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Listening to a Different Drummer Jewish Spirituality in America Listening to a Different Drummer { A Symposium { n their influential book The Jew Within (2000), the Isociologist Steven M. Cohen and the scholar of religion Arnold M. Eisen took the pulse of American Jewry at the turn of the millennium. On the basis of poll data, supplemented and enriched by 50 in-depth interviews, the authors concluded that an important shift had occurred within the mainstream Jewish community: 4 | Spring 2009 Jewish Spirituality in America /// A Symposium Jewish Spirituality in America American Jews at century’s end, we be- the ‘grand narrative’ (in this case, the exalted lieve, have come to view their Jewishness story of Jewish peoplehood and destiny) to in a very different way than either their the ‘local narratives’ and ‘personal stories’ of parents or they themselves did only two or family and self.” three decades ago. Today’s Jews, like their peers in other religious traditions, have In an effort to better understand this phe- High Holidays at turned inward in the search for meaning. nomenon, Havruta asked six American Congregation Ruach They have moved away from the organiza- Jewish scholars and spiritual leaders to Hamidbar (Spirit tions, institutions, and causes that used contribute their own personal stories and in- of the Desert), to anchor identity and shape behavior. tuitions. How can one explain the increased Scottsdale, Arizona. Photo by Barry focus on spirituality? What need does it fill? Bisman That search for meaning, observed Cohen What pitfalls may it entail? What does it au- and Eisen, is manifest in a “shift of pas- gur for the future of Judaism? Their various sion from the public domain to the private responses, thoughtful and well-informed, in- sphere, from what postmodern theorists call evitably inspire new questions. HAVRUTA | 5 Steven M. Cohen Steven M. Cohen, vidence for the growth of spirituality proach, whose sensibility is contained in the a sociologist of in American Jewish life can be seen Pesach greeting, “Hag kasher vesameah” – as American Jewry, is in the Jewish Healing movement, if to say, “I wish you the best in fulfilling the Research Professor E the Kabbalah centers, the Institute for Jew- mitzvot of Pesach, have a kosher Pesach, and, of Jewish Social ish Spirituality, and books sold by the likes oh, you should have a happy Pesach.” Policy at Hebrew of Jewish Lights Publishing. Its precursors Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, lie in the Jewish Renewal movement of the and director of the 1980s and the havurot of the 1960s. Leaders Since the 1980s we Berman Jewish of Jewish spirituality endeavors today could Policy Archive at readily claim that Jewish spirituality has find Jewish educators New York University. been with us since the day God tapped Abra- and rabbis, even the He made aliyah in ham on the shoulder, and in a certain sense 1992, and taught they’d be right. Orthodox, increasingly for 14 years at The The recent phenomenon has a lot to do Hebrew University with the shift toward the search for personal marketing Judaism as a of Jerusalem. He meaning as a central way of being Jewish, is co-author, with vehicle to find personal something that Arnie Eisen and I investigat- Arnold Eisen, of The ed in our book, The Jew Within. For what we Jew Within, and, with meaning. Charles Liebman, of called “the Sovereign Jewish Self,” personal Two Worlds of Judaism: meaning becomes the arbiter of if, when, The Israeli and how and why one will be Jewish. The emphasis on meaning and personal American Experiences. That sounds very fine and logical. But we journeys is a very American, Protestant phe- His other books have to remember that there are, indeed, nomenon. Thus, for Jews, the move to a focus include American other ways to ground one’s Jewish identity. on meaning is an act of acculturation and as- Modernity & Jewish Alternatives include obeying God’s com- similation into American society and culture. Identity, and American mands, loyalty to the Jewish people, or nos- Classically, Protestant Christianity places Assimilation or Jewish talgia. But American society and American more of an emphasis on individual faith, and Revival? Judaism undertook a shift to the personal, Judaism places more emphasis on collective certainly by the mid-’80s. Since then, we action. Protestant ministers spend a lot of find Jewish educators and rabbis, even the time teaching what to think about God. Rab- Orthodox, increasingly marketing Judaism bis spend a lot of time on matters of religious as a vehicle to find personal meaning. I find practice – how you do Jewish, as opposed to it indicative that when the Orthodox pub- how you feel Jewish. lisher Artscroll and the OU marketed their The way I see it, some Jews are spiritual and Yom Kippur mahzor (prayerbook), they spoke religious and believe in God. But many com- of how it was “designed to make prayer ac- mitted and engaged Jews are just two of those cessible and meaningful.” This emphasis on three, and maybe as many Jews are only one meaning contrasts with the traditional ap- of those. And committed Jews can be non- 6 | Spring 2009 Jewish Spirituality in America /// A Symposium believers, non-religious, and non-spiritual – I None of these terms is very well under- hear we have a few of those as well. stood or widely agreed-upon. Take God, for example. What does it mean for a Jew to believe in God? We contemporary Jews We contemporary Jews have come to believe that a big part of being Jewish is the skeptical, dialogic relationship have come to believe with God that runs from Abraham to Fiddler Congregation Ruach on the Roof: You can talk to God, you can yell Hamidbar, Scottsdale, that a big part of being Arizona. Photo by at God, you can go Communist, you can go Barry Bisman Jewish is the skeptical, atheist, and you still belong to the Jewish family, the Jewish people. dialogic relationship Together with Rabbi Larry Hoffman and Synagogue 3000, I conducted a comparative with God that runs from survey in the U.S., and found that Christians Abraham to Fiddler on are far more spiritual than Jews, but that Jews are catching up. Younger Jews are more the Roof. spiritually minded than older Jews, in part HAVRUTA | 7 because of growth in Orthodoxy, in mixed physically express their spiritual ecstasy in married couples and in their children, and ways that make them look like Christians. in part because of a growing resonance with They raise their hands towards the sky, they spiritual language. These results point to the sway, but, to say the least, they’re not exactly possibilities of a smart Jewish spirituality shuckling like their grandparents (or grandfa- policy, an approach that would appeal to a thers) did. growing number of Jews, giving them a way Of course, change is inevitable and even to broaden and deepen their Jewish experi- desirable. We can accept and embrace change, ence. as we wear clothes that our grandparents But, at the same time, I have to say that would never consider, that hardly distinguish certain directions spirituality can take can be us from non-Jews (as far as I know, they also a bad thing, because in America, Jews need wear T-shirts with a Ralph Lauren insignia). to continue to fight to maintain their distinc- But for the good of Judaism, there has to be tions with the non-Jewish world. In general, some concern with the type of change we too few rabbis and other Jewish leaders are promote and the very subtle cultural mes- asking: How can we retain, sustain, and even sages that it sends out. create boundaries separating Jews from non- When I was younger, I perceived myself as Jews, and Judaism from other cultures? a loyal maverick – part of the radical Zionist To be sure, the situation in Israel differs generation, social democrats, liberals, femi- from that in the United States or anywhere nists, Soviet Jewry activists, and Havurah else in the Diaspora, for that matter. In Isra- movement Jews who were intensifying Ju- el, Jews typically presume that gentiles want daism and Yiddishkeit as opposed to the as- to hurt them; in contrast, Jews in America similationalists running the organized Jew- can presume that most gentiles would want ish community at the time. Today, I look at to marry them. In Israel, the often-conten- certain changes in ways that might make me tious boundaries between Jews and others seem like a conservative. Now I’m concerned are too high, such that Israel needs to build about preserving, restoring and creating the better bonds and relations with non-Jews. cultural elements that can unite Jews, keep Thus, spirituality in Israel has absolutely no us together, give us a common cause and a downside and may even provide a common common cultural matrix. basis to build more shared experiences with In this regard, there are certainly great non-Jews. potential benefits to the upsurge in spiri- But in the Diaspora, Jewish continuity en- tuality. If you care about Jewish cohesive- tails a strategic need to maintain a distinc- ness, and you care about the loss of a com- tion between being Jewish and not being mon language, spirituality presents a great Jewish. A spirituality that is not readjusted to opportunity for Israelis and Diaspora Jews a specific and particularistic way of thinking to build a common platform for the 21st has the potential for lowering the boundar- century. ies between Jews and non-Jews even further Today’s spiritual innovators are very than they have been, and thus furthering the much akin to the Zionists in the early Yi- dissolution of the Jewish group in America.
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