HAPPENING.

Tough Questions

Is American life good or bad for Judaism?

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MWIT

have no Jewish education or support
Israel, but I love klezmer music.'
"Is that person intensely Jewish if
that is all he cares about?" Liebman
asked. "Does keeping kosher make a
good Jew and klezmer not?"
"I don't know," he continued. "Let's
see what happens with his kids. Will
his kids stay in the fold? Klezmer is
good, but Irish music is good, too."
Liebman finds of greatest concern
that American Jewry has internalized
what he calls the "American, middle-

hough he feels "the current
condition of American
Jewry is hard to assess,"
Professor Charles Liebman,
on sabbatical from Israel's Bar-Ilan
University, sees some reasons for opti-
mism.
Speaking on the topic, "Is There
Hope for Jewish Renewal? The
American Jewish Community in the
21st Century," Liebman noted
the explosion of day schools,
especially in the Conservative
movement, and the Reform
movement's "openness to
mitzvot and its strong commit-
ment to Judaic terms never
before heard — for example, am
segula, a chosen people, a term
that was once anathema to
Reform Jewish leaders."
His lecture last week at the
Jewish Community Center in
Oak Park was sponsored by Bar-
Ilan, the JCC, the Jewish
Theological Seminary in New
York and the Cohn-Haddow
Center for Judaic Studies at
Wayne State University.
Liebman owned up to being
"less than sanguine about the
condition of America Jewry
today."
After acknowledging two
conflicting trends long in play
— renewed interest in Judaism
versus a falling off in interest — Charles. Liebman
Liebman noted the existence of
"a third middle group, and we
class, liberal values," which shrink
don't know if they are becoming more
from passing judgment on anyone or
Jewish or less Jewish."
anything. It is this element of the
Calling it a "stirring," Liebman
"stirring" that he finds most dangerous
cited the enthusiastic attendance at 37
to Judaism's identity.
kabbala institutes across the country.
"Jewish life is about making judg-
Especially on the West Coast, they are
ments," Liebman said, adding that
having a strong influence on Jewry
"We no longer think that institutions
today.
can interfere in private life, but that's
"This stirring tells me something is
what Judaism does."
going on," he said. "People are being
Being open to new experiences, he
moved, but in new directions, and we
said, may include introducing "ele-
don't know what directions."
ments that are not necessarily Jewish,
He is concerned with "how do we
and we have to be aware. In matters of
define a Jew today?" Someone may
spirituality, symbols don't count and
say, "'I don't belong to a synagogue, I
the door is left open to Christian or
don't observe the commandments, I
pagan symbols."

