Parashat Chaye Sarah reminds us of two primary Jewish concerns: land and continuity. Land: It isn’t enough for Abraham to have
access to land for burying his beloved Sara, he must own the land, a piece of
real estate to which his sons and generations following can return. Indeed, the sons do return before the end of
this parashah. They return to this spot to bury their
father.
Continuity: After Sarah’s burial, Abraham’s prime concern before he dies
becomes finding a suitable wife for Isaac so that God’s promise of progeny can
be fulfilled. And the blessing her
family offers as a send off: May you grow into thousands of myriads; may
your offspring seize the gates of their foes.”
אין חדש תחת השמים
There is nothing new under the
heavens. Land and continuity consumed
the biblical consciousness. They remain
chief concerns among Jews today; hence, the heated fervor over media reports of
the latest Pew Forum on Jewish life in America.
Our continuity, we are told, is
at stake:
"… Outside of the
Orthodox, Jewish life is vanishing, one in five Jews says he or she has 'no
religion,' nearly three in five are now marrying outside the group, and [these]
non-religious are more distanced from Israel.
Only a portion of the intermarried are raising their children
Jewish." Couple this with decreased interest
and attendance at what were, at one time, very well-attended worship services
and synagogue programs, and we have reason to feel dismayed.
Despite all of the media attention,
the results of this recent survey should not surprise us. Like Americans generally, Jews are showing
weaker ties to faith and community than they did in the past. Recall that the Pew Forum put out results of
a survey on Americans and religion in July (the one to which I referred on Rosh Hashanah) that reported the same result for all Americans that is now
being documented specifically for American Jews. Did we think we were exempt?
What isn’t being reported, or
perhaps even gleaned from the raw data, is that there is something to be
celebrated in this most recent report.
We are fully, for better and worse, Americans. The challenges reported highlight that we
have, indeed, fully integrated into American society. We have opportunities that generations past
could not even have imagined: citizenship rights, separation of church and
state which guarantee religious freedom, social acceptance, opportunity for and
access to economic success. The
liberties we experience today, and expect today, here and abroad, however, have
consequences, namely the freedom to opt in or out of involvement with the
Jewish community.
We must face this challenge, yes;
but we also must recognize the success behind it. In my opinion, the best way for the American
Jewish community to face today’s challenges is to focus, not on what appears to
be going wrong based on past expectations of what it means to be a Jew, but on
positive outcomes that are present in this survey.
The Pew Forum report opens by
stating that,
American Jews overwhelmingly say
they are proud to be Jewish and have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish
people. 94% of respondents said they were proud to be
Jewish! Extraordinary! In my young adulthood, being Jewish elicited
feelings of burden, sometimes embarrassment. Being Jewish could be a cause of problems. Pride? Not so much.
Seventy-five percent reported to have a strong
sense of “belonging” to the Jewish people.
Yes, Jews today – particularly young ones - are saying they have “no
religion,” but they still say they are Jewish.
They are still seeking to connect to something they understand as
Judaism. Clearly, we’ve done something
right as a Jewish community.
The
other vital piece of information this survey provides is that the manner in
which Jews are expressing this pride in their Jewish identity is changing, not
necessarily disappearing -- changing. We are quick to assume that this change is
inherently bad because “their” expression of Jewish may not look like what we know to be Jewish. More and more Jews today aren’t interested in
expressing their Judaism the way ‘we’ did or ‘we’ want them to; but, is that
necessarily a bad thing worthy of piling on the possibility of the dissolution
of the Jewish people on their backs? I
don’t think so.
According
to J.J. Goldberg of The Forward, the
Pew Forum made some critical errors in their interpretation of the data. He argues that while we shouldn’t bury our
heads in the sand and ignore trends, the statistics are far less threatening
than Pew's researchers claim. For
example, he points to studies that show intermarriage rates leveling off in the
1990’s and remaining stable over the last 15 years. He also notes that while in 1990, the
National Jewish Population Study predicted only 28% of children raised in
interfaith homes would remain Jewish into adulthood, this 2013 Pew Study
indicates that 43% actually did.
Who
are we to believe? Is the end of liberal
Judaism as we know it upon us, or is there hope and possibility for a vibrant progressive, non-Orthodox Judaism in the future? The bottom line is that the results point to
a complicated picture of Jewish life in America. Our affiliation rates and levels of
observance fall victim to the same trends that every organized religious group
faces in America. In that regard, we
are not at all unique among the nations.
However, at the same time, Jews still want to identify and be Jewish. What
the Pew Forum has successfully proven is that being “religious” has never been
the sole criteria, or perhaps even a primary criteria, of Jewish identity.
Instead
of our harping on dire predictions regarding the fall of religion in America
(including our beloved Reform Judaism), it seems to me that we should be
focusing on how the synagogue can meet that remaining and passionate desire to
be proudly Jewish that according to the Pew, still exists. How do we do so? I don’t have any fast or easy answers, but
our energy should be poured into looking at how we connect with that Jewish
pride, bring it in to our community, and welcome it. Those of us who still find fulfillment in
what the synagogue has traditionally offered and want it to remain a central
Jewish institution second only to the family, have a vital role. We have to take the first steps in
envisioning the future by being open to change and the possibility that the
synagogue can continue to thrive even if it looks different than it did in the
past or looks different than it does now.
Our
Torah portion recounts the years of Sara and Abraham. It ends with the generations of Ishmael and
leaves us ready to review the generations of Isaac. Sara and Abraham were, by virtue of that
covenant of promised land, blessing, and progeny, the first Jews. Generations later, we sit here in a synagogue
experiencing worship in a very different manner than they could have ever
imagined; and yet we do so as an expression of that same Jewish connection and identity, viewing ourselves in the line of their
progeny. Imagine -- what if they weren’t open
to change?
No comments:
Post a Comment