THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, October 28, 1977 15
On National Jewish Secularism
By ALLEN A. WARSEN
Is securlarism and anti-
religion synonymous with
atheism?
These and similar matters
are discussed in the collec-
tion of essays "The Faith of
Secular Jews" (Ktav )
edited with an introduction
by Saul L. Goodman.
The collection is divided
into six sections composed
of 28 essays. The author:,
include Simon Dubnow
(1860-1941, murdered by the
Nazis), Chaim Zhitlowsky
(1965-1943), Yudel Mark
(1899-1975), Abraham
and
Golomb
(1888-)
Goodman.
Simon Dubnow, the great
Jewish historian, in the
essay "The Secret of Sur-
vival and the Law of Sur-
vival" differentiates
between the national secu-
larists, the orthodox and the
assimilationists. He
declares that the secular-
ists, by aspiring to separate
the national idea from reli-
gion, "aim only to negate
the supremacy of religion,
but not to eliminate it from
the storehouse of national
cultural treasures. If we
wish to preserve Judaism as
a cultural-historical type of
nation, we must realize that
the religion of Judaism is
one of the integral founda-
tions of national culture and
that anyone who seeks to
destroy it undermines the
very basis of national
existence."
moreover,
Dubnow,
makes it clear that "to for-
sake Judaism by accept-
ance of; the Christian reli-
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gion means exit from the
Jewish people."
• Yudel Mark, the late edi-
tor of the "Great Yiddish
Dictionary," agrees with
Simon Dubnow and asserts
in the essay "Jewishness
and Secularism" that secu-
larism "does not turn aside
from old sources, and does
not wish to sever itself from
roots, but rather aims at
getting more sunrays for
the leaves of our tree, and
wants our roots_ to get nour-
ishment with juices from all
kinds of soil."
Abraham Golomb, author
of 'Eternal Ways of the
Eternal People," defines
the concepts who is a Jew,
what is Jewishness and
what constitutes a people in
the essay "From Secular to
Integral Jewishness." He
expresses the view that the-
Jewish religion "cannot be
static" since it is an
integral part of the Jewish
people, and the life of a
people is not static. To
prove the correctness of his
view, he cites examples
from the Bible. For
instance, "there do not exist
(in the Bible) any elements
of private rewards and pun-
ishment, of resurrection of
the dead. These are ele-
ments that have arisen
later. Similarly, laws of the
Torah have been annulled
(for example, money
became a substitute for 'an
eye for an eye')."
Golomb visualizes that
"many elements of contem-
porary secular Jewishness
will certainly, in time, in
generations hence, become
recognized as religiously
sacred."
Saul L. Goodman, author
of "Traditsye un Benayung"
(Tradition and Innovation )
and editor of the book under
review, inzAhe essay "The
Credo of a Jewish Educa-
tor," is concerned with the
American Jewish secular-
ists who "are split organiza-
tionally over old ideological
nuances and issues that are
m longer valid and
relevant."
He poses these pertinent
questions : "...what extract
of Jewish culture will not be
dissolved in the American
sea?" "What secular Jew-
ish substance will separate
us from the non-Jewish mil-
ieu and at the same time be
relevant and give substance
to the younger generation of
Jews?"
He admits that at present
his questions cannot be
answered satisfactorily,
since "even a Jewish secu-
larist recognizes that the
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Jewish people is a unique
phenomenon in many
respects, and that general
solutions are not always
applicable to our dilemmas.
The Russians, the Germans,
the French do not wrestle
with the problem of who is a
Russian, a German, a
Frenchman. For Jews, how-
ever, it is difficult to find
one answer that would sat-
isfy all of us."
Goodman,
moreover,
acknowledges "that secular
Jews cannot completely
reject the views and atti-
tudes of Halakha Jews
regarding the problem
('Who is a Jew' ), for the
simple reason that secular-
ists have not as yet found a
reliable substitute for the
Halakha that would give us
guarantees for survival as
Judaism and the Halakha
gave us for two millenia.
(This does not imply that
Orthodox Jews have a
monopoly on the inter-
pretation of the Halakha)."
Is secularism anti-religion
and synonymous with athe-
ism, as some maintain?
Chaim Zhitlowsky, the men-
tor of the Yiddishist and
secularist Jewish
intelligentsia, explains : "In
public life secularism sug-
gests that both religion and
anti-religion are private
matters...Atheistic mate-
rialism, which is often
thought of as the essence of
secularism, is only one of its
variants."
In the essay "The
National Poetic Rebirth of
the Jewish Religion," Zhit-
lowsky describes the Jewish
holidays and calls upon the
nationally minded Jews to
celebrate all of them,
including the Sabbath and
Tisha b'Av. His descrip-
tions are insightful and
poetic. An excerpt from his
description of Passover
follows:
"...it is a poetic symbol of
the human struggle for free-
dom at all times, all gener-
ations, all human condi-
tions. A symbol of that
struggle, driven by a great
ideal, that compels a person
to cast behind him all the
flesh pots of Egypt and to
follow it through desert and
dark pits, through drought,
bearing the shadow of death
and to seek new, untrodden
paths to go through a land
that no man passed through,
and no man dwelt...
"All of mankind might
well celebrate the Jewish
Passover — shall we forget
about it ? !"
The anthology "The Faith
of Secular Jews" provides
insights into the manifold
aspects of Jewish secular
nationalism.
Sometimes prayer is
More than a light before
us; it is a light within us.
Those who have once been
resplendent with this light
find little meaning in specu-
lations about the efficacy of
prayer.
—Abraham J. Heschel
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