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Dear Members:
“What does it mean to be a Jew today?” That was one of the questions Moment magazine posed to a group of prominent American Jews a few months ago, and then Rabbi Alder posed to us at the beginning of the summer. I’ve been giving that question some thought, particularly in the context of my recent vacation in Israel.
In Israel, particularly for many of the non-religious, it seems being a Jew and being an Israeli are considered synonymous. They are Jews because they live in Israel, the historic home of the Jews, even if for many that is the only affirmative act they take to be Jewish. That seems unsatisfactory to me. What is the Judaism that will result if living entirely secular lives in Israel becomes the definition of Judaism? From my perspective, the answer to “what does it mean to be a Jew today?” has to be more than “to live in Israel.”
There’s a different model for being a Jew in Israel, as represented by the haredi communities (what we typically call the ultra-Orthodox). I saw so many in Jerusalem, in particular, living intentionally insular lives, resisting any influences of modern culture. They pour their energies into defining themselves in opposition (through dress, ritual practices) to the modern world, many defining (men’s) lives devoted to study as the ideal to the point that they seem to minimize participating in secular learning and commerce. I am not comfortable with their definition of being a Jew — a Torah Jew — either. What is the Judaism that will result if being a Jew means studying Talmud all the time and observing every rule to the maximum, but not participating in modern commerce, science, or culture? From my perspective, those who choose to live in a Jewish vacuum, practically frozen in time, do not have a good answer to the Moment question either.
These models in Israel help me articulate what being a Jew today means to me. I think being a Jew has to be more than simply being born a Jew (or living in Israel). I think it has to mean taking affirmative acts to live Jewishly — through affiliation with the Jewish community as broadly defined and through practices that demonstrate respect for others and for Jewish principles and traditions. But the challenge is to find ways to live Jewishly while also living in the modern world, so that our lives are part of it and hopefully are part of making it better.
Shana tovah to all.
Your president,
Debbie Pearlstein
djpearlstein@gmail.com
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