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Toward Jewish Religious Unity: a Symposium

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Toward Jewish Religious Unity: a Symposium Toward Jewish Religious Unity: A Symposium IRVING GREENBERG MORDECAI M. KAPLAN JAKOB J. PETUCHOWSKI SEYMOUR SIEGEL Last winter, JUDAISM, in conjunction with its anmrnl meeting of the Board of Editors, invited IRVING GREENBERG, MORDECAI M. KAl'LAN, JAKOB J· PETU­ CHOWSKI, • and SEYMOUR SIEGEL to present papers and participate in a symposium on the theme: "Jewish Religious Unity: Is It Possible1" The discussion, held before an invited audience, was chaired by STEiVEN s. SCUWARZSCHILD, editor of JUDAISM ancl associate professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. What follows is a transcript of the proceedings. IRVING C!lEENllERG is associate professor of history at Yeshiva Univer~ s~ty and rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center in New York 'City. MORDECAI M. KAl'l.AN, one of the most respected religious ·teachers in American Jewry, is the founder of the Rcconstructionist movement and the author of Judaism as a Civilization, The Future. of the American Jew, and many other works. He i~ ·currently teaching at the UniVersity of ,,;: Judaism in Los Angeles, , the West ·Coast branch of the Jewish Theologi· cal Seminary of America. JAKOB J· PETUcnowsKt, professor of rabbinics at Hebrew Union Col­ lege-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, has written widely in the field of Jewish theology. His most recent book is Ever Since Sinai­ A Modern View of Torah. SEYMOUR SIEGEL, an officer of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, is assistant professor of Talmud , at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. STEVEN S. SCHW ARZSCHILD THE THEME OF OUR SYMPOSIUM IS SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT TO DEFINE. MY own-:-awkward-working Litle, arrived at after much deliberation, was finally formuJated as: "What Are the Foundatioi1s for the · Future Re­ ligious Unity of the People of Israel?" Let me explain what I mean. All of us are, in one way or another, and to one degree or another, committed to the people of Israel and to the faith of the people of Israel. All of us feel a ve1·y strong commitment of love and of obligation to both. Out of this commitment to the people and to the faith of Israel • Professor Pecuchowski was unable to attend the meeting owing to inclement weather .conditions at the lime. Bis paper was read for him by EUGENE n. liOl\OWlTZ, profc~;or of education and lecturer on Jewish religious thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, who also conducts our "Cuncnt Theological Literature" department. I 32 : Judaism -leaving the definition of these terms, for the time being, as flexibl~ as possible-arises for all of us, in many different ways, a very strong desire to advance the unity of the people of Israel in and outside of the State of Israel. This is so for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being that we hope in tha~ way better to be able to perform our tasks in history and before the Holy One, blessed be He. To put it simply, I think that the theme of our discussion this afternoon is...:.ata echad v'shimcha echad, ttmi ke'a.mi:ha yi~racl goi cchad ba'arr.tz-"Thou art One and Thy name is One, and ,irhc>}s like unto Thy people Israel, a singular people on earth." .. ' Now, obviously, the unity of the people of Israel is, at the present moment, not a factual reality. Nor is ·it a reality theologically, religi­ ously, organizationally, politically, geographically, and in any number of other ways. It is a goal. (I ought to emphasize perhaps, at this e<irly stage of the proceedings, that however we may eventually come to de­ fine "the unity of Israel," that phrase me;ins to none of us anything even distantly similar to the uniformity of Israel or the homogeneity of the people or of the faith.) In view of such considerations, another way of posing our question would be to ask: With respect to the imity of Israel, how do we get · from where we are to where we want to go? How do we get from our i present divisions and divisiveness, and often even acrimony, to some kind of eventual serviceable Jewish unity? What resources do we possess, religious resources especially, that we may utilize in order to achieve our goal? In connection with this, let me say, too, that all of us hope and expect that our discussion this ,:(itfternoon will stress all the positive factors that we can possibly find, and all the positive programs that we can possibly put forward-though we tinclerstand, of course, that a certain amount of candid self and mutual criticism is unavoidable. We hope, however, that such criticism will be kept within the larger frame of reference of the positive goals which we want to pursue. Finally, I should like to make a few comments about the role that our journal, JUDAISM, believes it can play in this regard. JUDAISM dis­ covered,_· over the last few years, that in some very significant respect the pre\;ailing institutional, organizational, and even ideological divi­ sions are really less than serio~ls ' irtd -less than ultimately significant. Our day-to-day editorial experience 'achially proves that there clearly are intellectual, theological and, one might say, Jewish and even spiritual ties that bind many of us together :across the petrified ideological and institutional divisions. At the same ·time we have discovered that there are certain discrepancies and internal divisions within these institutions and organizations which strike us as being considerably more significant than the barriers that exist between them. TOWARD JEWlSH K.ELlGIOUS U.Nln' : Hlj Professor Abraham Duker of . Yeshiva University dropped , me a note saying that he was unfortunately unable to be here this afternoon but that he wanted to compliment us on having avoided, in announcing the title of our symposium and in defining our subject, the term "Jewish ecumenism," Indeed, it is a term which I try desperately to avoid. I have hitherto succeeded in doing so, but, you kµow, it is very difficult to find an English equivalent for, shall we say, ,klal-yisrael-dikeit (which is, even in Yiddish, a vulgarism). But whatever the precise expression is and however you might want to denominate it, in the pages of JUDAISM we have discovered an empiric, not only a sought-for, unity of certain . strains, at least withi11 the. religiously, intellectually, and scholastically concerned Jewish community. This community that we share is not, I think .it important to note, one that arises out of indifference; rather does.it arise out of what is, I believe, ge1wjg~!y our underlying positive commitment. · ·' ·. 'Ve have therefore asked four men, fro,m divergent institutional and organization, as well as personal and ide 9~pgi~al, backgrounds, to cliscuss the problem at hand. All are personal fri.en ~IS .~.nd close associates. All have shared many significant and even path-se'tfH1g Jewish experiences, and all are, in one way or another, significant on the Jewish scene. I think we shall promptly disc:over that they even share some operaqve and very effective theological orientations with one anotther. After our panelists have presented their papers there will be a discussion be­ tween the members of the panel, and also, we trust, some concise and relevant discussion from all of us who are here this afternoon. IRVING GREENBERG THE QUESTION, "CAN THERE liE ONE REUGIOIJS JUDAISM IN AM.ERICA?" l\IAKES sense only on certain levels of discourse. On the institutional level, every law of organization · and bureaucratic systems and the loyalty of their participants suggests that it is a futile or premature question. To th~ extent that there are people willing to overcome existing lines, they are, for the most pa1:t, people who do not care. A unity based on such a con­ sideration would be spurious. It would be a reprise of the old saw about interfaith dinners: a Jew who does not believe in Judaism meets a Chris­ tian who does not bdieve in Christianity and they find that they have much in common. Furthermore, tHe denominational lines are not without pragmatic value. Jews who would never sit through an Orthodox service may find that the Conservative synagogue gives them the type of participation which they desire. A. Jew who wishes .to .marry a divoned woman who has no get or a , non-Jewess who does,. not, wish to convert may fir1d a 134 : Judaism .• ~: . Reform rabbi who will perform· the ceremony. Thus he will identify his marriage and home as Jewish alth~ugh he otherwise would not have clone this. If, then, there are real advantages in institutional pluralism, the question of unity must be ppsed,9n a different level altogether. Let me also, for brevity's sake, state the other major assumption which informs my paper. Jewish survival, and unity, merely on a bio­ logical level is probably both useless and hopeless. The historical fact of the rapid universalization of culture and the disappearance of ethnic groups and the sociological fact of American culture's high receptivity to the persistence of religious communities and its low tolerance for ethnicism coincide with the central theological affirmation of the tradi­ tion: "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people ..." (Deut. 7:7). ·we were chosen not for our numbers or success or brains and, certainly not, for our power but rather, as God's singled out people. And these are the only people who survived the "Long Trek" of Jewish history. "But ye that cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day" (Deut.
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