Meed a
change
of scene?

Godless In Jerusalem

The topic was Jewish survival, but Judaism's
religious core was barely mentioned.

•

•

LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

onathan Sacks, chief rabbi
of England, was smiling
with seeming embarrass-
ment. Standing outside the
tent set up on the grounds of the
President's House, where 232
Jewish communal leaders and
academics from 22 nations had
been invited by President Ezer
Weizman to discuss how to keep
the tribe going, the rabbi was
asked why neither he nor just
about anybody else inside had
mentioned religion.
"We're much too polite," the
youngish rabbi said.
In his earlier address at last
week's "Dialogue With the Pres-
ident," Rabbi Sacks kept to the
consensus that "Jewish continu-
ity" meant more Jewish educa-
tion and closer ties between the
Diaspora and Israel.
One-on-one, however, Rabbi
Sacks averred that "the only two
things that will keep the Jewish
people alive are the Jewish state,
for those who live in it, and the
Jewish religion. It's either one or
the other, and there is no Jewish
continuity otherwise."
Asked why he did not say that
in his speech, the rabbi, smiling
more widely than ever, replied:
"This is a very Victorian gather-
ing. You know that in Victorian
society, you don't discuss politics
or religion."
It was remarkable: here were
the supposedly leaders of the
Jewish world — intellectuals, ed-
ucators, rabbis, machers —
thrashing it out for two days over
how to rejuvenate the people,
how to keep future generations
Jewish. Yet if the proverbial Mar-
tian had sat in on the speeches
and debates, he would not have
known, except for an occasional
word, that Judaism was a reli-
gion, a particular belief in God.
The crowd was, on the whole,
liberal and modern. The haredi
world was not there. Nor was
there much representation from
the non-haredi, but still hardline
Orthodox camp.
Yet these were all dedicated
Jews, most of them no doubt syn-
agogue-goers, and while they
spoke about the need to know
Torah and Jewish religious tra-
dition, the purpose, they agreed,
was to attain "Jewish literacy."
Whether there was some di-
vine meaning in the Torah,
whether there was some divine
purpose for the Jews — whether
the Jews had anything to do with
something or someone called

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God; this subject went almost
wholly unaddressed.
"What the hell is Judaism
about?" asked Avraham Burg, a
dovish Knesset member and Or-
thodox believer. "Never did the
Jewish people continue just for
the sake of continuity."
Mr. Burg wasn't offering any
certainties, though. In an inter-

David Hartman:
`Begin with doubt.'

view he said, "the Orthodox don't
have any answer to the question
of how to live in the modern
world. It's a ghettoized approach
to the religion. Personally, rm Or-
thodox, but-the movement isn't
worth a thing."
Another viewpoint was ex-
pressed by Boston-based writer
and Jewish activist Leonard Fein.
Yet he, too, also avoided the cen-
tral question of Judaism's God
component.
"Jewish continuity is not a
problem of method, its a problem
of substance," Mr. Fein said. "A
people has to have a purpose. The
purpose of the Jewish people is
to mend the fractures of this bro-
ken world."
A fine purpose, but one needn't
be Jewish to take it on.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minis-
ter Yossi Beilin- put it yet anoth-
er way. "The reason for Jewish
continuity is secondary, I think
it's much more emotional than
rational. I don't think we should
spend time on it," he said, and
then launched into an organiza-
tional solution, which aroused
even more debate.
Michael Walzer, a political
philosopher from Princeton,
made an ambitious attempt to
fashion a Jewishness that did not
depend on religion. Describing
himself as "religiously tone-deaf,"
he nevertheless declared that