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Jewish population of 5.6-8 million. Rabbi Greenberg puts
American Orthodoxy at 10-15 percent.
"By comparison ... a little over 14 percent of the Jews
of New York [including five boroughs and three subur-
ban counties] identify themselves as Orthodox," Profes-
sor Schnall says. "I think the city with the largest
self-identified Orthodox population was Baltimore, close
to 20 percent."
Kenneth Lasson, a University of Baltimore professor
of law and a writer, says his family hasn't "moved to the
left, but we've been moved to the left in the categorization
in some communities. We've become dwarfed by the right
in terms of numbers."
"We haven't thrown away television sets or disdain go-
ing to ball games. We celebrate Fourth of July and Thanks-
giving, and we consider ourselves fully American and fully
Jewish at the same time, and we consider ourselves true
to Torah values, followers and keepers of the mitzvahs,"
Professor Lasson says. "But we also are college educated
and many of us are professionals, and we live in the broad-
er gentile world comfortably."
The University of Baltimore's law school, where Pro-
fessor Lasson works, has the highest number of shomer
Shabbat professors in the country, he says.
Zionism is a crucial tenet of modem ideology. It's hard
to find a modem Orthodox Jew who is not committed to
the State of Israel. Right-wingers may have an equal love
for Israel but do not recognize the state, either because
its government is secular or because doing so would be
a symbol of the Messianic Era, which they believe has not
yet arrived.
In some ways, Beth Jacob Synagogue in Atlanta is a
modem congregation.
"To this day, [it] has an open parking lot — people dri-

ve to synagogue," Rabbi Ilan D. Feldman says. And yet, Hirsch, in some ways "the spokesman of the Jewish com-
Beth Jacob is not religiously expressive about the State munity to the outside world," who appreciated "the best
of Israel; congregants do not include the prayer for the of German culture and German knowledge," Rabbi Tessler
state in services.
says. "His views on many things were for that time ex-
Just down the road, however, Young Israel of Toco Hills tremely progressive and sometimes seen as revolution-
does recite the prayer.
"We do believe in Halachah, but we do whatever pos-
Rabbi Soloveitchik "believed that if you studied Shake-
sible to be inclusive so that people who are not personal- speare it would enhance your Jewishness," he says. Right-
ly observant of different aspects of Halachah still feel wingers might say there's no need to study Shakespeare
comfortable here," Beth Jacob's Rabbi Feldman says.
because one can reach those same insights by study-
Using Torah as a compass in the modern
ing Jewish text.
world is not new. Some of the greatest Torah
thinkers were thought to be radical for their
odern, or centrist, Ortho-
time, says Rabbi Joel Tessler, of Beth
doxy is "very amorphous,
Sholom Congregation in Potomac, Md.
very much undefined, and
For 100 years after Maimonides
bbi
I really worry about that,"
(Rambam) lived, Jews were burning his
n Weil:
says Rabbi Zucker of Frisch.
books because of ideas they thought to
Oak Part.
Of greatest concern to him is that
be radical, he says.
centrist
has been defined according to
"The Maimonidean controversy"
what it is not: "'Well, we're not this...' If
stemmed from fully observant Jews who
you're defined relative to other groups,
objected to Rambam's use of Aristotalian
the middle's falling out."
ideas. Rambam incorporated the philosophies
"Centrist means we take a middle-of-the-
of Aristotle in his understanding of Torah.
road opinion like the Aristotlian golden mean —
Rabbi Tessler says the controversy was really a "mis- not fanatics, not...it's always going to be relative. I don't
understanding, or a certain sense of antagonism against, think that's a way to define one's Judaism," Rabbi Zuck-
the Rambam's thinking and his writing." Still, for a long er says.
time after Rambam's death, observant Jews denounced
Rabbi Steven Weil of Young Israel of Oak Park says
"him, his beliefs and his understanding of Torah," he says. a centrist stance uses Torah to transform the society in
"There are times when [Rambam] thought Aristotle which Jews live. Rabbi Weil, who is centrist, took the helm
was wrong as a Jew and said so, but was not afraid to use of YIOP nearly three years ago. In that time the mem-
the ideas of the larger non-Jewish world to help him come bership soared, from 120 to 260 families, a change which
to who he was," Rabbi Tessler says.
Rabbi Weil attributes in part to the synagogue's veer to-
The 19th century produced Rabbi Samson Raphael ward a centrist stance.

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