Jewish Polity and American Civil Society

Communal Agencies and Religious Movements in the American Public Sphere

EDITED BY ALANMITTLEMAN, JONATHAND. SARNA, AND ROBERT LICHT

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham •Boulder •New York• Oxford ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.

Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A Member of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706 This volume is dedicated to the memory of www.rowmanlittlefield.com Professor Daniel J. ElazaI; 12 Hid's Copse Road Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ, England founding president of the Center for Jewish Community Studies Copyright© 2002 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. and the Center for Public Affairs) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval scholaI; and friend. system, or transmitted in any fonn or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior pennission of the publisher. This project began under his inspiration and guidance.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication lnfonnation Available May his memory be a blessing.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jewish polity and American civil society : communal agencies and religious movements in the American public sphere I edited by Alan Mittleman, Robert Licht, and Jonathan D. Sarna. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7425-2121-4 (alk. paper)-0-7425-2122-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. -United States- and government-20th century. 2. Jews­ United States-Societies, etc. 3. and politics-United States. I. Mittleman, Alan. JI. Licht, Robert A. Ill. Sarna, Jonathan D.

El 84.36.P64 J44 2002 305.892'4073-dc21 2002003364

Printed in the United States of America

eTN The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for lnfonnation Sciences-Pennanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-l 992.

Managing Editor: Mark Ami-El Typesetting: Ami-El Applications viii Contents

II. Religious Movements

5 The Conservative Movement and the Public Square 235 Gordon M Freeman

6 , Minority Rights, and the Separation of Church and State 261 Lance J. Sussman

7 Mainstream Orthodoxy and the American Public Square 283 Preface Lawrence Grossman

8 Haredim and the Public Square: Alan Mittleman The Nature of the Social Contract 311 Samuel C. Hej]man

9 Reconstructionism and the Public Square: Recent American social and political thought has been much con­ A Multicultural Approach to Judaism in America 337 cerned with civil society. Civil society is the hard-to-define realm Davjd A. Teutsch situated between the government and the marketplace. It straddles the public and the private. It is a sphere of associations, of voluntary groups and of primordial connections without which neither demo­ 10 363 cratic life nor personal life can flourish. 1 As concern over the state Allan Arkush of American democracy has grown, many theorists look to civil so­ ciety as a source of democratic renewal. Two centuries ago Alexis Afterword - Alan Mjttleman 389 de Tocqueville found that a rich network of voluntary associations animated American civil society. He thought that the American tra­ Index 391 dition of voluntary association could offset the powerful centrifugal forces of unrestrained individualism, a lurking danger for the About the Contributors 419 American experiment. Communal associations could channel self­ interest to serve public purposes. Ever since Tocqueville, the health of associational life and the vitality of democracy have been paired. At the dawn of the new century, there are important reasons to worry about the health of American associational life. The debate has been focused by Harvard scholar Robert Putnam, whose contro­ versial article (and subsequent book), Bowling Alone, charts a pre­ cipitous decline in membership of many of the organizations that organized civil society in the twentieth century. Groups such as the PTA, service clubs such as the Lions, Elks, Kiwanis, and Masons, bowling leagues and sport clubs, religious fraternal organizations such as Knights of Columbus, and women's groups such as the League of Women Voters have lost their centrality in civic life.

ix x Preface Preface xi

Baby boomers and their children no longer look to these kind of and white Evangelicals, religious congregations are robust and cen­ 6 groups, whose membership peaked in the postwar period and began tral features of communal Iife. to decline in the 1960s, as places to meet neighbors, serve commu­ Religious congregations remain important for . nities, advance socially, and find satisfaction. Putnam fears a loss of Although Jews affiliate less with religiously based groups than do "social capital," of the accrued advantages of helping networks and other Americans, more Jews join than other types of helpful people that flow from the culture of voluntary associations.2 communal institutions. Indeed, a recent survey shows that American 7 Other observers, such as Robert Wuthnow and Nancy Ammer­ Jews feel increasingly remote from non- institutions. The man, are somewhat less pes·simistic. Although agreeing with Putnam extent and quality of Jewish voluntarism is an object of increasing that the organizations of the early and mid-twentieth century are communal concern. Observers such as Steven Cohen and Arnold withering, Wuthnow believes that Americans continue to join Eisen note that American Jews, like their non-Jewish neighbors, are groups. The nature of these groups has changed, however. With less turning to an ever more subjective, self-oriented understanding of time for leisure, more demanding jobs, two-career households, and religion. The "sovereign self," searching for spiritual meaning, more loosely defined social institutions (consider how porous and rather than the ethnically identified, communally committed self is untraditional the American family, for example, has become), fast becoming the dominant Jewish type. This turn toward the pri­ Americans tend to join groups that ask for relatively little but seem vate, the subjective, and the personal on the part of Jews mirrors the to provide something clear and direct. Rather than work up the lad­ larger trend away from intensive commitment to voluntary associa­ der of a comprehensive fraternal service club, someone might vol­ tions and toward "loose connections." It may bode ill for the main­ unteer an hour a month at a literacy center. While a woman in the tenance of the American Jewish communal infrastructure let alone 1950s might have gathered over coffee with neighbors to share for international Jewish solidarity, concern for , and' so on. life's cares and joys, a contemporary might join a support group. The increasing "disconnect" between American Jews and their Wuthnow is not entirely convinced that the new culture of associa­ non-synagogue organizations may be an inadvertent by-product of tions provides the bounty of social capital that was available in the the organizational realm itself. Ever since the 1990 National Jewish older culture, but he does not see an apocalypse of civil society on Population Study yielded the arresting (albeit disputed) figure of a 52 percent rate of intermarriage, the community has been thrown the horizon. 3 Similarly, Nancy Ammerman observes that although some tradi­ into profound concern about its own survival. Jewish priorities be­ tional religious denominations and their congregations have lost gan to shift from aid to Israel and distressed or threatened Jewries strength, other religious groups have adapted and gained. Religious abroad to "continuity" programming at home. The decade of the communities remain robust, providing the added leverage of "moral 1990s witnessed a new emphasis on , culture, and and spiritual capital" to the social capital of other voluntary organi­ religiosity. American Jews showed remarkable in con­ fronting the long developing and largely ignored "continuity crisis." zations.4 Thus all observers agree that religious groups remain an impor­ Modeling the pattern observed by Wuthnow, Jews innovated new tant, if not the most important, repository of social capital.5 Reli­ organizational structures to meet new social challenges. Older or­ gious congregations are more than places to worship: They are the ganizations also struggled to adapt to a shifting communal agenda. most vital voluntary associations in American civil society. In addi­ The new priority of enriching the religious and cultural content of tion to worship, educational, and cultural activities, religious groups has rendered problematic the older communal orien­ are often on the front lines of social service provision in the cities. tation toward rescue, defense, and "sacred survival." Nonetheless, President George W. Bush's establishment of the White House Of­ for the foreseeable future both communal organizations and rel i­ fice on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives recognized this fact. gious denominations will continue to be major actors on the Jewish The Bush White House sought to enhance the role of religious public stage. groups in civil society by removing obstacles to government fund­ How to describe this organizational realm of which religious groups are parts but by no means the whole? The late Daniel J. ing for the welfare services that they provide. While other tradi­ Elazar described American Jewry as a polity. By polity Elazar im­ tional voluntary associations have declined, religious groups con­ plies that concepts such as voluntary association, religious congre- tinue to thrive. For some communities, such as African Americans xii Preface Preface xiii gation, or even community are inadequate to capture the quasi­ ish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League. Steven Windmueller governmental, public nature of Jewish institutions.8 Although, since both narrates the institutional histories of these bodies and evaluates the end of the European Middle Ages Jews can no longer be said to their relative successes and failures, as well as the current chal­ constitute a "state within a state," a condition that was at any rate lenges that they face in the era of declining organizational n:ember­ never true in the United States, their institutional infrastructure does ship and interest. The second chapter looks at the community rela­ have quasi-governmental features. A highly ramified federation of tions activities of the local Jewish federations as embodied in so­ educational, philanthropic, cultural, social service, and frankly po­ called community relations councils. These agencies function as litical entities complements the religious sector. The typical Jewish secretariats of state, relating both to other local actors in civil soci­ community has a volunteer-governed, professionally managed fed­ ety and to municipal and state governments. Michael Kotzin also eration of Jewish agencies that raise charitable funds, sponsor wel­ considers the problems of the national body, the Jewish Council for fare and cultural services, represent Jewish interests to local and Public Affairs, which services these councils. His essay tells a cau­ state governments, relate to other agencies and groups in the civil tionary tale about institutional growth, aspiration, and risk. society, and coordinate local Jewish public affairs. These local One of the major points at which the Jewish polity·interacts with agencies coordinate in highly organized networks with national fed­ the federal government is in advocacy for foreign aid and political erations of agencies. National bodies, sometimes with local chap­ support for the State of Israel. This is also one of the most visible ters, also relate Jewish interests to government and work with other areas of American Jewish activity in the public sphere. Yet it is not ethnoreligious, public policy, educational, or civil rights groups in only a matter of political lobbying per se; the organizations that are civil society. The Jewish public realm represents a nonsovereign, involved in this activity-as Martin Raffel relates-are also con­ nonterritorial political system. Its essential features are not captured cerned with winning broad sympathy for Israel in the hearts and through the lens ofreligion and religious community alone, nor does minds of Americans. Israel advocacy therefore relates both to gov­ voluntary association-if the primary meaning of that term conjures ernment and to civil society. It is a high-stakes game that continu- up the image of a club-entirely do the job. For this reason, Elazar ally tests Jewish political acumen and competence. . preferred the term pohty. The focus of this volume then is on how The final chapter in this section explores the role of the Jewish the Jewish polity functions in the midst of civil society, relating to communal sphere as a provider of welfare services. Here, as else­ both other mediating groups and to government as such. where, state and local Jewish agencies relate both to governments, Two types of organizational actors come together in this study: as providers of funds and as licensing authorities, and to other non­ communal agencies and religious denominations. Together these governmental service providers in civil society. As !oel Car~ de­ groups articulate a functional American Jewish polity. 9 The pairing scribes, the entire Jewish social welfare apparatus 1s pervasively of communal organizations and religious movements in one study "entangled" with government at all levels. Without public funds makes sense. For more than other "religious" groups in American amounting to over $3 billion per year (if support for hospitals is in­ civil society, Jewish group life is irreducibly complex. The. sacred cluded), the system could not function. In the coming era of "Chari­ and the secular are inextricable from one another. This division of table Choice," the significance of this mutual entanglement between labor is not necessarily a product of modern secularization. Indeed, the Jewish polity and American government and civil society will the historic pattern of Jewish communal life was divided into a rela­ have to be pondered anew. tively rational sphere of public governance and a relatively tradi­ In Part Two, we consider how the more religious entities on the tional sphere of religious obligation. 10 The thorough intermingling Jewish public map articulate their civic interests. Chapters 5 of sacred and secular is the classic Jewish way. In his introduction, through 1O look at, for want of better terms, Jewish "denomina­ Daniel Elazar situates the Jewish political tradition within the con­ tions" or "movements." The term denominatJ'on is problematic inso­ text of the Jewish experience in the English-speaking countries. far as it has emerged from the American Protestant religious culture. In Part One, the first four chapters consider the civil engagement While it may well capture the self-understanding of Methodists or of the communal agencies. The first chapter analyzes the twentieth­ Presbyterians, it cannot do justice to Orthodox Jews, who see them­ century history and recent activity of the national Jewish "defense" selves as more than just another articulation of Jewish religiosity in organizations, the American Jewish Committee, the American - a religiously pluralistic society. "Denomination" may convey, how- Preface xv xiv Preface tween subjective religiosity and public involvement has not yet been ever, the premises of those religious groupings that have most adapted to the Protestant pattern, such as Reform or even Conserva­ settled. Collectively, the articles in this volume constitute a modest en- tism. "Movement," a borrowing from politics, is probably too asser­ cyclopedic reference work on the civic and political engagement of tive to describe the character of these groups today, although Jewish American Jews as mediated by their institutions. If our time turns Renewal might be an exception. An alternative to both terms might out to be one in which the voluntary associations of civil society be the term used for nascent religious pluralism in Israel, "stream." play an increasing role in the conduct of our common life, then the At any rate, for the sake of familiarity we will retain the terms de­ stories told here may multiply in the future. If, however, ours is an nomination and movement to tag these institutional actors. age, as some fear, of civic dee! ine then the trends of the last chapter Chapters 5 through 7, as well as 9, study well-known, "mainline" may have the last word. Let us hope that the owl of Minerva has not religious movements. The focus in each chapter is historical. How have the core beliefs and moral orientations of members shaped yet taken flight. their approaches to public policy? How do members conceive the responsibilities of American citizenship, of "citizenship" in the Jew­ ish polity, and of the relationship between the two? What institu­ Notes tional structures have these movements created to assert themselves in the public sphere? Each of the writers is a , either ordained 1. The definition of civil society, as well as the evaluation of its sig­ in or institutionally affiliated with the movement he describes. The nificance, typically depends on a writer's normative assumptions and perspective in each case is that of the critical insider. agenda. For a comprehensive view of the definitional problem, see Don Chapter 8 looks at a group that deviates most dramatically from Eberly, ed., The Essential Civil Society Reader (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & the American denominational model, the ultra- or "fervently" Or­ Littlefield, 2000), 5-8. Writers on civil society sometimes neglect the per­ thodox Jews or, as they are known in current Hebrew, the haredim. sonal dimension of associational life. For an important corrective to an exclusively political perspective, see Nancy Rosenblum, Membership and Unlike the Amish with which they are often, erroneously, compared, Morals: The Personal Uses of Pluralism in America (Princeton, N .J.: the haredim actively engage in political life, albeit to safeguard Princeton University Press, 1998). their segregation from civil society. While other Jewish religious 2. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of groups pride themselves on their mainstream conceptions of good American Community (New York: Sinon & Schuster, 2000), 19. citizenship and Americanness, the haredim, though no less civically 3. Robert Wuthnow, Loose Connections: Joining Together in Amer­ engaged, have an entirely different construction of American iden­ ica's Fragmented Communities (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University tity. The author, anthropologist Samuel Heilman, is a participant­ Press, 1998). observer and ethnographer of haredi life in Israel and the United 4. Nancy Ammerman, "Bowling Together: Congregations and the States. American Civic Order,'' Seventeenth Annual University Lecture in Relig­ Finally, chapter 10 considers an emerging Jewish religious ion (Tempe: Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University, movement, so-called Jewish Renewal. The Renewal movement is 1996), 4. 5. So Putnam: "Faith communities in which people worship together postdenominational and institutionally porous, as is its ostensible are arguably the single most important repository of social capital in inspiration, American new age spirituality. It has not yet articulated America." Bowling Alone (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 66. a comprehensive institutional structure, although the process of in­ Americans' robust faith in the ability of churches to solve social problems stitution-building has begun. Allan Arkush explores the leading per­ and create social bonds is fully in evidence in a survey of 1,507 adults sonalities, practitioners, and texts. It is an open question as to conducted in November 2000 by Public Agenda. Steve Farkas et al., For whether the Renewal movement, with its emphasis on subjective Goodness' Sake: Why So Many Want Religion to Play a Greater Role in religious experience, will assert much of a presence in the public Amedcan Life (New York: Public Agenda, 2001). square or whether its very being represents a withdrawal from 6. On the unique role of the black church, see Michael Corbett and communal and other public concerns. However, insofar as some of Julia Corbett, Politics and Religion in the United States (New York: Gar­ the leaders of the movement were 1960s radical activists, leftist land Publishing, 1999), 298ff.; and Ammerman, "Bowling Together," 6. politics is no stranger to renewal spirituality. The equilibrium be- xvi Preface

7. Approximately 48 percent of American Jews are members of syna­ gogues. Jewish community centers draw the next largest membership, a mere 14 percent of the Jewish community. These figures are drawn from Steven M. Cohen and Arnold Eisen, The Jew With1n: Self, Family, and Community in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 152-53. 8. Daniel J. Elazar, Community and Polity: The Organizational Dynam­ ics of American Jewry (Philadelphia, Pa.: Jewish Publication Society, 1995), 5-8. 9. In Elazar's scheme, the Jewish polity has five different spheres of activity: religious-congregational, educational-cultural, community rela­ tions, communal-welfare, and Israel-overseas. For the sake of simplicity, this volume reduces these spheres of activity into two: religious move­ Acknowledgments ments and not explicitly religious organizations. The latter comprises, for the purpose of this study, everything except the educational-cultural sphere, which is not treated here. For the typology of spheres, see Elazar, The editors wish to thank Mark Ami-El, publications coordinator of Community and Polity, chap. 9. the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, for his assistance in prepar­ 10. Alan Mittleman, The Politfrs of (Albany: State University of ing the manuscript for publication. We would also like to acknowl­ New York Press, 1996), 51-54. edge Sam Stein, project coordinator of the Jews and the American Public Square project, as the photographer for the cover art. The image was taken from a stained glass window at Temple Emanuel in Virginia Beach, Virginia. We gratefully acknowledge the syna­ gogue's cooperation. This project was made possible by the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia to whom we are grateful for their substantial support. We are particularly grateful to Dr. Luis Lugo, director of Pew's religion program, for his guidance. The views ex­ pressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Afterword

Alan Mittleman

This volume has considered the multiple ways in which Jewish communal agencies and religious movements have engaged the pub­ lic square. It has explored the history, evolution, internal tensions, and present condition of different institutional actors. Throughout the study several dominant themes have come into view. First, each group has had to change with the times. The original purpose of each group has changed with the correlative change in historical circumstances. Each group has had to face the challenge of reinventing itself, of adapting its message and its methods to changed social conditions. The agencies and denominations have had to convince their Jewish constituents that they are still relevant and have a clearly defined role to p1lay as effective representatives of Jewish interests. Second, each group has had to grapple with what constitutes the "Jewish interest." Although these actors constitute this concept in differing ways, all work within a field that stretches between the universal and the particular, between a narrow-gauged interest poli­ tics and a utopian vision of a common good. Third, and related to this tension, all, explicitly or implicitly, ar­ ticulate an argument about what they offer to American civil soci­ ety. They propose, if only tacitly, a "public philosophy" or "public theology" that justifies and rationalizes their participation in the public square. Every group, to one degree or another, tries to relate itself to a Jewish past. Some reach back into what they imagine to constitute the "Jewish political tradition," as described by Daniel

389 390 Afterword

Elazar. Others, solidly based in the American progressive tradition, nonetheless argue that that tradition has an affinity with Judaism. They wager that the two are one. Fourth, every group must lay a claim to legitimate leadership. Against the implicit anarchic challenge of "Who appointed so and so king of the Jews?" Jewish organizations must constantly nurture the presumption of their legitimacy. Leadership in a voluntary polity must constantly renew itself. Fifth, each group has had to wrestle with how best to allocate its public affairs resources. Should they be directed toward the center of power, Washington, D.C., or toward the periphery? What are the relative advantages of lobbying versus Index public education? Finally, each group must cope with a problem that afflicts American civil society as such, namely, the problem of declining "The ABCs of Scapegoating," 37 Al Qaeda, 174-75 institutional loyalty. If, as stated at the outset, we live in an age of Abington Township School Dis­ Al-Aksa mosque, 161 "porous" institutions, which people occasionally use rather than trict v. Schempp, 4 7, 270 Alliance for Jewish Renewal, 363 join, membership-based organizations must constantly work at re­ abortions, and Israeli legislation, Allocation of Health Care Re- placing their aging bases. Sociological studies point to an erosion of 327 sources, 254-55 interest and loyalty among Jews toward nonsynagogal institutions. , 322 Allport, Dr. Gordon W., 37 Abram, Morris, 50, 58, 61, 123, Alpert, Rabbi , 346 Jewish organizations are perceived to be remote and disconnected America(n), ix, 4, 6, 8, 14-15, 17- from the Judaism of many contemporary American Jews. While 149 Ad Hoc Committee on Interna- 20, 27-29, 31-32, 37, 43, 47, synagogues themselves remain relatively healthy, supralocal syna­ tional Affairs, 71 51, 54, 62, 69, 75-76, 79-80, gogue movements and communal agencies may decline. This will Adenauer, Konrad, 50 83, 97-98, 104, 106, 116, 118- decrease the social capital of the Jewish community. The uncertain Adler, Cyrus, 27 19, 131, 142-44, 146, 162, 164, status of civic engagement among followers of the Jewish Renewal Adler, Felix, 267 172-73, 186, 227, 236-37, 240, movement expresses this trend. In its relative disposition of the pri­ Adorno, Theodor, 36 263-64,266,268-69, 274,284, vate and public, this movement may well be a bellwether for the di­ Advocacy 101: The Why, What 289,295-96,299, 304, 314, rection of Jewish involvement in the American public square. and How of State and National 320-21, 326, 329, 331-32, 337- Policy Advocacy, 224 39, 343-44, 347-49, 351, 353, Advocacy Day, 250-51 358, 364, 370-71; Catholic affirmative action, 19 leaders, 139; churchmen, 53; AFL-CIO, 205 citizenship, xiv; constitution, African American, x, 143-44, 342; 272, 284; constitutional law, community, 79; leaders, pro­ 272; democracy, ix, 28, 54, 72, Palestinian, 144; press, 118 216, 270, 343, 351; democratic , 3 11-12 ideals, 348; democratic soci­ Agudath Israel (of America), 295- ety, 85; federal and state con­ 96, 298, 304, 315, 317, 321-25, stitution, 263; Jewish condition 328,330 in, 30; Jewish politics in, 28; AIDS,205,248,374 Jewish rights in, 264; law, 274; AJCommittee. See American Jew­ media, 34; national interests, ish Committee 121; NGOs, 170; political AJCongress. See American Jewish right, 273; progressive tradi­ Congress tion, 390; Protestant, xiii; race

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