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Guest Column
Editorials
Judaism Must Embrace
Its 'Doubters'
New Chabad School:
Global Shining Light
NEW YORK (JTA)
is the young people self-imposing their own exile
from the Jewish people.
s of 2012, one in 20 Americans is identi-
While I feel sadness knowing our young people
fying themselves as an atheist, agnostic
do not always embrace the wealth of heritage that
or unbeliever. According to the research
is theirs, I also understand them. That is not to say
done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public
I agree. I know what it means, however, to look
Life released last year, nearly 33 million Americans
at the Jewish landscape and feel that the existing
list themselves with no religious affiliation. While
options offer no home. If one needs to see that in
it's not specified in the Pew study how many Jews
action, look at the religious forces in Israel, where
are among the ranks of the nonbelievers, doubtless
the rabbinate has stifling control over a religious
the cultural landscape of Judaism is also impacted
life defined by haredi Orthodox definitions that
by these larger trends in Western cul-
limit the civil rights of secular citizens. It
ture.
is a blessing then — of the non-religious
Part of the reason for this shift is
variety — that here in America we live in
the co-opting of what is perceived to
a society that allows so many avenues of
be "religious" by the most conservative
religious expression. (This is emerging in
forces in our society. As increasingly
Israel, too, but it is far more complicated,
narrow definitions of what it means
although inroads are being made.)
to be a "believer" prevail, people
In my youth and young adulthood,
with progressive social values or who
there were unifying causes of the Jewish
openly doubt a life lived within the
people — something we all stood behind
boundaries of strict religious practice
jointly because we knew in our hearts it
Edgar M.
find themselves at increasing distanc-
was right. We stood together against the
Bronfman
es from a life defined by a religious
Holocaust, for the State of Israel and to
identity. Although I am a proud and
free Soviet Jewry. Such uniting principles
active Jew, I count myself among those who find
allowed even those who did not see themselves
this definition of religiosity too constrictive.
inside of religion to still find a place among our
It seems the pendulum between doubters and
people.
believers is swinging further and further apart.
In modern times, however, this central cause
Those who live in belief become more extreme in
is lost to us. The threat of anti-Semitism is not as
their views and less tolerant of any deviation from
vital as it once was for many of us — especially
their definitions, while those who are more expan-
here in America — and the threats to Jewish lives
sive in their views simply drop out rather than stay
and well-being become more and more theoretical
and fight for the legitimacy of their views.
and remote for younger Jews, especially those who
This binary approach does not move us forward.
distance themselves from Israel.
The question we must ask if we are to give serious
So what are the communal experiences that will
consideration to the Jewish future is why are the
guide us to a better Jewish future? There is a triple
narrowest definitions winning the fight over defin-
response here: education, positive communal expe-
ing Judaism?
riences and unifying causes of social justice.
At 83, I'm unusual for my generation in my open
Jews are now secure enough, especially in
doubting. Generally, the younger the age group,
America, to focus their activities on the better-
the less religious they are. Millennials, specifically
ment of all humanity, not just the Jewish people.
those born between 1990 and 1994, the youngest
Coupled with that is the need for even doubting
group of adults polled, logged in with 34 percent
Jews to educate themselves about their heritage
religiously unaffiliated.
and traditions. Those practices need not be limited
This fits in to trends that Jewish sociologists
by the most religious interpretations.
have seen emerging throughout the late 20th
Acknowledging a Judaism that embraces doubt,
century within American Judaism, where inter-
and that such a practice is backed by hundreds of
marriage, lack of affiliation with institutions and
years of Jewish thinking, is one way in which we,
general alienation from Jewish life expands amid
like our forefather Abraham, can expand our tent.
increasing assimilation.
It is time to be realistic about the future of the reli-
I refer to this generation as "doubters"— young
gious and cultural heritages of Judaism.
Jews who openly question the meaning and worth
In abandoning the doubters and their tough
of a traditional Jewish life. The existence of these
questions, we are abandoning the hope that the
doubters, with their hard questions about the rel-
legacy of our meaningful texts, beautiful rituals
evancy of Judaism to their lives and removal from
and unique view of the world will live on — not
the community, usually is met with alarmist cries
because we didn't embrace religion, but because we
of fear about the existence of the Jewish future that didn't embrace doubt.
I see as unfounded. What frightens me about this
information is different.
Edgar M. Bronfman is the president of the Samuel
Bronfman Foundation and the former president of the
It strikes me as a loss on two levels. First, the
World Jewish Congress. He is the former CEO of the
doubter allows the narrowest definition of what
Seagram Company Ltd.
constitutes a religious life to dominate. Second, it
A
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48
March 28 • 2013
ewish education is central to who we are as Jews. It
ties us to Torah and binds us as a people. It sustains
our tradition and shapes our worldview. In Metro
Detroit, Jewish day and synagogue schools are especially
important to laying the groundwork for a Jewish way of life.
Consider the Lubavitch Yeshivah-International School for
Chabad Leadership's new high school, on 10 Mile, east of
Greenfield, in Oak Park. Its 100 students, ages 13-17, come
from around the world in hopes of becoming shlichim –
Chabad emissaries. But its roots are hyper-local: Lori and
Alan Zekelman of Bloomfield Hills donated $5 million toward
the school's construction to memorialize his parents, Wanda
and Harry Zekelman.
The school counts among its graduates many Chabad-
Lubavitch emissaries serving Jewish communities around the
world. Such spiritual outreach exemplifies the school's belief
that the education of its graduates isn't complete until they
begin sharing the joy of learning with other Jews.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson,
of blessed memory, would have been proud of the way Jewish
Detroit is serving world Jewry.
j
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A Treasure Mountain
y
asher koach, congratulations, to the Mount of
Olives preservation committee for urging Israel's
prime minister to secure access to the historic site.
In a letter, leaders of the International Committee for the
Preservation of Har Hazeitim (Mount of Olives) asks Benjamin
Netanyahu to add more surveillance cameras and step up
police patrols in the ancient graveyard. Its long, hilly range
offers a spectacular view of the City of Gold to the west and
the Judean Desert to the east.
Proximity to the Temple Mount and the
expansive hillside view gave the Mount of
Olives special religious significance in bibli-
cal times – and put it on an enduring pedes-
tal for the Jewish people.
The March letter to Netanyahu cites
frequent rock-throwing incidents perpe-
trated by local Arabs on Jews visiting the
Benjamin
cemetery. Smashed headstones and graffiti
Netanyahu
further mar this Israeli national treasure.
The mountain boasts 150,000 graves.
Jews have been buried there since the First Temple period.
Mount of Olives marks the final resting place for proph-
ets Zechariah, Malachi and Nagai, Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin, rabbinic sages Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron
Soloveichik, Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold, admired chaz-
zan Yossele Rosenblatt and British parliamentarian Robert
Maxwell.
Signers of the preservation letter include Malcolm Hoenlein,
executive vice chair of the New York-based Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He told
JTA: "We have made dramatic progress in recent years, which
will hopefully be completed in the coming months, to assure
visits to loved ones and Jewish figures from throughout the
ages take place without fear and endangerment."
Prime Minister Netanyahu should remember the Mount of
Olives' importance to Jewish history, tradition and culture
when setting priorities for his new governing coalition.
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