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Jews and Judaism in the 21st Century: Human Responsibility, the Presence of God and the Future of the Covenant, edited by Edward Feinstein. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2007. 166 pp. $24.99.
Jews and Judaism in the 21st Century: Human Responsibility, the Presence of God and the Future of the Covenant is a collection of lectures and conversations that took place over four days in March 2005 in celebration of Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis’s eightieth birthday. As founder of several innovative synagogue movements that have been influential throughout America and, most recently, creator of Jewish World Watch, an organization that has formulated a Jewish response to the genocide in the Sudan, Rabbi Schulweis has been a central figure in 20th and 21st century Judaism. In this book four prominent Jewish leaders, Rabbi David Ellenson, Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, Rabbi Harold Kushner, and Rabbi David Hartman, together with the honoree, gently debate issues of central concern to the contemporary Jewish community. These rabbis make compelling arguments for the necessary and even healthy diversity of ways to be a Jew in the twenty-first century, all the while pointing toward what is shared over time and across denominations. The reader of this book will feel like the proverbial “fly on the wall” and will be rewarded by some wonderful insights that shed light on how pivotal moments in twentieth-century Jewish experience will continue to inform the direction of Jewish life and thought into the twenty-first.
Because of their prominent positions as Jewish leaders, and, often, common experience, these men know each other personally, and they can readily refer to each other’s key ideas. This makes for easy and informed dialogue among them that gives the collection a personal tone. There is a predictable overlap in their upbringing, education, and career paths that also lends a friendly ambience to their conversations. Representing three branches of Judaism, all have been pulpit rabbis and thus bring congregational experience to this collection. In addition, all have higher degrees beyond rabbinic ordination, including Ph.D.s from secular institutions, and throughout their careers they have had regular intersection with other religious communities and secular Jews. The result of their coming together is a warm and deferential series of conversations in the context of celebrating the life and work of Rabbi Harold Schulweis.
Part I of Jews and Judaism in the 21st Century is an edited collection of lectures given by each participant on the topic of “How Have You Changed? How Have We Changed?” The book opens with Rabbi Schulweis’s address, “Globalism and the Jewish Conscience.” Citing an array of Jewish texts, and drawing frequently from Abraham Joshua Heschel, he makes the case that Judaism is from its origins a global religion, concluding that Jews are called upon to sanctify the universe through responsible action toward all humans in partnership with God. Rabbi Ellenson echoes this theme in “Building a World in Which God Would Be Happy to Live,” posing two questions he deems inextricably related and, thus, central for contemporary Jews: “How do we treat our own people, and how do we treat others?” (p. 37). In “From Destruction to Redemption,” Rabbi Greenberg chooses to focus on two central events of the twentieth century, the Shoah and establishment of the State of Israel. (Indeed, both events are frequently present throughout the book.) In “Covenant of Love” Rabbi Hartman links three eras, biblical, rabbinic and the foundation of Israel, stating that each era represents “three aspects of the covenant” in which “God is the energizing principle for a deep moral and social activism within the community”(p. 68). This section of the book closes with Rabbi Kushner’s “Encounter with the Living God” in which he offers further assessment of some of the central practical issues addressed in part by the others: assimilation, intermarriage, conversion. The juxtaposition of these figures, with their repeated references to some of the central Jewish thinkers of the first half of the 20th century, Heschel, Kaplan, Buber, makes for a lively and timely contribution to contemporary Judaism.
Part II is a series of eleven dialogues that, like those in the Talmud, are more significant for their exchange of ideas than any conclusions that the rabbis draw. Subjects are well chosen and fundamentally important to the main topic, “The Covenant, The Community and the Future”: the role of the synagogue and the rabbi, Kaplan’s legacy, the new spirituality, the denominations, orthodoxy and non-orthodoxy, dialogue with the non-Jewish community, the meaning of the Holocaust, American Jewry, pluralism, covenantal theology and the self-limited God, and hope for the future. Rabbi Feinstein poses excellent questions throughout and offers occasional summative comments. Most chapters are disappointingly short, considering the importance of the subjects. The conversation between Rabbis Schulweis and Kushner on Kaplan’s legacy succinctly conveys his influence on the direction these two men took, and thus we see Kaplan’s continuing contribution to currents in contemporary Judaism. Discussion 6 with the title of “On Speaking to the Non-Jewish Community” focuses largely on relations with Christians and is, sadly, a missed opportunity to address a growing need for Muslim-Jewish dialogue. While there are a few moments of gentle discord in these conversations, it is more often the case that one speaker praises or cites another.
There is, however, an unfortunate oversight and thus a shortcoming: there are no women’s voices. What appears to be an attempt to address this gap, an excellent, although brief, foreword by Dr. Paula Hyman (Department of Religious Studies, Yale University), merely underscores the gap. Furthermore, it is striking that in the entire book there is only one explicit mention of the role of women in contemporary Judaism, but surely ordination of women deserves more than a passing reference. Otherwise, we get glimpses of mothers, wives, and daughters but we never have a direct quote from a female Jewish leader or even an oblique reference to a contribution by a Jewish woman. Given the emphasis on inclusiveness and the strong arguments for pluralism that are made by every contributor throughout the lectures and conversations, this is a startling silence. Moreover, even though it appears that the participants are close contemporaries of Rabbi Schulweis, this is not the case for Reform Rabbi Ellenson, and thus it is all the more odd that a prominent female rabbi or scholar was not included.
The strength of this book lies in the breadth of knowledge and camaraderie of the participants, and the result is a moving homage to Rabbi Schulweis. As long as it is supplemented by contemporary Jewish women’s voices, I recommend the book highly to anyone interested in “listening in” as these prominent figures offer their thoughts about questions that ought to be of vital concern to all Jews. It could be used in a synagogue or temple with high school students, or in an adult education setting. Parts of it would also be useful to college students in a course on Modern Judaism. In any of these venues it would surely elicit stimulating conversation.
Miriam Dean-Otting
Professor of Religious Studies
Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio |
