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Judaism for the Contemporary Seeker and Study Guide, 1998

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Judaism for the Contemporary Seeker and Study Guide, 1998 MS-831: Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation Records, 1980–2008. Series C: Council for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE). 1988–2003. Subseries 5: Communication, Publications, and Research Papers, 1991–2003. Box Folder 43 12 Green, Arthur and Valerie Sandler. Restoring the Aleph: Judaism for the Contemporary Seeker and Study Guide, 1998. For more information on this collection, please see the finding aid on the American Jewish Archives website. 3101 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 513.487.3000 AmericanJewishArchives.org ~ TARGUM SHUSID, INC. g An Aryeh and Raquel Rubin Fowidat.ilon A Judr and Michael Steinhardt Foundation Dear Rabbi: An.ached for your review is a copy of the essay Restoring the Aleph: Judaism for the Contemporary Seeker by Dr. Arthur Green, with an accompanying study guide. We would be pleased to send you additional copies of both the essay and guide for distribution to your congregants for their own study. We believe that this essay will stimulate and challenge the reader and hope it wilJ inspire a dialogue among rabbis, communaJ leaders, and thoughtful seekers within all denominations. Perhaps the contents of this essay will aJso serve as a cataJyst to individuaJs and their institutions ta bring back those unaffiliated Jews who want a home within our people. Our creative energies need to be harnessed to the creation of new ways to reunite and heaJ a divided Jewry. This program is sponsored by Targum Shlishi, Inc., through the offices of Jewish Life Network Please note J.J. Greenberg's introductory letter to the guide. ln it he states that while the sponsoring institutions and the individuals associated with them may not agree •vvith every statement in the essay, all believe it is important to bring the essay's ideas to the synagogue c:ommuntty. If you think that some of your congregants would benefit from a study group using the attached materials, please complete the postage-paid reply card and drop it in the mail today. We look forward to your comments on how to make this and future programs resonate within your community. Sincerely, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg Aryeh Rubin President Director CHAverlm hol yisrael/Jeurish Life Network Targum Shlishi, Inc. r CHAverlm kol yisrae//JEWISH LIFE NETWORK NON-PROFIT A Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation U.S. POSTAGE 6 East 39th Street, 10th Floor PAID New York, NY 10016 NEW YORK, NY PERMIT# 3 "Above all, the need Judaism can answer is the spiritual one, a dimension of life that continues to have great and perhaps even increasing significance in American life." Restoring the Aleph: Judaism for the Contemporary Seeker Jewish Life Network • Targum Shlishi, Inc. Yes, 1 would like to participate in this project. Please send me._____ ___:cop ies of the essay and study guide to the address listed be.low. {M11xim11m of IS sers) Name Firsr Last Position Address City____________ Sta te.________ Z ip. ______ Tel....___.___ ________ _ Fax._,__,________ _ ______ E-mail ____________________ _ _______ Comments: _____________ __________________ The Cowicil for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) Created in 1990 by the Commission on Jewish Education in North America, CIJE is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated co the revitalization ofJewish life through education. CIJE's mission, in its projects and research, is to be a catalyst for systemic educational reform by worlcing in partnership with Jewish communities and organizations co build the profession ofJewish education and mobilize community support for Jewish education. This essay was prepared for the Council for Initiatives in Jewish Educa­ tion and was delivered at che C IJE Board Seminar in New York on November 1, 1995. Council for Initiatives in Jewish Educatio n 15 East 26th Srreet New York, N.Y. 10010 Telephone: (212) 532-2360 Fax: (212) 532-2646 Copyright © 1996 by Anhur Green Arthur Green RESTORING THE ALEPH Judaism For T he Contemporary Seeker Council fo r Initiatives in Jewish Education CIJE ESSAY SERIES Arthur Green RESTORING THE ALEPH Judaism For T he Contemporary Seeker Council fo r Initiatives in Jewish Education CIJE ESSAY SERIES che crime of being Jewish. Popular antisemitism still exists, bur nor on a scale co constitute a significant threat. Israel is living through an era of prosperity and is looking forward ro a rime of real peace, even as terrible costs in human life are being paid along the way. Jews in North America have achieved levels of material su ccess and accep­ tance by the established powers of this society chat go beyond the immigrant generation's wildest dreams. Even the final taboo against mingling with Jews, that of accepting them into the fam ily circle, is breaking down. Surveys show that few Christian families, especially chose of older Ameri.can Proresranr scock, object any longer ro cheir children marrying Jews. Ah, bur there's the rub. Intermarriage, i r turns our, was nor quite what we had in mind. We sought full acceptance in America: T har meant elite schools, executive positions in old companies, mov­ ing into rhe "right" suburbs, even joining the country club. Bue some­ how we naively thought it would stop there. Jewish boys would cake Jewish gi rls co the country club dance, or ac lease would come home to marry Jewish women after a few "flings" on the other side. Now we discover that there are no "sides" any more. Young Jews growing up in this country after 1970 are almost fully integrated into .Amer­ ican white upper-and middle-class society, which, with but rare excep­ tions, embraces them with open arms. For the vase majority of American Jews under forty, this is the fourth generation since immigration. These are Jewish kids, or half­ or quarter-Jewish kids, whose grandparents were born mostly in urban Ease Coasr American ciries. Few of chem live in chose cities any more. and a great many are scattered co ocher pares of the concinenc altogether. To these Jews rhe "old counrry" is Brooklyn, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. Their grandparents' tales of childhood are as likely co be about baseball gam es as they are about pickles or herring from the barrel. Jewish knowledge is rare in char second generation; most were 2 too busy Am ricanizing co care much abouc che bits ofJewish lore or practice their parents had dragged with chem from acros the ea. The fourth generation ha no direct cje co the world of East European Jewish Life and irs spiricual and cultural riches. All char belongs co history. The natural ties co Yiddi hkeyc, including the rhythm of the J wish year, the infleccion of Jewi h peech, even the humor which we Jew over fifry (including the imporranr group of children of Holocau r urvivor whose memorie are cill more vivid) remember o well, are no longer a part of chis younger generation's psyche. <Eom the twenties through the sixcies, Jew were among the great proponents of melcing-pot ideology. Here we were part of a new nacion b ing fo rg d in America. Forget the old hatred and division of Europe! T hose were code word fo r u ; we hoped they would mean "Leave ancisemjcism behind." "Who wanes co vi it Europe?" an immigrant uncle of mine u ed co proclai m, a the fi rst relatives ventured fo rth as tourists in the 1950 . "We ran away from chere!" Here we would help to create something becrer, fairer, less hateful, more humane. Ethnic divisions would recede with the pas age of time. Even racial divi ion , we thought somewhat naively would eventually fall away like o many relics of backwoods prejudice. In the lare 1960s the pendulum began co swing the other way. Ethnicity was rediscovered by America thanks ignificantly ro the ' black i beautiful!" cry that came forth from African-Americans coward the end of the C ivil Right generation. istinccivene s and pride in origins took the place of full inregrarion as the final goal. Latinos were just beginning ro become articulate a a minority, and they roo clearly wanted co hold on to ome of their old ways, includ­ ing language. Bur if black and Latino were beautiful, so were Italian, 3 Polish, Armenian, and all the rest, including Jewish. For us, dus era in American cultural history coincided with the shock-therapy in Jewish awareness offered by the Six-Day War, leading to a major renewal ofJewi sh life over the course of the succeeding rwo decades. This renewal was heralded by che growth of the Jewish counrerculrure, besr known through the Havurah movement and rhe]ewish Catalogues. Bur ir includes such mainstream phenomena as the growrh of day school education; the developmenc ofJ ewish Studies program s in co!Jeges and unive rsities; a great array of books, ranging from fiction co scholarship; magazines such as Moment and Tikkun, and much more. lr includes the new pride (and sometimes militancy) of Orthodoxy and the inclusion of O rthodox concerns on the general Jewish agenda. It is represented in a significant shi~ in both style and priorities within the organized community, from the greater funding ofJewish education co the observance of kashrut and shabbatat public communal functions. T hen came the nineties, opening with the devastating news of the National Jewish Population Survey. Was the whole Jewish renewal movement, in all its phases, borh coo little and too late? Such quali­ tative observers as C harles Sil berman and Leonard Fein, celebrators of the spirit of renewal, were now swept aside by dour figures-don't-lie predictions based on the ever-increasing rates of intermarriage, the surprisingly low rate of conversions to Judaism, and the high dropout rate ofJews themselves.
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