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The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism BEYOND SECTARIANISM BE YON D SECTARIANISM The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism A dam S. Ferziger WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS DETROIT © 2015 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Cataloging Control Number: 2015934523 ISBN 978-0-8143-3953-4 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-8143-3954-1 (ebook) Gratitude is hereby expressed for permission to republish revised versions or extracts from these essays: “Beyond Bais Ya’akov: Orthodox Outreach and the Emergence of Haredi Women as Religious Leaders,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 14, no. 1 (2015): 140–59. “Hungarian Separatist Orthodoxy and the Migration of Its Legacy to America: The Greenwald-Hirschenson Debate.” Jewish Quarterly Review 105, no. 2 (2015) 250–83. “From Lubavitch to Lakewood: The ‘Chabadization’ of American Orthodoxy.” Modern Judaism 33, no. 2 (2013): 101–24. “’Outside the Shul’: The American Soviet Jewry Movement and the Rise of Solidarity Orthodoxy (1964–1986).” Religion and American Culture 22, no. 1 (2012): 83–130. “Holocaust, Hurban, and Haredization: Pilgrimages to Eastern Europe and the Realign- ment of American Orthodoxy.” Contemporary Jewry 31, no. 1 (2011): 25–54. “Feminism and Heresy: The Construction of a Jewish Meta-Narrative.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 77, no. 3 (2009): 494–546. “From Demonic Deviant to Drowning Brother: Reform Judaism in the Eyes of Ortho- doxy (1983–2007).” Jewish Social Studies 15, no. 3 (2009): 56–88. “Between Outreach and Inreach: Redrawing the Lines of the American Orthodox Rab- binate.” Modern Judaism 25, no. 3 (2005): 237–63. “The Lookstein Legacy: An American Orthodox Rabbinical Dynasty?” Jewish History 13, no. 1 (1999): 127–49. לנעמי, כי אל אשר תלכי אלך For Naomi, wherever you go I go CNONTE TS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Church/Sect Divide and American Orthodoxy Reconsidered 1 I. Division 1. Between Hungarian Orthodoxy and American Modern Orthodoxy 19 2. A Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Dynasty 42 3. The Rise and allF of Solidarity Orthodoxy 58 II. Realignment 4. Pilgrimages to Eastern Europe and Haredization 85 5. Counter-Feminism and Modern Orthodoxy 114 6. Reform in the Eyes of Orthodoxy 130 7. Rabbinical Training and Role Reversal 151 8. The Chabadization of Haredi Orthodoxy 175 9. Women and Haredi Outreach: A Silent Revolution 195 Conclusion: Beyond Outreach: Post-Denominationalism, Open Orthodoxy, and Realignment 211 Notes 225 Bibliography 301 Index 331 vii A CKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals played roles in the evolution of this book, and I owe each of them a debt of gratitude. They cannot all be listed, but numerous figures deserve special recognition. I apologize in advance if I have inadvertently missed men- tioning someone who belongs here. I had the great privilege of conducting my initial research on Orthodox Judaism under the mentorship of the legendary late Professor Jacob Katz. His model of rigorous engagement with texts, discerning assessment of contextual factors, and introduction of insightful analytical methodologies, which did not prevent him from addressing subjects about which he cared deeply, remains my gold standard. Since I began my doctoral work under his guidance, I have gained a great deal from my relationship with the outstanding historian Professor Ger- shon Bacon, who is today a close colleague and friend. His vast erudition and appreciation of the subtleties involved in writing about the history of modern and contemporary Jewish religious life continued to be a decisive influence on the preparation of this book. My intensive scholarly engagement with North American Jewry began in 2001 when I received a wonderful invitation to serve as a fellow at Bar-Ilan Uni- versity’s Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research from its director, Professor Zvi Zohar. The generous research funding enabled me to carry out fieldwork throughout North America and to produce a series of studies that contain some of my initial examinations of American Orthodoxy. It was at this time that I had the honor of developing a close intellectual bond with the late Professor Charles S. Liebman. He was unusually giving with his time, and no less strident in rendering his frank assessments of my work. Soon after, I began to teach on a full-time basis in Bar-Ilan’s Graduate Program in Contemporary Jewry. Pro- fessor Judy Baumel-Schwartz, the chair of the program, has ever since been a consistently encouraging but honest critic and a genuine friend. My position was facilitated initially through appointment as the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Fellow in Jewish Studies. The personal connection that subsequently developed ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS with Moshael and Zahava Straus, who created this early-career fellowship in memory of his parents, has only grown over the ensuing years. I am honored to count among my closest mentors and exemplars Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber, the renowned academic Talmudist and religious thinker and Israel Prize laureate. Bar-Ilan University is my academic home. There I have had the good fortune to meet many individuals who took a deep interest in my work and offered me the encouragement and support that enabled me to move forward. Among the numerous people at Bar-Ilan who deserve thanks, I mention prominently Profes- sor Moshe Kaveh, the former president; former rectors Professors Yoseph Yeshu- run and Haim Taitelbaum; Professors Joshua Schwartz, Moisés Orfali, Eliezer Tauber, and Elie Assis—each of whom has served as dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies during my tenure; and Professor Yaron Harel, the chairman of my current disciplinary framework, the recently integrated Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry. I have learned a great deal from interactions with additional Bar-Ilan colleagues: Benjamin Bar-Tikva, Albert Baumgarten, Kimmy Caplan, Stuart Cohen, Yitzhak Conforti, Noah Efron, Shmuel Feiner, Emanuel Friedheim, Menachem Friedman, Aryeh A. Frimer, Judah Galinsky, Zehavit Gross, Moshe Hellinger, Elliott Horowitz, Meirav Tubul Kahana, Ari Kahn, Michael Kramer, Yitzhak Kraus, James Kugel, Nissim Leon, Lilach Lev-Ari, David Malkiel, Dan Michman, Jonathan Rabinowitz, Moshe Rosman, Ben-Zion Rosenfeld, Avi Sagi, Dov Schwartz, Ephraim Tabory, Joel Walters, Jeffrey Woolf, and Bernard Zisser. During the winter/spring term of 2013, I served as co-convener of a seminar on Orthodox Judaism and theology at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jew- ish Studies, an affiliate of University of Oxford. I am grateful to the president of the center, Professor Martin Goodman, to former president Dr. David Ariel, and to my co-convener, Dr. Miri Freud-Kandel, for this gracious invitation, and par- ticularly for enabling me to travel back and forth to Israel during an exceedingly difficult period for me and my family. Especially in light of the considerable personal challenges, the serenity of the Yarnton Manor environment, along with the constant supportive and constructive interfaces with fellow members of the research group, sustained me as I labored toward completion of this manuscript. My friend and colleague and fellow investigator of American Orthodoxy, Dr. Yoel Finkelman, devoted extensive time to reading and remarking on the entire manuscript. His abundant suggestions added essential elements to the final draft. The following scholars, friends, and relatives have been kind enough to read parts of the text at various stages of preparation and to share their com- ments with me (of course I bear full responsibility for any inaccuracies): Yaakov Ariel, Elisheva Baumgarten, Shalom Z. Berger, Joshua A. Berman, Alan Brill, x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Menachem Butler, Zev Eleff, David H. Ellenson, Cliff M. J. Felig, Ari A. Fer- ziger, Ben-Zion Ferziger, Jonathan H. Ferziger, Naomi Ferziger, Fred Gottlieb, Sandra Ferziger Gottlieb, Jeffrey S. Gurock, Samuel C. Heilman, Alan Jotkowitz, Lawrence Kaplan, Shnayer Z. Leiman, Naphtali Lowenthal, Michael A. Meyer, David N. Myers, Tamar Ross, Jonathan Sarna, Jacob J. Schacter, Marc Shap- iro, Michael K. Silber, Shaul Stampfer, Chaim I. Waxman, Jack Wertheimer, and Ephraim Zuroff. I have drawn considerable knowledge and insight from additional friends, colleagues, and family, including David Berger, Rabbi Jack Bieler, Miriam Bloom, Andreas Braemer, Steven M. Cohen, Arye Edrei, Seth Farber, Reuven Ferziger, Minna Ferziger Felig, Meira Shulman Ferziger, Philip Fishman, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Gershon Greenberg, Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, Micah Halperin, Isaac “Zahi” Hershkowitz, Miriam Hershlag, Jenna Joselit, Michael L. Miller, Yehudah Mirsky, Marc Lee Raphael, Rachelle Rohde, Yoseph Salmon, Burton (Baruch) Weinstein, and Esther Weinstein. Special thanks to Aroma G–Kfar-Sava. The staff of the Judaica Reading Room in the Wurzweiler Library of Bar-Ilan University, led by Menashe Elyashiv, together with Dr. Ronit Shoshani and David Ben-Naim, has always been extremely accommodating and helpful. Most of the ideas developed in the following pages were first presented to my undergraduate and graduate students. Their questions, suggestions, and the extraordinary cerebral catharsis that only face-to-face classroom interaction can produce generated some of the most novel analyses and conceptualizations in this book. I want to thank personally the many individuals who agreed to be interviewed or provided firsthand information. They may not agree with all my analyses, but I hope they will find them valuable and
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