Zev Eleff - Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History

Jacob J. Schacter

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, Rebecca Samuel, then living in Petersburg, Virginia, wrote a letter to her parents in Hamburg, Germany, in which she explained why she was moving from that city to Charleston, South Carolina. She informed them that although her husband, Hyman, had earned the respect of their Gentile neighbors as a very successful clockmaker and silversmith, and although one [i.e., a Jew] can live here peacefully, she and her family were leaving this place because of [the lack of] Yehudishkeit, or Jewishness, which is pushed aside here. She explained that the shohet, or ritual slaughterer, buys nonkosher meat, there is no Torah scroll in town, all Jewish-owned shops are open on the Sabbath, there are no educational opportunities available for her two children, and almost none of the worshippers on the High Holidays wore ritual prayer garments. You can believe me that I crave to see a synagogue to which I can go. The way we live now is no life at all.

The desire of Jews in America to be financially successful and respected by members of the community at large without sacrificing Jewish observance and communal cohesiveness has been a hallmark of Jewish life in this country from the very dawn of its existence. But those eighteenth-century Jews living in America were acutely aware that America was different than the countries from which they had emigrated and in which many of their family members and religious authorities still lived. In a letter written in 1785 to a rabbi in Amsterdam seeking guidance on a complex issue challenging their community, two lay leaders in Philadelphia noted that they were anxiously awaiting the rabbis reply because this matter touches the very essence of our faith, especially in this country where everyone does as he pleases [asher kol ish ha-yashar bi-enav yaaseh]. They wrote that in America, the Kahal has no authority over those who live in its midst, unlike the situation

Living in America, with its emphasis on freedom, democracy, and individualism, wasand continues to beboth a blessing and a challenge to perpetuating Jewish values and practice in this country. It is a blessing because Jews have been afforded an unprecedented opportunity to exercise their religion unhindered by external controls and constraints. At the same time it serves as a real challenge because in a world without any compulsory prerogatives, any choicesincluding those to define and reject Jewish practice and identityare possible and even celebrated. And the more traditional the values and practice, the greater the challenge to its perpetuation.

In this American world that celebrates personal autonomy and individual choice, Orthodoxy has found a place. For more than a hundred years it lived in the lives of dispersed individuals committed to it who acted alone, bereft of any institutional infrastructure or support, and then somewhere in the second half of the nineteenth century, it found expression in robust communities that were beginning to be founded and developed. True, Orthodoxys place in American Judaism was far from assured; even as late as the 1950s its decay was predicted and noted in respected circles. Orthodoxy has achieved a presence and prominence in America simply and literally unimaginable even fifty years ago.

But one cannot speak of one religious group identified as American Orthodoxy. Sociologists generally divide that group into Ultra-Orthodox (including Hasidic, Yeshivish, and even Heimish) and Modern Orthodox, each with its own set of assumptions, beliefs, and practices while sharing much in common. This book is devoted to exploring these categories in the Modern Orthodox community.

The fundamental point of departure of the Modern Orthodox perspective is generally described as combining a commitment to living a life shaped by Halakhah with an acknowledgment of the legitimacy, value, and, for some, even the necessity of non-exclusively Torah disciplines and cultures to enhance ones human personality and even ones spiritual religious persona. Of course, this combination certainly predates modern times. However, it has been brought more sharply into focus in the last decades as Orthodoxy has confronted the ever growing diminution of religious authority, the values and demands of feminism, the task of identifying the theological significance of the State of Israel, the claims of a larger and vocal liberal community, secularism, academic Jewish studies including biblical criticism, claims for the primacy of individual conscience, and cultural relativism. Inherited truths and assumptions have been challenged by a range of contemporary values, and the effort to retain a commitment to both has led sometimes to creativity and original thinking and sometimes to frustration, inconsistency, and even conflict.