Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder

Two weeks ago my colleague Rabbi Warshal reported and commented on the 2013 Pew Research Center study of the American Jewish community. This study represents the latest statistics that we have about our community, our attitudes, and our affiliations. Rabbi Warshal’s synopsis of the study seemed to be filled with the good news that the American Jewish community is larger and more vibrant than ever. He noted that there are 6.8 million Jews in America. That in itself is good news. Rabbi Warshal concluded his comments with “The conclusion is that we are happy Americans. Not a bad time or place to be Jewish…” While I appreciate the positive spin that my colleague put on many of the statistics and agree with the fine distinction that he made between “religious” Jews and those who are positively connected to the Jewish community, I think that we need to look at the Pew study as a wakeup call.
The study showed that fewer Jews than ever are affiliated with a congregation. That disheartens me- while many Jews describe themselves as “spiritual,” that description is not manifest in any communal way. We exist because we have a common set of actions- mitzvot- that express the particularly Jewish aspect of spirituality. Some vague notion of being a “spiritual person” that is devoid of Jewish practice does not constitute community. It may be a group of spiritual individuals doing their own thing but does not constitute an expression of uniquely Jewish values. Rabbis will place the blame on those who do not observe tradition and the “spiritual” will blame the rabbis for not meeting their deeper needs. We need to rethink the quest for spirituality and find new paths to give the spiritual quest a deeply Jewish context.
That issue brings me to another aspect of the study. Overall we see the number of Jews affiliated with a denomination is falling and falling quickly. This means fewer people are part of congregations. It is clear that, over the years, we have suffered from the dreaded “edifice complex”- as long as we keep building more synagogues people will keep coming. Here in South Florida and other areas we see how wrong our priorities were- now we have lots of empty building with no one in them. More and more congregations are renting their buildings to schools or other groups just to keep their doors open. We have learned that it takes more than a building to keep them coming. If anything the Pew study shows that it is not the building but what people experience in the building that makes a synagogue. People feel no connection, no reason to affiliate, and, hence, no reason to identify with formal Jewish life. It is time that we rethink synagogue life. Perhaps the old labels, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, just don’t work anymore. The Pew study tells us that the Jewish community of the future will be defined by more than denominational labels.
Rabbi Warshal succeeded in putting a positive spin on intermarriage. He quotes statistic to prove that, since the majority of intermarried Jews raise their children “Jewish,” our demographic numbers will actually increase- we will have more Jews because of the choices intermarried Jews are making! Somehow this does not add up to me. I assume that those who marry a non-Jew are the least committed to Jewish survival. I do not want to bank on them to sustain the future of American Jewry.
I am also wondering why Rabbi Warshal is so shocked that 40 percent of American Jews believe that God gave us the Land of Israel- he calls this a type of fundamentalism that he says “gives him pause.” For some reason he then mentions that 82 percent of white evangelicals believe this also. I would not call this Jewish fundamentalism but a Jewish fundamental. It is only the belief that we were given a Divine gift that the dream of a homeland survived for two millennia. If we are to ever see any hint of the truly miraculous we surely see it in the return to Eretz Yisrael. One does not need to be a fundamentalist to affirm the promise given to Abraham. It seems that while the belief in the Divine gift of Israel bothers Rabbi Warshal as an expression of an inexplicable fundamentalism, he is “especially heartened” to mention that most Jews are Democrats and embrace liberal social causes. Does this imply that, somehow, our religion dictates our politics? Hmmm… seems to be a strange liberal fundamentalism that gives me pause.
As I mentioned above, Rabbi Warshal’s conclusion is that we are “happy Americans” in the best time and place to be Jewish. While we may be “happy Americans” I read the study as a statement that we are “unhappy Jews.” The institutions that promised Jewish survival are not able to keep that promise. Those of us (myself included) who have been given the task of teaching Judaism have failed in some ways. As a community we have failed to disseminate a clear message about who we are and what we believe. (The Pew study reports that 34 percent of Jews think that believing that Jesus was the Messiah is compatible with being Jewish.) The report is not taps—Judaism is not dead. The report is a bugle call- it is time that we seriously evaluate our institutions, our beliefs, and our spiritual identities. If anything the Pew findings show that even if you and I both say we are Jewish, we may mean very different things.
I read the study very differently than Rabbi Warshal. I guess beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. We have been given a great deal of information about ourselves as a community- now is the time to sit down together and explore what we have learned.