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earth and moisture. Weeks later, spread out in the gious beliefs and practices into synchronization warm sun, the leaves soak up the sunlight. It's the with the modern world, giving rise first to Reform sun's energy that transforms the raw materials of and then to Conservative Judaism. the earth into abundant new growth of roots, Whereas Conservative Judaism initially remained branches, leaf and flower. quite close to its roots, of late a modernizing trend At this time of year, weeks after the awakening of has led to the de-emphasis of once basic beliefs, new life in the vines and seven weeks after the such as kashruth and Sabbath observance; as well commemoration of the new life and freedom of the as the further participation of women in synagogue Jewish people at the holiday of Pesach, the holiday prayer services in roles that would not have been of Shavuos commemorates the giving of the Torah possible a few years ago. I believe, Grace, that as a at Mt. Sinai. It is precisely this revelation from modern woman, you are attracted to this recent de- above, similar to the sunlight on the vine, that al- velopment. Most likely the Conservative Jews with lows the newly free Jewish people to make use of whom you may have spoken would agree with you, their freedom, to exercise their thought, speech since the more traditional viewpoint is probably and deeds for good and holy works. With the guid- poorly represented in your social circle. Yet it is ance of the Torah we can transform everyday expe- apparently sensible revisions such as these that I rience into spiritual nutrition and spiritual growth. fear will lead Conservative (as well as Reform) Ju- daism in the United States to spiritual exhaustion. The holiday of Shavuos is connected to Pesach, to the freedom of the Jewish people, as the summer is to the spring in the vineyard. The awakening of The Tradition I Respect new life becomes furious growth as it integrates The Orthodox, while relatively few in numbers, the light from above and the material nourishment have such a strong faith that few can be shaken in from below. Like the vine baking in the summer it. Whether or not one believes in their fundamen- sun, the Jewish people can now grow to the spiri- talism is not, in my eyes, a reason to discard many tual fruition for which they were created. • of their ways, for they stand strong! Their children learn more about the intricacies and depth of their religion than do the products of Conservative after- The case for an orthodox conversion school Bar Mitzvah classes, who can do little other Jay Federman than barely read (but not understand) Hebrew; are bored and resentful; and too often, when it can be Dear Grace, You must love my son, Danny, a great afforded, are used as vehicles for their parent's deal to convert from Christianity to Judaism for tasteless Bar- or Bat Mitzvah extravaganzas, featur- him. I was very touched when you wrote, that al- ing (I kid you not) chimpanzees on roller skates, though initially this was the case, as you learn and clowns. Their parents may keep reasonably ko- more about our religion you are coming to love it sher homes, but eat pork and lobster outside. Chil- for its own sake. dren see through this hypocrisy. And as for When Daniel told us that you were studying for a Shabbat, it is the day for the family to pray to- Conservative conversion, he naturally expected me gether, to be together as a unit. But the weekly to be pleased; for we were brought up in the Con- calm which descends on an observant Jewish home servative tradition. How hurt and surprised the two from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday, sees of you were when you saw that I was less than the Conservative Jewish father playing golf, mother pleased. This letter is an attempt to explain the rea- at the beauty parlor, son playing baseball, and sons for my behavior. daughter at the movies. Yet at Friday night and Shabbat services in Conservative Shuls, prayers in- Once, not so long ago, there was only one kind of structing us to guard the Sabbath and keep it holy Judaism: Orthodox, accepting Torah as divine—the are still uttered. Oral Torah as well as the Written Torah. Historical exegesis and archaeological studies, scholarly re- Do I appear to be idealizing the Orthodox commu- search relating the development of Judaism to the nity? It has its large share of bigots who are more influence of other cultures and religions—played intolerant of their non-Orthodox brother Jews than little role. Then came the nineteenth century of non-Jews. It has its large share of religious hyp- "Haskalah," or "Enlightenment" movement, in ocrites. But they survive. Will we? which pious Jews tried to bring our ancient reli- The religious aspects of Judaism are being over- come by the cultural aspects: culinary Judaism JAY FEDERMAN is a physician residing in Dix ("kosher-style" restaurants, bagels and lox, etc.); Hills, Long Island, N. Y. continued on page 119

116 whiter paper. Fackenheim's supple, searching mind . shuttles between personal experiences, essential infor- K'ra mation and religious questions. The flashes of brilliance I | SUMMER 1988 never combine into his customary lucidity and, sur- i prisingly, the Holocaust seems, only as with other writers, an important aspect of his Judaism, not its new Sinai. 1 ISRAEL IN TIME AND SPACE. Alexandre Saf- 1 ran. Feldheim. $19.95. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE. David W. Weiss. B'nai Brith. $19.95. BUSINESS ETHICS IN JEWISH LAW. Leo Jung. ii JEWISH BUSINESS ETHICS IN CONTEMPO- b /iystic and "modern" Orthodoxy are appealingly RARY SOCIETY. Aaron Levine. Hebrew Publishing. I i-VXavailable in these two collections of papers. Saf- $27.50. „ ran speaks of three eternal, supernal, realities; Weiss shows the humanistic possibilities of our tradition. Saf- ll nonagenarians should be so blessed as to pro- ran massively if associatively documents his Jewish Aduce such a manuscript as that left us by the late spirituality; Weiss reaches out to the inquiring modern Rabbi Jung who ranges widely over many themes. Pas- u skeptic. sages edited into "chapters" make his work seem un- necessarily fragmentary. Levine again shows us what i ENCOUNTERING JESUS-ENCOUNTERING JU- contemporary Jewish ethical scholarship needs to be, ; DAISM. Karl Rahner and Pinhas Lapide. Crossroad. oriented, as before, to questions economists raise. $7.95. nicely edited transcript of a conversation between SAGES AND SAINTS. Leo Jung. Ktav. $20. jj Athe pre-eminent Catholic theologian of our time he tenth and last volume in The Jewish Library Se- ^ and the most indefatigable European Jewish dialogian. Tries, featuring mostly informative but uncritical es- • For a change, the informality abets understanding, says on major personalities plus one on kavanah and an- Lapide being less idiosyncratic than usual and Rahner other on individual and society. ^ less inaccessible if still very sharp.

IB THE REUNION OF ISAAC AND ISHMAEL. Jack > > JUDAH P. BENJAMIN. Eli N. Evans. Free Press. Cohen. Mosaic. $12.95. e $24.95. irst, a rational, humane argument for Jewish-Arab he man who was almost our first Jewish U. S. Su- amity in the State of Israel—would that there were preme Court Justice and then went on to be "the F T many such spirits on both sides! Then, an account of brains of the Confederacy" had a life worthy of TV Cohen's many years of working with joint Jewish and i' •' mini- even maxi-series. His dramatic story is told in Arab Israeli groups at the Hebrew University, with no loving, evocative detail by Evans. follow-through from the school. KIDDUSH HASHEM. Shimon Huh?rband. Ktav. $16.95. BORN GUILTY. Peter Sichrovsky. Basic. $17.95. e he variety and depth of the response of the children rom the recovered fragments and papers that this Tof Nazi war criminals to their parent's past amaze Fyoung Orthodox rabbi, a participant in Emmanuel and confound the reader even as they often cheer and Ringelbaum's famous Holocaust recording project, depress. ! Oneg Shabos, scholars have compiled and translated I this heartbreaking eye-witness account of "Jewish Reli- ! gious and Cultural Life in Poland During the Holo- A CENTURY OF AMBIVALENCE. Zvi Gitelman. : caust." As critical of the debauching Gerer Hasidim as Schocken. $39.95. SHORES OF REFUGE. Ronald ij he is admiring of those sanctifying their trials, he Sanders. Holt. $27.95. I speaks to our conflicted selfhood. omeone had the happy idea of telling about the last 1 S100 years of Russian-Jewish life with pictures. Git- ! JUDAISM. Michael Fishbone. Harper. $7.95. WHAT elman's sure hand with the story is already a joy but the ' I IS JUDAISM? Emil L. Fackenheim. Summit. $18.95. pictures make the whole a special delight. Sanders re- ishbane's warm introduction to his people and faith lates what happened in the goldene medineh when the Fnicely covers the basics with special attention to immigrants poured in. Jewish leadership was heroic if modernity and diversity. I would have preferred less bureaucratic and not the moshiach. The necessary de- sentimental photographs and either larger type or tails make for some slow reading.

\i 117 i, i. LOVESONG. Julius Lester. Holt. $17.95. you get intriguing criticism/midrash. She makes hei case convincingly but some attention to the sociological : s a moving, well-written account of a black discov- reality of secularization would have relieved the occa- I Aering a Jewish great-grandfather and eventually sional sense of limited if post-Freudian horizons. converting to Judaism, this book already commends it- self. Since Lester is the notorious image of the black WOMEN SPEAK TO GOD. Spiegel and Kremsdorf, anti-Semite of the '60s New York's Ocean Hill-Browns- eds. Women's Institute for Continuing Jewish Educa- i ville confrontation, the tale is doubly compelling. tion. $8.95. Reading the full texts he gives, I found his account of his role unconvincing. ale that I am, many of the contemporary but few Mof the historical Jewish women's prayers, stirred A LIVING TREE. Elliot N. Dorff and Arthur Rosett. my heart. From this sample, we Jewish men and, I SUNY. $49.50. should think, Jewish women, have much to look for- ward to from the spiritual search and expression of our his depiction of "The Roots and Growth of Jewish community feminists. TLaw" judiciously introduces a highly complex in- tellectual world and is distinguished by its breadth of sympathy and enlightening comparisons to American WALDHEIM, THE MISSING YEARS. Robert Ed- law. Heavy with citations from the literature, it informs win Herzstein. Arbor. $18.95. even as it testifies to the law school course that gave rise he man who did the research for the World Jewish > to it. TCongress revelations about Waldheim, tells the • story of that study and more, in fascinating, compelling i ANOTHER KIND OF WITNESS. Bernard F. Stehle. detail. He concludes that, technically, Waldheim was - JPS. $39.95. not a "war criminal." But if you care about deceit, dis- he extraordinary contrast between the pictures of sembling and unrepentant pretentiousness... Tthese haimish survivors—gathered in Philadelphia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their liberation— GOD AT THE CENTER. David R. Blumenthal. Har- and the tales of what they went through is transcendent per. $20.95. testimony to the "banality" and saintliness of hese "Meditations on Jewish Spirituality" com- goodness. Tment on each sedrah of the Torah but often take off from remarks of God's famous "antagonist," Levi THE MISHNAH. Jacob Neusner. Yale. Yitzchak of Berditchev. Personally, I found the revered i o academic has given closer attention to the Mish- tzaddik more a barrier than an aid to Blumenthal's ap- • Nnah than has Jacob Neusner. His translation em- pealing insights. phasizes literality to convey the important verbal inten- tions of the rabbis. But his system of breaking the text STEALING HOME. Haim Chertok. Fordham. into its thought units—one presently utilized by few $19.95. other scholars—results in a very heavy, unwieldy, if beautiful volume. ntermarried California ethical activist of the 60s Imakes aliyah and now gathers the articles he, an En- glish professor, has written over the years about his ex- CREATION AND THE PERSISTENCE OF EVIL. periences as a committed yet critical Israeli. A fine: Jon D. Levenson. Harper. $18.95. spokesman to speak to the ambivalent American Jew, he: ost Jewish Bible scholars study language or litera- occasionally over-writes. Mture. Jon Levenson wants us also to attend to its religious belief—and, nebbich, its relevance. He MASTER OF THE RETURN. Tova Reich. Harcourt. learnedly, imaginatively evokes the strands of Biblical $19.95. faith portraying God's fragile mastery over creation and thus, the need of human action to help contain chaos. his wild, zesty send-up of the world of far-out, mys- • Luria's bumbling Creator is thus foreshadowed in a Ttic baalei teshuvah in Israel makes you want to) "semiotiose" Divinity who nonetheless demands/ chuckle, cry, despair and aspire. If these are the kind off needs/deserves our covenant help. oddballs you can cozy up to, you are in for a good time.

PASSIONATE WOMEN, PASSIVE MEN. Janet TWO JEWISH JUSTICES. Robert A. Burt. U. of Cali- Hadda. SUNY. $12.95. fornia. $19.95. urn an academic psychoanalyst Yiddishist loose on ith rare imagination, this law professor probes: Tthe theme of "Suicide in Yiddish Literature" and Whow their views of Jewish marginality shaped the

118 k legal decisions of Brandeis and Frankfurter. The continued from page 116 ^ Torah's "ethical" activism partly derived from "For c; you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Brandeis, UJA functions; synagogues functioning as social knowing he was a "stranger" cared about all other clubs rather than as places where Jews daily affirm strangers; Frankfurter claimed to feel at home. their devotion to the G-d of Israel. As illustration, I (r BLACK BOX. Amos Oz. Harcourt. $19.95. remember attending Friday night services in a Con- it; servative Shul on Long Island, New York. The hen the plane crashes, we seek the record of the theme for the evening was to welcome new mem- Wcommunications that may help us understand bers. The chairlady of the Membership Committee why. In this masterful fiction of letters between a lov- arose, resplendent in her fashionable culottes and p ing/destructive crew of human/Israeli types, we read tasteful accessories, to extol the benefits of belong- j the pathos of our time—and perhaps of our people. ing to the Shul: parties, fund-raising activities, out- ings, the Sisterhood and Men's Club, etc. But not a c- A CROWN OF GLORY. Rachel Z. Dulin. Paulist. word about religious activities. $8.95. Giving Jewish Spirituality Full Scope t. r I ^his study of the Biblical view of aging shows how X long people have worried about the same problems, What I'm trying to say, Grace, is that the old de- though the Biblical authors esteemed age more than we. bate about "what is a Jew?" has profound signifi- >i But the ultimate difference between our time and theirs, cance. Is Judaism a culture or a religion, or both? i God as the criterion of value, barely comes into this hu- On the answer to this question hangs the very sur- vival of our people. If being Jewish is merely a cul- ll; manistic analysis, ture, a nationality as it were, then there is little to i. prevent a "Jewish-American" from marrying an • .. .also for your summer reading... "Italian-American" a "Greek-American or any Classics: David Damrosch, The Narrative Covenant other hyphenated nationality and substituting pasta (Bible); Jacob Neusner, Scriptures of the Oral Torah or moussaka for chicken soup, and the "G-d we all k (basic rabbinic texts), also, Sifre to Deuteronomy worship" for our own peculiarly Jewish G-d. (form-critical introduction) and a 2 vol. translation But if Judaism is understood to be primarily a reli- of that text; Max Kadushin, A Conceptual Commen- gion, then we have a chance for survival. A reli- . tary on Midrash Leviticus Rabbah. Holocaust: Tad- gion demands certain religious practices. Whereas ' eusz Pankiewicz, The Cracow Ghetto Pharmacy, Eva even the most devout find it impossible to fulfill all Heyman, The Diary of Eva Heyman; Leo Goldberger, the mitzvot, the more we willingly give up, the eas- ed., The Rescue of the Danish Jews', The Warsaw ier it is to forsake even more, and slip from the re- Ghetto (a Christian's testimony). Poetry: Adam ligious to the cultural to oblivion. We see what Fisher, Rooms, Airy Rooms', R. E. Sherwin, Nomad in happened to our Orthodox grandparents who, as God. History: Henry Adler Sosland, A Guide for 1 poor immigrants, were often forced to work on- Preachers (17th century text); Naomi Shepherd, The Shabbat, something unthinkable in Europe. This Zealous Intruders (early Western explorers of Pal- led to other breaches, and their childrens' religious h estine); Esther L. Panitz, Simon Wolf, Floyd S. Fier- devotion suffered. Although these children (the E> man, Roots and Boots (early Southwest Jews); Mary people of my generation) seldom intermarried, the ; V. Dearborn, Love in the Promised Land (between grandchildren did. Thus, the downward spiral is in jE Anzia Yezierska and John Dewey); Breitman and progress. t Kraut, American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933-1945; Rafael Medoff, The Deafening Si- The justification for the rejection of traditional reli- lence (of American Jewish leaders); Henry H. Wein- gious practice is that the old religion is out-dated, , berg, The Myth of the Jew in France, 1967-82. Theol- superstitious and anti-female. I feel that these 1 ogy: Jakob J. Petuchowski, ed., When Jews and points can all be successfully refuted, but this is Christians Meet (for dialogue); Roger Brooks, ed., not the place to do so. My point is that modern his- it' Unanswered Questions (of Catholic and Jewish dis- tory has shown us that revision of the Jewish reli- cussion). And also: Benjamin J. Segal, Returning gion leads to less religious devotion and to a j (the Land of Israel in our history); Merrill Simon, consequently greater number of intermarriages. t Moshe Arens Statesman and Scientist Speaks Out; Statistics have shown that Reform Jews intermarry Nancy Isaacs Klein, Heritage of Faith (distinguished most, Conservative somewhat less, and Orthodox ^ grandfather and father); Susan Dworkin, Miss Amer- least of all. ica, 1945 (early Bess tzores); Beth Moshe, Judaism's Do Not Begin with a Minimum 1 Truth Answers the Missionaries; Isidore Haiblum, * Murder in (hardly discernible) Yiddish. After my praise of Orthodox Judaism, why am I i< 119 not asking you to convert Orthodox without further they give converts a certificate without any promise ado? Because I realize that without an underlying by the convert to follow any mitzvot. deep commitment to the survival of the Jewish peo- ple, it is perhaps too much to ask at once of most A Serious Act Requires Serious Thought converts, since even many Jews cannot accept it. I have suggested a gentle immersion because as I But perhaps you can take the first step. understand it, an Orthodox conversion is not valid My thrust, coming from a Conservative back- without an immediate commitment to at least three ground and myself not accepting all the tenets of basic mitzvot: kashruth in and out of the home, Orthodoxy, is that nevertheless, if a Jew is commit- Sabbath observance, and refraining from marital ted to the survival of our people, let him or her ob- sex during certain times of the woman's menstrual serve at least some of the major mitzvot: kashruth cycle. It's hard to believe that you and Danny in and out of the home; keeping the Sabbath; ar- would be ready for this yet. ranging not to work on religious holidays if possi- So, Grace, study in your spare time with an Ortho- ble, for example. Let one start with even one of dox rabbi. Learn in depth about our religion as you these, and gradually work up to others. (Doing too only can from an Orthodox teacher (provided he is much at once can, in my opinion, prove too dis- quieting or discouraging to a Jew or convert who is a good teacher, and certainly not all are). If after accustomed to the lack of self-discipline and "lib- you learn what he has to teach, you cannot accept eral" morality of the modern world. One does not much of it, you will at least know what you are re- jump into a hot tub without first testing the water jecting, and why. To reject something about which with one's toe.) you either have not learned, or learned super- ficially, seems to me unfair. I can attest that one mitzvah can lead to others, and What I have written is written with love. Daniel, what, at one time, seemed difficult is now not only who through my own ignorance was taught little of easy, but fun. And with it comes the feeling that his religion, has gone to Conservative conversion we are once again one with our ancestors, an un- classes with you, and is at last learning something. broken line thousands of years old. One need not But Daniel is a Jew, who carries the baggage of even accept as divinely inspired the religious acts 5,000 years of Jewish joy, pain and suffering. He one does. Do them merely as acts of solidarity with can convert to Christianity, and even wear a cruci- our past, and you may find in time a higher, more fix; but in the eyes of most non-Jews he would still profound significance in them. be a Jew, although an "enlightened" one. But with I have other, more personal reasons for trying to you it's different, because even after conversion persuade you to an eventual Orthodox conversion. you could, if you wished to, renounce your new With the long-standing conflict among the Ortho- faith and return to your old, and never be consid- dox, Conservative and Reform Jews, the only con- ered Jewish again by Jew or gentile. Thus, yours is verts whose conversions are unquestioned by any the greater responsibility to delve as deeply into are the Orthodox. Should you and Danny, with the richness of our religion as you can. After that, G-d's blessing, have children, they would not, your intelligence and emotions will tell you where rightly or wrongly, be accepted as Jews by a signif- to proceed. One cannot appraise the beauty of a icant segment of Jewish society. Furthermore, Con- flower by observing only one petal. View the servative conversions are generally a sham because whole, and then decide. Love, Dad. •

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