The issue of Achdus which is sorely lacking within Orthodox Jewish community is lacking in the larger Jewish community as well. All Jews are responsible for one another. Kol Yisroel Areivim Zeh Lazeh does not aply only to religious Jews. It applies to all Jews, wherever they are, religious or not.
This leaves a vast number of Jews in our day that we are responsible to. They are in a Halachic category of Tinok Shenishba, an infant who is captured. They have no clue what Judaism really means. They have not learned how to be Jews. In America this means that they were raised in a state of ‘captivity’ …captives of ignorance because of a culture that seduced their parents or grandparents to assimilate and reject observance. Most Jews today were raised in complete ignorance of the Torah. Or they were taught distorted versions of it.
Part of the problem is a function of historical pragmatism. There were no educational facilities available to the early American Jewish immigrants. That left them very vulnerable to the very attractive and culturally compatible vagaries of Reform Judaism. This movement totally abandoned Halachic observance as unnecessary. It was viewed as an impediment to the melting pot ideal of E Pluribus Unum. The Reform Movement led by Rabbi Isaac Meyer Weiss was so opposed to ritual that they practically forbade it. They saw it as archaic, primitive, and anathematic to the enlightened spirit of the times.
There was little if any resistence to this kind of thinking. Reform was the dominant Judaism of the day in America. Mass immigrations brought Jews who were more committed to observance and that led to the establishment of the Conservative Movement, which was at first Orhtodox but then quickly turned away from it. They too attracted the new immigrants who were not observant but wanted to be. They felt the need to work on Shabbos which was almost required in those days to retain one’s job.
This was the backdrop of Judaism in this country for generations of Jews who immigrated to these shores. It was extremely difficult to be Shomer Shabbos. It took quite a bit of courage and determination for an Amrecian Jew of the late 19th and early 20th century to be observant in those days. Very few did. There were enough to eventually found a few Yeshivos, like Yeshivas Eitz Chaim the precursor to Yeshiva University and a bit later Torah VoDaath. But the vast majority of Jews lived a qausi observant lifestyle… trying to be religious to the extent they could while feeling the need to work on Shabbos.
Their children ran away from the Judasim and chased the America dream. Reform and Conservative Judasim gave them the imprimatur to do it. Those were the parents and grandparents of American Jews today who are either totally secular or belong to Reform and Conservative Shuls. And their children are almost devoid of any Judaism. They are so totally ignorant if their Jewsih heritage and have been so totally assimilated into the culture that their very identity as Jews is being questioned by some. What is the point, they ask. Just be a good person. Who cares about religion?
Intermarriage is at an all time high. And I believe that Conservative and Reform memberships are at an all time low. Both movements are trying to figure out ways to reinvigorate themselves and draw Jews back into their dwindling populations.
In the last couple of decades there has been an interesting development in this regard. The Reform Movement has done a 180. They have gone from being defiantly opposed to any Mitzvah observance to actually promoting it. To be sure there is still a very strong faction that opposes Mitzvah observance considering it archaic. But the leadership today is not going that way. Reform rabbis used to make you take off your Yamulkees if you walked into their congregations. Now you will see Reform rabbis themselves wearing them. They now encourage their members to observe as many Mitzvos as they can. True they still do not consider Halacha binding. But they now see the folly of their pioneers removal of ritual observance. It ended up removing Jewish identity. One cannot just be a Jew in the heart. One needs to act in Jewish ways. The way to do that they now understand is by doing Mitzvos.
Changes are occurring now in the Conservative movement too. Though they have been debating moving away from calling themselves Halachic, there is a simultaneous unprecedented move to set up religious elementary and high schools that will almost certainly lead to a more observant Conservative populace.
The question now becomes what should Orthodoxy’s response be? Do we sit idly by and continue to refuse to engage with them? Or do we find ways to engage with them and help them along their quest to be more observant?
There are many successful Orthodox organizations dedicated to educating Jews who are ignorant of their Torah heritage. But it is a drop in the bucket compared to the potential. With intermarriage at an all time high, the Torah world needs to re-think its approach to Reform and Conservative Jews.
The twentieth century produced some very strict guidelines for our interaction with what non Torah movements. Poskim from across the Orthodox Jewish spectrum strongly opposed any official interaction. Some Poskim allowed some leeway in matters dealing with non religious communal matters. But all seem to be united in forbidding any kind of association that would even indirectly imply recognition.
That is understandable. We cannot recognize heresy, which is what we would tacitly be doing by joining with them in any public way. That is as true today as it was then. But Reform and in significant ways Conservatives have turned in the direction of observance. I think now would be a good time to re-evaluate our approach and develop a new one based on new realities and new opportunities.
Of course we still need to respect the intent of the original Psak not to in any way do anything that would even imply recognition. But ways need to be explored to engage with them so that we can reach more people.
As a Reform Rabbi once put it: The enemy is not Reform. It is apathy and ignorance. Reform, once the most rejecting of religious ritual is now encouraging it. We can work in harmony toward that goal.
There is a hunger by uneducated Jews for Torah knowledge. People in Kiruv tell us this all the time. All that needs to be done in many cases is to be able to reach them. Not that all Jews will suddenly become observant. But significantly large numbers of them will, given the chance.
How to implement the delicate balance between not recognizing them while at the same time engaging with them is beyond my pay scale. But one thing is clear to me. This is an Eis Laasos. The Tinok Shenishba is ready. The Jewish people are hemorrhaging and we can stop it. We have the wisdom among our rabbinc leaders. All we need is the courage to do it. Carpe diem. If we do not seize this moment we will lose.
