Yesterday, another Conservative
Temple was dedicated.
Yesterday, ten more Jews married
outside their faith.
Yesterday, a 100,000 Jewish
families sat down to enjoy a non-kosher meal.
Still yesterday, a million Jews
lounged about the house discussing their Saturday auto ride to visit the
relatives, while in New York and Cincinnati a score of young men prepared for
their coming ordination as rabbis in the Reform movement.
Again yesterday, the largest
gathering in the history of the Rabbinical Assembly-the national association of
Conservative rabbis-convened at Grossinger’s Hotel, while a few miles away,
another Conservative body, The National Federation of Men’s Clubs, opened the
greatest convention in its existence.
Yesterday, Reform rabbis continued
to marry and divorce, and convert individuals in violation of Jewish Law.
And yesterday, three million Jewish
children played in the streets, victims of their elders ignorance and apathy,
divorced from the beauties and truths of traditional Judaism, wanderers down a
path that could end only in religious destruction.
The age we live in is not an age of
faith. It is an age of reason, of doctrinal skepticism, of pragmatism, of
agnosticism. It is an age of science that questions all. It is an age of
Marxism that preaches materialism, not spirit. It is an age where religion is
pushed to the side; doubted by the intellect, attacked by the Marxist, played
by the masses.
It is an age that threatens the
values that we hold dear. Torah and its pillar-faith-face a life and death
struggle with this new age and its flashing rapiers, doubt and materialism.
Day by day the struggle continues.
In every hamlet, in the soul of every Jew, the battle rages. Day by day
traditional Judaism is faced with greater and greater problems, with an
ever-widening gulf between it and the mass of our brother Jews, with ever
growing heartbreak. Tragic? Yes. Heartbreaking? Undoubtedly. But far more
tragic and far more heartbreaking all too often is the reaction of Orthodox
Jewry to the crisis that threatens it.
One would imagine that having
surveyed the awesome tasks that need be done, Orthodox leadership and
organizations would put shoulders to the wheel and begin the holy task building
a mighty community of Torah Jewry. One would imagine that our money, time,
energy and talents would be carefully hoarded, each ounce to be saved for the
building of yeshivas, synagogues, mikvahs, youth groups, and the countless
myriads of institutions so vital to the survival of authentic Judaism. One
would expect a concerted, dedicated, coordinated pooling of resources for the
great battle against the desecrators of Torah. One would imagine that in our
poverty, the great enemy would be waste; that in our lack of numbers the
watchword would be unity. And yet, we seem to have so much.
We have so many resources. Resources
to pay for inexcusable duplication of institutions. Resources to put up fifteen
yeshivas in a neighborhood wherein two good ones would suffice. Resources to
erect three synagogues per block instead of the one large one that would be
ample. Resources to have three major political parties to defend the faith in
Israel, and twenty-three rabbinical organizations to defend it here.
We have so much energy. Energy to
heap abuse on those other Orthodox Jews who might deviate ever so slightly from
our particular standards. Energy to painstakingly search out the minutest
failings in the other Orthodox Jew. Energy to condemn every Orthodox
institution which does not conform every day in every way to our own
strictures.
The curse of Disunity is an ancient
one with us. Its shadow lies across the remains of many of our wrecked hopes.
Is there indeed that much of a difference among the Orthodox rabbinical, lay or
Zionist organizations? Is our background and practice so different so as to
call for ten different bodies claiming to represent the “true” Orthodoxy?
Surely not. The same laws of Shabbos, kashrus and taharas hamishpacha are
accepted and practiced by all. The duplication and waste, the cross accusations
and inter group hatreds, the curse of disunity are all inexcusable. It is
something all too often fostered by petty politicians who when screaming
denunciation do so merely to contemplate the sounds of their own voices, to
admire the noises made by the rappings of their knuckles on the door of
opportunity.
The house of Judaism burns, and we
debate who shall have the honor of putting out the fire. The Children of Israel
wander in a barren desert, and we are too busy fighting our own petty,
provincial quarrels. So long as this continues, we will have no moral right to
blame Conservatism and Reform. The true enemy continues to be- ourselves.
(50 years plus and what has changed?)
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