all aspects of their religious lives, as a result gave way to a more freewheeling marketplace model of American Judaism: the "community of competing synagogues."

Two decades later the population of the American Jewish community had significantly grown-reaching perhaps 15,000 Jews, mostly from Central Europe-and synagogues opposed to demands for "Reform" began for the first time to label themselves "Orthodox." With multiple congregations competing against one another in major communities, religious conflicts no longer just pit synagogue leaders against dissenting members, as had been the case in the immediate post-Revolutionary decades. Instead, conflicts now pitted synagogue leaders against one another, some promoting religious change, others standing firm for tradition. Both groups generally trumpeted the importance of unity, just as Protestants at that time did, but as a rule communal unity proved impossible to reconcile with cherished religious principles.

The issue came to a head, for the first time, at a national conference of Jewish clergy and lay leaders held in Cleveland in 1855. The meeting, called by Isaac Mayer Wise, brought together the two giants of American Judaism-Isaac Leeser, editor of the Occident and leader of the moderate "Orthodox" camp, and Wise, editor of the Israelite and leader of the moderate "Reform" camp-in a bid to promote what was called Shalom Al Yisrael. Wise and Leeser spoke of fashioning an overarching ecclesiastical assembly ("synod") for American Jews, a common liturgy, and a plan for promoting Jewish education.

What makes the conference significant in terms of our topic is the reluctance of many Orthodox rabbis, especially those religiously to the right of Leeser, to attend the gathering. Abraham Rice, Morris Raphall, Henry A. Henry, and Abraham Joseph Ash all refused to participate, fearing that the conference would be manipulated by Wise and his allies and would legitimate Reform in the eyes of the public. Rice, the first formally ordained rabbi to immigrate to America, complained that many of those coming to the conference lacked religious standing; they "assumed in this country the title of Rabbins ... [they] have put on their own heads the rabbinical cap." In the end, the conference, which began on a conciliatory note, endorsed a series of Reform proposals that were introduced and passed only after Leeser had returned to Philadelphia. In response, Bernard Illowy, who had initially agreed to join Leeser in Cleveland but then changed his mind, called on his erstwhile friend to own up to the fact that attending the joint rabbinical conference in the first place had been a mistake:

I know your good heart and that you have acted with a pure heart, without deceit. But I advise you to make yourself clear before all. Therefore, chastise those people in public. Tell them that their actions belie their words, and that their spirits are not faithful to Judaism. Let them change their ways and say, "We have sinned." Then everyone will believe that you and the men with you are true followers of the God of Israel.

The Cleveland Conference, designed to unite America's Jews, in the end underscored their deepening ideological divisions. These divisions were confirmed by the next effort to unite American Jewry, the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, established in 1859. The Board had no religious aims; it goals were to "keep a watchful eye on all occurrences at home and abroad" and to collect statistics. It modeled itself after London Jewry's influential Board of Deputies and was stimulated, in part, by the worldwide Jewish campaign to free Edgardo Mortara from the House of the Catechumens in Rome. Nevertheless, only about a fifth of America's synagogues participated in the Board's work. Even though moderate Orthodox leaders such as Samuel M. Isaacs and Leeser dominated the Board, the two largest Sephardic synagogues stayed away, fearing that their freedom and independence might be challenged. Most Reformers stayed away as well, charging that the board intended to "interfere with the internal affairs of the congregations."

On the eve of the American Civil War, then, leading American Jews were divided: some advocated compromise for the sake of Jewish unity while others urged steadfastness in defense of cherished religious principles. The debate was not unique to Jews. Protestants conducted parallel debates, and in many ways the Civil War too pitted "unity" against "principle." The dispute among Orthodox Jews concerning how to relate "with believing Jews of other religious ideologies and non-believing Jews" echoed key aspects of this debate. The issue would be taken up again and again over the next 150 years but would never conclusively be resolved.

The coming of over two million East European Jews to America (1881-1924) reignited the debate over the appropriate relationship of Orthodox to non-Orthodox Jews. Whereas some in the 1870s had believed that "the meager residues of Orthodoxy which one still finds in this land are insignificant," and that Reform Judaism would shortly become "Minhag America," mass immigration turned the tide. Soon Reform Jews found themselves in the minority.

Outsiders knew little of this issue and viewed Jews as a single community. They considered the ethnic and religious differences among Jews to be far less significant than the "blood" (or "race") ties marking all Jews alike as different from Christians. Inevitably, this "ascribed" identity affected Jewish self-identity. Based on longstanding Jewish values, moreover, native-born Central European Jews and immigrant East European Jews also began to interact more with one another, particularly in philanthropic and communal settings. Sharing as they did a common fate, the two worlds of American Jewry slowly but inexorably began to bond.

The Protestant ecumenical movement further spurred such interreligious ties among Jews. At a time when the Protestant majority in America joined together in support of the "social gospel," overseas missions, and the Federal Council of Churches (established in 1908), similar cooperation among Jews seemed only appropriate.

A series of challenges promoted intracommunal cooperation. The 1903 Kishinev pogrom that saw 47 Jews killed and 424 wounded, as well as 700 houses burned and 600 looted, outraged American Jews and united them in protest. At a mass meeting in Atlantic City, Simon Wolf, a proud German Reform Jew and a leader of B'nai B'rith, delivered a masterful address in English, followed by the well-known Orthodox Zionist preacher Zvi Hirsch Masliansky, who spoke no less masterfully in Yiddish. In Philadelphia the Socialist leader Abraham Cahan announced that at times of calamity "there should be no distinction made between socialist, orthodox, or radical" He practiced what he preached, observing that "he, the leader of the socialists, known as the infidel, the heretic, stands now in an orthodox synagogue and preaches from the same pulpit with Rev. Masliansky and Rabbi [Bernard] Levinthal." With Jewish lives at stake in Russia, Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, believers and non-believers alike, as well as notable non-Jews, all stood shoulder to shoulder. Their shared goal was pikuah nefesh.

The prolonged campaign to abrogate America's 1832 treaty of commerce with Russia, where Jewish tourists and even visiting American Jewish dignitaries faced discrimination on religious grounds, promoted some of these same cooperative efforts. So did the long political battle to keep America's doors open to immigrants. In both cases, Central and East European Jews, Orthodox, Reform, and secular Jews, all had the satisfaction of knowing that they had worked hand in hand in support of a common aim. Religious differences had not prevented them from speaking with one voice on issues of shared communal concern.

(Continues...)

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