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Who Loses When Synagogues Join Th e Resistance?

F

Jonathan S. Tobin

JNS.org

or many years, every popula-
tion study has shown that
the American synagogue is in
trouble. The demographic collapse
of non-Orthodox Jewry has affected
every aspect of U.S. Jewry, but
none more so than the Reform and
Conservative movements. While the
bar and bat mitzvah business has
kept many such institutions afloat,
the notion that joining a synagogue

Donald Trump

is normative behavior is fading.
An aging and increasingly assimi-
lated Jewish population has shown
decreasing interest in the tradi-
tional synagogue paradigm, and the
result has been empty buildings and
shrinking membership lists. While
many talk about the need to rein-
vent Jewish life to better serve the
needs of 21st-century Americans,
with few exceptions the response of
the Reform and Conservative move-
ments to the crisis highlighted by
the 2013 Pew survey on American

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Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss
Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer
Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz,
David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz,
Steve Stein

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Jewry has been a head-in-the-sand
approach that would embarrass an
ostrich.
But there is apparently one
piece of good news for synagogues,
and his name is Donald Trump.
As Haaretz reported, the Trump
presidency has produced a surge
in attendance and membership at
those synagogues, where a social
justice agenda rules and rabbis are
outspoken critics of the president.
This “Trump bump” is the result of
disheartened liberals looking for a
place to vent their angst about the
administration as well as an outlet
for activism.
Whether it is “sanctuary syna-
gogues” that have thrown open
their doors to illegal immigrants or
merely shuls whose Shabbat ser-
vices are spiced up with anti-Trump
sermons, the sense that politics is,
at least in this case, mixing nicely
with religion is clear. This sense of
purpose and shared values among
liberals seeking affirmation for their
feelings of disgust about Trump is
attractive to millennials who nor-
mally have little interest in religion,
let alone organized Jewish life.
If that gives some synagogues a
new lease on life, that’s fine. But
there are two clear downsides to
the Trump bump that ought to
trouble everyone.
One is that the same liberal
movements that long decried
the evils of mixing politics and
faith, when it was evangelical
Christians who were infusing their

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churches with partisanship, are
now exposed as hypocrites. One
can make reasonable arguments
that some elements of Jewish law
buttress modern political liberal-
ism, and there may have always
been some truth to the old quip
about Reform Judaism consisting
of the Democratic Party platform
with holidays thrown in. But once
synagogues are dedicated to mak-
ing religion serve partisan ends, it is
always faith that gets the short end
of the stick.
While Torah and Jewish people-
hood are eternal concepts, the anti-
Trump resistance will come and go
no matter who ultimately wins in
the struggle between the president
and his critics.
Millennials searching for mean-
ing may find a momentary haven
in “sanctuary synagogues,” but like
previous attempts to sell Jewish
institutions to secular audiences,
the idea that one can be a “green”
Jew or one rooted in any other
trendy topic is not one that is likely
to survive in the long run.
Yet an even more serious draw-
back to infusing partisanship into
Jewish life is that rather than draw
Jews together, this is something
that will only push us further
apart. It is bad enough that in our
bifurcated society driven by social
media, we can delete and de-friend
anyone whose views don’t conform
to our pre-existing beliefs and
prejudices. Once synagogues take
the leap into open political activity

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— and the Trump bump means the
line between apolitical social justice
and the partisan resistance is being
erased by some liberal rabbis —
they are, in effect, declaring those
who don’t agree with these views
persona non grata in the sanctuary.
In addition, the shift of liberals
into anti-Trump mode will only
widen the already yawning chasm
between Reform and Conservative
Jews and the fast-growing number
of their Orthodox co-religionists.
The Orthodox are not only more
likely to be political conservatives
and thus more inclined to back
Trump. For them, Trump’s greater
sympathy for Israel has far more
appeal than any stance on social
justice.
The most important thing syna-
gogues and other social institu-
tions can do at a time of increased
polarization would be to make
themselves places where political
divisions are de-emphasized, not
exacerbated. Preaching politics
from the pulpit will do just the
opposite and ultimately will turn off
far more than it will attract.
At best, the Trump bump is a
temporary shot in the arm for liberal
synagogues that will fade. At worst,
it is a sign of growing division that
sensible Jews should deplore no mat-
ter where they stand on Trump or
any other political issue. •

Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.org
and a contributing writer for National Review.
Follow him on Twitter:
@jonathans_tobin.

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