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The Great American Jewish Awakening : Jonathan Sarna · · ------·------ / -·' , -4 OCTOBER, 1982 VOLUME XXVIn, No. 8 The Great American Jewish Awakening : Jonathan Sarna · · ------·------"--·-----··-~·---·-·-·--~--. -----..---··---· ~--~---- ESSAY 0 The Great American Jewish Awakening JONATHAN D. SARNA bservers of the American jewish scene agree that· In the major Jewish religious movements, the same an important change has taken place in the last transformation can be seen. A new series of pamphlet~ O 10 years. There is talk of a "Jewish revival,'' "a by Daniel B. Syme, "highlighting the why and how of reawakening of American Jewish life," and a "revitaliza­ Jewish living in the home" reflects developments· that tion ofJewish tradition." Orthodox Judaism claims to be have taken place in Reform Jewish circles. The guide1 gaining strength,. its ranks swelled by; according to one aim specifically at encouraging ritual observance; the) estimate, "tens. of thousands" of baale teshuva,Jew~ who are a far cry from old Union of American Hebrew adopt the lifestyle of the faithful. At least one Jewish Congregation pamphlets devoted to such ponderous journalist predicts that we are living in an "apocalyptic topics as "The Faith and Message of the Prophets;· time." "jewish Ethics," and "The Universal Lord." In Reforrr· Hyperbole notwithstanding, American judaism Judaism· today one encounters Jews who pray· with really has undergone a transformation. Many remain heads covered and shoulders draped in a talis, Jews whv unaffected; some recoil in horror. Still, across the spec­ observe dietary laws, and Jews who stricdy observe the trum of Jewish life new interest in tradition and ritual Sabbath. Classical Reform, with its disdain for tradition manifests itself. To take just an example, the General and neglect of ritual, claims fewer and fewer adherents. Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations, the Conservative Judaism displays a similar return to tra· largest annual convention of Jews in America, now dition. At the Jewish Theological Seminary, a whok serves only kosher food, making it perhaps the largest group of students sport beards, keep their heads cov catered kosher affair in the world. In addition, ered, and worship regplarly in a nearby Orthodor skullcaps, blessings, and traditional singing give the synagogue. In the movement as a whole, an increasinf gathering the air of an old fashioned family simcha - number of children, trained in Solomon Schechtt:> which may help explain its ever-growing popularity. schools and Camp Ramah, seek greater observance it Witnessing this now annual ritual, one easily forgets their lives, and turn either to small prayer fellowships 01 how just a few years ago many Jewish charities trum­ to Left-Wing Orthodoxy. Among young married chiJ. peted "non-sectarian Judaism," and numbered among dren of ConserVative rabbis, according to a recent stud~ their leaders men and women who, in Oscar janowsky's by Charles Liebman, two join an Orthodox synagogu< words, "equated Jewish learning and lore wit,h fanati­ for every five who remain Conservative. cism and ignorance ... [and] regarded the abandon­ While others move toward Orthodoxy (actually ment of Jewish habits and ideas as prerequisite to cul_. toward "orthopraxy"; full doctrinal commitment h tured living. "1 hard to find even among those who have always iden· Today, jewish education stands as a community tified as Orthodox), Orthodoxy itself has not been priority,Jewish centers stress religious ceremonies and standing still. Samuel C. Heilman, one of the most per­ culture, and Jewish "habits and ideas" have acquired a ceptive students of modem Orthodoxy, points out tha1 new respectability, even in formerly secularist ranks. the current American religious revival has shown Or· What Jonathan Woocher calls "Civil Judaism"-Juda­ thodox Jews that they can be "far more blatandy Or ism that is committed to jewish group survival, sees thodox and parochial than before without losing [their, jewish existen:<:e as the fulftllment of a mission, and calls share in the contemporary world."2 As a result, interes for Jews to exemplify ethical values--bears many more in traditional yeshivas (Talmudic academies) ha hallmarks of tradition than anyone could have pre­ soared. The number of mikvaot (ritual baths) increase dicted just two decades ago. annually. Headcoverings- skullcaps for men, wigs o b~bushkas for women- are no longer an uncommo1 JONATHAN 1). SARNA, Assistant Prof,ssorof American]ewiihHistory sight in major cities. And ultra-Orthodox attacks or at Htlw~W Union College-Jewish l'I'!Stituk of Religion in CincintUJti, is tWthor of jacksonian jew: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah (Holmes & non-Orthodox Jews have become more open and viru Meier). · lent. Jews who once insisted that their Orthodoxy was ar: 30 intensely private affair have in recent years gone public. serving as a surrogate father. "She's told me that study­ In some cases, they also have begun to solicit new re­ ing her religion takes her back to her childhood," Lapin cruits. explained recently to the Ladies Home journal. "And what's important to her is that she rediscover the father she lost when she wasjustasmall child." Rabbi Lapin has The new recruits, whether called born-again Jews, assumed the functions of Barbra Streisand's baale teshuva, or merely BTs, form the most visible com­ psychoanalyst. She schedules one two-hour session with ponent of the contemporary Jewish revival. They are, him every week. according to Yaakov Jacobs, the editor of Jewish Life, The return to Judaism of Paul Cowan, a well-known ''the 'big story' of our time,"3 and not surprisingly they writer for the Village Voice, similarly focused on a single have received considerable notice. A great many Jews Orthodox figure for leadership and guidance. In Cow­ know personally at least one man or woman who, to the an's case too this involved an unresolved relationship astonishment of parents and friends, "took up religion." with his father and his past. But though he genuinely Rabbis, particularly in larger Jewish cities and on college came to love traditional Judaism, as did his Christian campuses, see these nouveau religieux regularly. Now wife, who eventually converted, Judaism remained for there are schools and specially prepared, individuals him a sometime affair. Like hallucinogetlif:: drugs, it put .who cater to their needs exclusively. At least 1,000 him - but only temporarily - into some wonderfully American baale teshuva. are estimated to be studying in other world: ·Israeli yeshivas, surrounded by other baale teshuva, and So I was Saul Cohen with Rabbi Singer and his friends, far away from secular influences and relatives who Paul Cowan in my own world. I began to feel as ifl were . might lead them ,astray. Others study in America, many leading a double life. When I was .on the Lower East of them in yeshivas distant from their homes. Side, in the year 5738 [1978], I always put on a yar­ There are, however, many baale teshuva who study in mulke .... Sometimes, when I got off the subway on-the Upper West Side, I would pause before I took the yar­ . no yeshiva and do not affiliate with Orthodoxy. Instead, mulke off. I always removedjt, though, always emerged they satisfy their spiritual quests in Reform qr Conser­ from the subway bareheaded.• vative Judaism which for the first time they begin to observe in thoroughgoing and at least semi-traditional Cowan and those like him might be termed schizoph­ fashion. Whereas Orthodox haale teshuva turn for guid­ renic baale teshuva. Enchanted by their riew-found Jew" ance to the Shu/khan Arukh (Joseph Karo's 16UHentury ish tradition, they nevertheless also find it necessary to code of Jewish law), their Conservative and Reform live and work in the modern world. Having discovered counterparts are more likely to turn to The ] ewish the lost world of their grandparents, they must also Catalogues, The Jewish Almanac, or a plethora of other confront their grandparents' preoccupying dilemma: "How To" and ''What Does judaism Say About" manu­ how to live in two worlds at once. They attempt to als - all of which offer "proven formulas" for a mean­ resolve it.by compartmentalizing their lives, taking on ingful Jewish life. For some these suffice. Having reac­ two names, two identities, two sets of friends. What they quainted themselves with "tradition," added ritual di­ fail to realize is that theirs is not a solution. It is at best an mensions to their lives, and armed themselves with escape, at worst ~ disease. "holy books," they feel reborn enough. Those who seek more proceed to in-depth study of Jewish texts: on their own, in groups, in Israel, or in Conservative and The most notable baale teshuva, the ones who define Reform rabbinical schools. Often they join hands with the stereotype, are not the schizophrenics but rather the most traditional elements in their movements, lend­ those who have seemingly moved 180 degrees from ing added weight to the general revitalization of tradi­ utter assimilation to total commitment. Typical exam­ tion in the community as a whole. ples, described in Orthodox publications, indude "Ar­ Other variations on today's teshuva theme find ex­ nold" whose "previous experience in Jewish edu<:ation pression in the lives of the famous. Bob Dylan became was limited to a three year stint at a Talmud Torah prior interested in Orthodoxy for a while and even studied at to his bar mitzvah. His mother is Jewis·h and ... his a yeshiva. Then he became a born-again Christian - a father is not." Then there is "Jack," who grew up in a transition which underlines the functional similarities "Zionist but not religious household," quit "the world of between these two movements. Barbra Steisand re" Hebrew schools, rabbis and synagogues" at age lS, and turned to Orthodoxy because she found there "a sense became a "leftist, idealistic student" opposed to war and of tranquility, far removed from the fast-paced glitter of-.
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