Am Echad Report 2018.Indd

PRESERVING ONE JEWISH PEOPLE AM ECHAD MISSION JERUSALEM, FEBRUARY 26-27, 2018 3 Am Echad Mission WHO WE ARE Who We Are Am Echad represents a broad swath of the American promote in-marriage and Jewish observance, and the Orthodox Jewish community – from Chareidim to disturbing prominence in those movements of anti- Modern Orthodox, including clergy and laypeople, men Israel attitudes that evidence a lack of understanding and women. We respect and honor the Jewish religious of Jewish history and Jewish values. Equally disturbing heritage of all Jews, and, as Jews have done for are the attempts by some of these movements to coerce centuries, long for the peace and security of our Israel from across the ocean to change the religious brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael. status quo. That agreement helped to establish the According to the respected Pew Research Center, the Jewish state and a framework for religious-secular American Orthodox community is the segment of coexistence within it. American Jewry most emotionally attached to Israel, by far.1 This reflects the central role of the Land of The Future Face of American Jewry Israel in Jewish tradition, and communal awareness of Demographic surveys have only begun in recent the dangers facing Israel today. years to expose what we in the Orthodox community Our deep and abiding bond with Israel manifests have known for decades: that our community is growing itself in many ways, including: in both numbers and strength, and represents the • Visiting Israel frequently, even during the Intifadas Jewish future in America, the future of Jewish and subsequent wars philanthropy and the future of American Jewish • Sending our children to study and live in Israel, support for Israel. both before and after marriage Unlike the American Jewish landscape in the 1940s • Investing in Israeli business ventures and real and 1950s, the Orthodox community is no longer estate characterized by older Jews, who were often ambivalent • Making aliyah in numbers unequaled by other about observance and commitment to Israel. Today, segments of American Jewry although the Orthodox comprise but 5% of older • Sending charity to Israeli individuals, institutions American Jews, they are nearly 15% of the middle-aged and organizations Jewish population, and more than 25% of those age 17 • Advocating for Israel’s security wherever possible and under.2 Within two generations, according to sociologist Steven M. Cohen, the Orthodox segment of We are also keenly sensitive to our people’s history. the American Jewish population has more than We understand that the scourge of anti-Semitism hides quadrupled.3 Reflecting that new American Jewish behind many facades, and recognize it in the reality: contemporary anti-Israel movements. • Enrollment in Orthodox day schools grew more than We have also witnessed with anguish the failure of 80% between 1998 and 2013.4 non-Orthodox American Jewish movements to • A major Jewish community (Baltimore) saw its 1 “A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews,” Pew Research Center, August 26, 2015. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/08/26/a- portrait-of-american-orthodox-jews/ 2 “Dramatic Orthodox Growth is Transforming the American Jewish Community, Steven M. Cohen, Th e Forward, Dec. 19, 2016. https://forward.com/opinion/357517/dramatic-orthodox-growth-is-transforming-the-american-jewish-community/ 3 Ibid. 4 “A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the United States,” Marvin Schick, Avi Chai Foundation, 2014. Am Echad Mission 4 WHO WE ARE Orthodox population increase by 50% between 1999 as many children as other Jews (4.1 vs. 1.7 children and 2010.5 Other established Orthodox communities ever born to adults ages 40-59).8 in major cities have experienced remarkable growth This trend will only become more pronounced in the as well. coming years and decades. While the future of the non- • Due to increasing growth and lack of available Orthodox communities is uncertain, the Orthodox are housing, entire new Orthodox communities – in ensuring a vibrant American Jewish community in the states such as Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, United States. California, to name only a few – have come into existence across the United States in recent years.6 Misleading Claims • Many Jewishly-conscious non-Orthodox Jews have Although the Orthodox community is demonstrably been engaged in Jewish study and practice through the most vibrant segment of American Jewry and is myriad kiruv efforts and programs like Partners In poised to become its face, non-Orthodox leaders Torah, which match Orthodox Jewish men and deceptively present themselves as the representatives of women with other Jews, often in far-flung places, in “American Jewry,” overstating both their numbers and study partnerships. their relevance. • Orthodox Jewish commerce has grown into the Scholars within the liberal movements admit that only billions of dollars; the kosher food industry is now a 25% of American Jews are affiliated with Reform and $12.5 billion industry in the United States.7 Conservative synagogues.9 The Pew Research Center also determined that 83% of Reform-affiliated Jews, and In the non-Orthodox Jewish community, 60% of Conservative, attend synagogue no more than a intermarriage is rampant, while Orthodox Jews marry few times a year.10 Whether by lighting Sabbath candles, Jewish. The Pew Survey contrasted the growing Orthodox going to a Passover Seder or keeping a kosher home, population with the rest of American Jewry as follows: Israeli “secular” Jews engage in more religious practices • The median age of Orthodox adults (40 years old) is than today’s Reform and Conservative American Jews.11 fully a decade younger than the median age of other Children of parents who affiliate with the Reform or Jewish adults (52). More than two-thirds of Orthodox Conservative movements do not generally continue their adults are married (69%) compared with about half Jewish education or development beyond their bar or of other Jewish adults (49%). On average, the bat mitzvah. Those who do often gravitate to Orthodox Orthodox get married younger and bear at least twice communities and synagogues. 5 2010 Baltimore Jewish Community Study, Th e Associated JCF of Baltimore, 2010. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/studies/ downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2722 6 “Th e Exodus,” Serial in Ami Magazine, Spring-Summer 2017. 7 Lubicom Marketing Consulting. http://www.lubicom.com/stats 8 “A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews,” Pew Research Center. 9 “Th e Pew Survey Reanalyzed,” Jack Wertheimer and Steven M. Cohen, Mosaic Magazine, Nov. 2, 2014. Th e authors are pro- fessors at the (Conservative) Jewish Th eological Seminary and the (Reform) Hebrew Union College, respectively. https://mosaicmaga- zine.com/essay/2014/11/the-pew-survey-reanalyzed/ 10 “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” Pew Research Center, October 1, 2013. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/chapter- 4-religious-beliefs-and-practices/ 11 “American and Israeli Jews: Twin Portraits From Pew Research Center Surveys,” Pew Research Center, Jan. 24, 2017. http:// www.pewforum.org/essay/american-and-israeli-jews-twin-portraits-from-pew-research-center-surveys/ “Attending a Seder is common practice for American Jews,” Pew Research Center, April 14, 2014. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2014/04/14/attending-a-seder-is-common-practice-for-american-jews/ 5 Am Echad Mission WHO WE ARE The majority of North American synagogues today are They wish to export to Israel not only the policies that Orthodox,12 and according to a leading Chabad analyst, have decimated Jewish in-marriage and observance the number of Jews who regularly attend Chabad services among their American followers, but likewise export and activities equals either of the liberal movements.13 their cavalier attitude toward Jewish tradition. Today’s He further notes that four-fifths of those who affiliate Reform movement advocates for positions that would with Chabad do not self-identify as Orthodox, though have outraged its leaders of 30 years ago; what, then, will they feel most Jewishly at home in an Orthodox it demand that Israel recognize as authentic Jewish environment. This means that community surveys practice in the future? underestimate the true spread of Orthodoxy in contemporary American Jewish life. Deliberate Disturbances From its inception, the Reform movement adopted the The group that calls itself Women of the Wall (WOW), idea of “unlimited development in the Mosaic religion.”14 as described by its leaders themselves, aims to disturb In other words, a core belief of Reform is that modern and change the practices of traditional, observant liberal ideas improve upon those found in Tanach. The women.15 Their leader, Anat Hoffman, says that she sees Reform movement has thus openly endorsed behaviors the Western Wall as nothing more than an “opportunity” that the Torah considers objectionable and has for their group to utilize toward those ends.16 Members “redefined” the sacred institution of marriage. It has, deliberately sing as loudly as possible at the holy site, moreover, taken positions on Israel that are not only at wave books overhead, even blow shofarot in unison to odds with those of Israel’s government but with its own attract maximum attention.17 Group members express advocacy of decades past. The Conservative movement, disdain for Jewish observance and for the rights of although claiming to “conserve” traditional Judaism, in traditional women to pray undisturbed.18 practice follows Reform’s lead in most every area, adopting their “innovations” several years after their Yet they also claim that their ability to disturb the introduction in Reform. prayers of others is a matter of women’s religious rights, The liberal Jewish movements’ leaders wish to bring which Hoffman claims are ignored.19 This falsehood is all of their “accomplishments” to Israel, demanding that immediately leveraged by anti-Israel forces to “prove” their groups be recognized as authentic forms of Judaism.

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