Centrism is a philosophy which embraces the study of secular knowledge as well as the best of Western culture, while strictly adhering to Halacha. It places the highest value on Torah knowledge but also puts a very high value on secular knowledge. It believes in participating in, rather than withdrawing from society and fully enjoys what society has to offer within the limits of Halacha.
Sociologically, Centrism is on the wane. But this wasn't always the case. Back in the early days of Yeshiva University when it was still Yeshivas Eitz Chaim, its founding president, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Revel struggled for students. He realized that the only way to have any possibility of attracting them to serious Torah study was to implement a college program. One must realize that this was a country and a time where the pursuit of happiness in a melting pot world meant succeeding in a secular society, by means of going to college, and then to professional school and finally joining the ranks of the upwardly mobile.
Dr. Revel believed that in order to achieve any kind of success at attracting students to serious learning, he would need to create a college so that students could both learn Torah and Mada without leaving the Yeshiva grounds. Otherwise he would lose the best and brightest to the pull of the "university". He, therefore, founded Yeshiva College which ultimately became Yeshiva University.
The forces toward modernity and assimilation leading to abandonment of a Torah lifestyle in pre WWII America were very powerful. Few succeeded in overcoming those forces. Dr. Revel had the wisdom to realize that the only way a Torah lifestyle could be achieved was through engagement with the culture limited only by strict adherence to Halacha.
But no one foresaw the effects of a post WWII influx of a "Torah Only" group of Roshei Yeshiva and the impact they would have on the Jewish American psyche. When Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Eliahu Meir Bloch, and others re-established, intact... their "Torah Only" institutions, with it's “detachment from the culture” approach. No one believed that this would be the wave of the future. Yeshiva University has had only limited, if any success at importing Centrist ideology to other locations across the country. By far, the largest concentration of adherents is located mostly on the east coast. On the other hand, Rabbi Aharon Kotler's ideology has spread far and wide across America in the form of Yeshiva high schools and Kollelim which have become increasingly popular amongst the masses, while the spread of Yeshiva University's philosophy of Torah uMada has remained stagnant. Even Yeshiva University's student body, has significant numbers of students who learn in Yeshiva’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary that tend more to the Torah Only" approach. This, despite the best efforts Former Yeshiva President and Rosh Yeshva, Dr. Norman Lamm.
Why is this so? It is the "Nature of the beast". The vast majority of educators come from the "Lakewoods" the "Phillys", and the "Long Beaches"... of the Torah Only Hashkafa. Yeshiva University graduates tend to go into the professions and not into Chinuch. Amongst those who do go into Chinuch, many tend to lean toward a Torah only approach. This creates a built in bias into the system no matter where the Hashkafa of the board of directors may lie.
Skokie’s Hebrew Theological College is a case in point. Ostensibly a Modern Orthodox Yeshiva, its faculty is heavily of the "Torah Only" persuasion. This Hashkafa is transmitted to its students and most of them, no matter what kind of background they come from are subjected almost exclusively to the same Hashkafos as any student of Lakewood. It's not that the HTC board wouldn't prefer more of Torah uMaddah faculty but Centrist oriented graduates almost never go into Chinuch, (Jewish education)... at least not in sufficient numbers to compete with the vast numbers of educators available from the "Torah Only" school. Qualified Centrist educators are nearly impossible to find. Those that do exist are mostly found in and around the New York area. Add to this equation the high birth rate of the ultra-Orthodox, and the tendency of the entire spectrum of Orthodox Jewry's to gravitate to the Right, and the deck really becomes stacked against the survival of Centrism into the future beyond a couple of generations.
What makes this so sad for me is that it seems so clear to me that the best of western culture which has much to offer whether it be in education, the arts, and other forms of permissible endeavor, will eventually be lost to Orthodox Jewry The "Torah only" school of thought rejects virtually all outside activities as foreign to Torah or at best a waste of time, whether technically permissible or not. Secular knowledge for its own sake is viewed with almost complete disdain or at best as only a means toward learning how to support oneself if unable to make it in “learning”. The trend is to get as far away from secular education as possible even in high school. This was made abundantly clear earlier this year at a Torah uMesorah convention by statements from Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Rosh HaYeshiva of Ner Yisroel when he actually advocated there be established a high school system that encourages the best and brightest to learn Torah only... full time, without the “distraction” of secular studies. Even though there were other prominent Roshei Yeshiva that publicly disagreed with him, it is a very significant development that for the first time an American Rosh HaYeshiva of a major educational institution has advocated anything like this. It is the rule in Charedi schools in Israel and it has begun taking root in the US as well as many smaller new have sprouted without offering secular studies. As well, some Yeshivos known for their excellent secular studies programs have been increasingly downplaying secular education.
This does not bode well for the future well being of the Orthodox community. The more this trend continues, the less we will be able to afford it. Large families are sending their children to Lakewood type schools and encouraging them to stay in "learning" as long as possible. Most of those children are having large families of their own and encouraging their children to do the same.
It is a geometric progression that seems to have no solution. If hearts and minds don’t change, our material well being will suffer and through that so will our spiritual well being.
