Yes. But Who Are We?

DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN

"We're coming of
age and looking
around and
wondering what
direction to go in
- Nor ma Banul Joseph

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

1ff

odern Orthodoxy is
determined to put its
house in order — or at
least to figure out what
the house looks like.
It has always been a movement open
to a broad range of influences from both
the traditional Jewish and secular
worlds.
And the value conflicts that occasion-
ally arise between these worlds have cre-
ated challenges for its rabbinic leaders as
well as a comfortable place for the
majority of American Orthodox Jews
who believe they can be observant while
they enjoy the benefits of American soci-
ety.
But modern Orthodoxy has in recent
years been buffeted by countervailing
forces so powerful that rabbis and other
leaders within the community say that it
has lost a sense of itself as a force with a
distinct religious ideology.
"To this day, the majority of Jews
identifying as Orthodox are centrist, yet
none can clearly assert what centrist
Orthodoxy is about," said Rabbi Rafael
Grossman, spiritual leader of Baron
Hirsch Synagogue in Memphis, a con-
gregation
of 900 families.
b 0
So its leaders are now devoting them-
selves to examining — and re- articulat-
ing — what it means to be modern
Orthodox.
Perhaps the most visible illustration
of the soul-searching is the upcoming
conference, "Orthodoxy Encounters a
Changing World," sponsored by Edah, a
2-year-old organization based in New
York.
Edah was founded by a handful of
Orthodox rabbis and laypeople who
were determined to articulate a centrist
view of Orthodoxy that they felt was
being subsumed as the community
moved toward more stringent practices
and philosophies.
((
They gave Edah, which means com-
munity" in Hebrew, a tag line:
"The Courage to be Modern and
Orthodox."
The group, with an annual budget of
about $650,000 raised from several indi-
vidual supporters, has focused its efforts

2/5
1999

16 Detroit Jewish News

Modern Orthodox Jews say they
are "centrist" while tying to define
what that means.

on reaching rabbinical students and
women rising through the ranks of
Jewish educational and communal insti-
tutions to expose them to a systematic
study of Jewish law and ideology.
Now, however, Edah is reaching out
to the grass roots. It expects about 650
people from around the country to
attend the two-day conference, sched-
uled to begin Feb. 14 at a Manhattan
hotel.
The Edah conference follows on the
heels of two conferences focusing on
feminism and Orthodoxy, which also
provided venues for reflecting on recent
changes within Orthodoxy The confer-
ences, held in New York City in
February 1997 and 1998, attracted

Restoring Zionism's Zip

A deep commitment to the State of
Israel as a political entity and as a
religious phenomenon is a common
thread woven through modern
Orthodoxy.
As a sign of that connection,
graduates of Orthodox high schools
often spend at least a year studying
in a yeshiva in Israel.
But the political influence of reli-
gious Zionists in Israel, historically

some 2,000 attendees from around the
world.
Further evidence of the public self-
examination was found in the respected
Orthodox journal Tradition, which
devoted its entire summer 1998 issue to
33 essays on "The Sea Change in
American Orthodox Judaism."
"We're coming of age and looking
around and wondering what direction
to go in" on a number of issues, said
Norma Baumel Joseph, an associate pro-
fessor of religion at Concordia
University in Montreal and honorary
co-chairwoman of the Edah conference.
"We in the modern or centrist
Orthodox community find ourselves
beset" by two extremes, said Rabbi

expressed through the Mizrachi Party,
is virtually absent now that the major
forces battling out Israel's future are
the fervently Orthodox fighting with
those who would like to see religion
separated from the state.
The Religious Zionists of
America, a New York-based organi-
zation that was once a potent rally-
ing force among the modern
Orthodox, has long been in decline.
Now a new leadership is working
to revitalize it, said Grossman of

Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva
University, which offers Jewish under-
graduate, graduate and rabbinical stud-
ies, as well as degrees in secular fields
such as law and medicine.
From one side has come the powerful
influence of the haredi, or fervently
Orthodox, world, which emphasizes
increasing stringency in Jewish obser-
vance, traditional gender roles and dis-
engagement from the secular world
whenever possible.
From the other extreme, said Rabbi
Saul Berman, director of Edah, comes "a
corrosive secularization present in the
contact with secular society that tends to
undermine spiritual passion."
"The so-called modern Orthodoxy
suffers from an inferiority complex,"
said Rabbi Walter Wurzberger, who
retired from leading an Orthodox con-
gregation on Long Island, N.Y., and
now teaches philosophy at Yeshiva
University
"In many circles, this kind of
Orthodoxy is regarded as a compromise
between genuine Orthodoxy and no
Orthodoxy. Some people think modern
Orthodoxy means you're not as emphat-
ic in your observance of Ha/achah," or
Jewish law, he said.
Everyone interviewed agreed that the
1993 death of modern Orthodoxy's
revered rabbinic leader, Joseph
Soloveitchik, has created a leadership
vacuum that has not yet been filled.
Leaders of modern Orthodoxy
believe their movement's distinctiveness
lies in its commitment to engaging with
modernity, religious Zionism, expanded
roles for women and relating to other
Jews and non-Jews.
The newest item on modern

Memphis, who is the RZA's newly
elected chairman of the board.
The organization had over
100,000 American Jewish support-
ers during RZA's heyday, which last-
ed until the mid-1960s, he said, but
is now down to between 10,000
and 15,000.
Plans include establishing new
chapters around the country, pub-
lishing printed materials to spark
discussion and enaaainc, in outreach,
Grossman said. PI

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