The New American Judaism - the Numbers of American Jews are Increasing

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The History of Judaism

by Alan Kotok

Review of The New American Judaism by Arthur Blecher, Palgrave MacMillan, October 2007 (ISBN 1403977461, 256 pp., hardcover).

Arthur Blecher's The New American Judaism may not be the official companion book for PBS's recent series on Jews in America, but it should be. Like the PBS series, Blecher examines the rich history of American Jewish experience, but he goes beyond the present, outlining a vision of the future for American Jews that's both challenging and encouraging.

Blecher, originally ordained as a Conservative rabbi, now serves as rabbi of Beth Chai, a Humanistic Jewish congregation in Washington, DC.

Blecher outlines the three major themes that have provided the bedrock of American Jewish thinking in the 20th century:
 continuity, survival, and authenticity.
He then proceeds to expose the myths supporting these themes. The theme of "continuity" refers to the belief that Judaism as practiced in modern America evolved directly from the original practice of Judaism some four thousand years ago. This sense of continuity, says Blecher, gives more credence to the mainline Jewish denominations (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist), who claim their practice of the religion can be traced back to biblical roots. Blecher points out that modern Judaism descended from a host of sources, some of which are relatively recent.

Concerns over Jewish survival represent the second theme of the American Jewish experience, according to Blecher. This powerful emotion, underlined by the harsh experience of modern antisemitism has become so ingrained in the American Jewish psyche, that the survival of Judaism has become a primary goal of Judaism itself. The fear that intermarriage and assimilation will hasten the demise of Judaism, says Blecher, is a common theme of American Jewish literature and often heard in High Holiday sermons. This fear of disappearing Jews has spawned the founding of Jewish schools, clubs, and camps to constantly remind American Jewish children their identities. These groups likewise encourage Jewish children to have more Jewish friends and fewer Gentile friends, thus limiting opportunities for casual social contact that can evolve into romantic attachments.

The third theme authenticity draws some of Blecher's harshest critiques. The theme of authenticity refers to the ideal of Jewish life was that practiced in the shtetl, the communities in Eastern Europe from where many Jews emigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Blecher examines the benign portrayal of the shtetl in books, theatre, and film, with Fiddler On the Roof being the most famous of these productions. Here, according to the myth, is Jewishness in its purest form, the kind of Judaism to which one should aspire. If not for the pogroms and conscription into the Czar's armies at the time, as the myth goes, Jews would have gone on living their simple, happy lives.

In his dissection of these works, Blecher exposes the distortions of history, and in some cases shoddy scholarship, underlying this idyllic vision. He cites more authoritative histories of life in Eastern Europe at the time that tell a different story, one of unrelenting poverty, unemployment, ignorance, and suffering. In fact, Jews left Eastern Europe to escape much of the same hardships as the Irish and Italian immigrants before them. So why romanticize the shtetl? The myth of the shtetl, says Blecher, provides a reference for Jewish identity. Combined with the other themes of continuity and survival, the theme of authenticity provide a world view that makes Jews in America unique and special. Without these themes, Jews are just like everyone else.

Building institutions and finding a minyan

The mainline Jewish denominations in the 20th century, according to Blecher, used these themes and underlying myths to build their institutions, develop their rituals, and establish their clergy. He tells how many of the common rituals and observances in modern American Judaism developed to meet practical or social needs, rather than evolving from some ancient or holy tradition. The bar mitzvah, for example, was originally a rite of passage for Jewish boys who earned the privilege of aliyah, or reading from the Torah during services. Blecher describes how this simple event became a major social ritual for which boys and later girls (who have bat mitzvahs) sometimes take many months or years to prepare. Not only are bar and bat mitzvahs important events to the families, they have become big income generators for the synagogues as well.

Blecher explains how the rabbinical clergy developed under the Jewish denominations. He points out that many Jewish rituals and ceremonies do not need a synagogue or rabbi. For example, any 10 Jewish men can form a minyan and have a service. (In December 2007, for example, I saw observant Jews reciting their afternoon prayers on a street corner in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv. If they had a rabbi among them, he looked like everyone else.) Blecher shows how during the 20th century, the Jewish denominations borrowed many of the practices of their Christian counterparts to establish their rabbinical functions.

Intermarriage: threat or promise?

Blecher notes that the issue of intermarriage is viewed by the mainline Jewish institutions as perhaps the biggest challenge to American Judaism. Yet Blecher sees intermarriage as a reason for hope for Judaism's future. For those who consider intermarriage a threat to Jewish survival, these truly must be troubling times. Blecher cites statistics that show the rate of intermarriage rising to 50 percent by the mid-1980s. But when viewed in the context of greater professional opportunities for women, the need for two incomes in many families, changing gender roles, and greater acceptance of ethnic differences during this period, the increase in intermarriage should come as no surprise.

Jewish parents may have sent their boys and girls to Jewish camps and synagogue youth retreats, but their kids then attended college, perhaps law or grad school, joined companies with hundreds of employees, bought condos, and volunteered for political campaigns. As a result, men and women interact with each other in more and different ways than before, thus have many more opportunities to meet more and different people from before.

Blecher conducted research of his own on this subject, over a 21 year period (1986-2006), where he interviewed 1,000 Jewish-Gentile couples in the Washington, DC area. Blecher says his findings suggest that intermarriages are increasing the numbers of Jews, not decreasing them as the traditional denominations have feared. He found the vast majority of the children from intermarriages grow up with at least some Jewish identity. Few children from the intermarriages he studied completely reject their Jewish heritage.

In fact, Blecher says, insisting on in-marriage (marriage between two Jews) may be more of a threat to Jewish survival than intermarriage. He notes the higher rates of some genetic disorders and medical conditions that occur in families of of Jews of Eastern European descent. These include cystic fibrosis, Gauchers disease, Tay-Sachs disease, breast cancer, and colon cancer. Children of intermarriage couples are less likely to suffer these disorders.

More Jews in your future

Blecher paints a 21st century American Judaism far different from the bleak world of the future in the warnings from the Jewish denominations. Combining the factors of intermarriage with increasing Jewish immigration, says Blecher, shows that the numbers of American Jews are increasing, not decreasing. Not only are there more people calling themselves Jews, they practice their Judaism in different ways than their parents and grandparents. Blecher notes as well that the Internet is providing ways for Jews of all denominations to interact with each other as individuals and in group discussion forums and social networks. These virtual communities provide many more opportunities for expression of Jewish culture and ideas than before. Combine the increase in the numbers of Jews, with more diverse expressions of Jewishness, and the growth of new (albeit virtual) Jewish communities, and Blecher sees more cause for celebration than crisis.

But not everything is coming up roses for Jews in America. One recent occurrence in American society not addressed by the book, and perhaps can be considered in a second edition, is the threat to American Judaism from the Christian Dominionism movement, also known as Christian Reconstructionism. This movement seeks to take control of civil secular government and establish Christian law as the law of the land. While it is easy to dismiss this movement as extremists or cranks, it has been successful in gaining control of the Republican party at the state level in Kansas (forcing leading secular Republicans in Kansas to become Democrats) and influencing social policies in many communities. Dominionist Christian groups have also infiltrated many military bases, according to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has filed suit against Defense Department to protect non-Dominionist military personnel.

American Jews, as the PBS series notes, have thrived in America, but history has shown the fortunes of Jews can turn quickly. The new American Judaism still needs to remember the recent past as well as look to the future.

Disclosure: The author is a member of Beth Chai congregation, where Arthur Blecher serves as rabbi. He has been married to the same Roman Catholic woman for 31 years.

Learn more about this author, Alan Kotok.

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