That answer to that question is, of course we should. The Jewish people are a nation of holy people – so determined by God Himself! In that sense I embrace all of us - Jews of all denominations or even no denomination. I love all of the Jewish people. They are my brothers and sisters regardless of whether they are observant or not.
However, as a practical matter it is a near impossibility. American Jews are mostly assimilating out of Judaism. Hard to find common Jewish ground with Jews doing that.
Orthodox Jews are an entirely different story. The ties that bind (or should bind) us is our observance of the Torah. To pick just one mitzvah as an example, albeit the most prominent one, observing Shabbos is universal among us all, regardless of where we fall on the right-left spectrum of Orthodoxy. This is something we all share. As we do with all the other Mitzvos in the Torah.
There is far more that unites us than what divides us. Why we can’t have an umbrella organization reflecting this - I could never fully understand.
There is however one area where there is a unity of sorts. Not a particularly flattering one. Which is the fact that the majority of Orthodox Jews in America have expressed enthusiastic support for the President. The more religiously right wing, the greater the support. Still true in some cases even now after the attack on the Capital last week.
That so many Orthodox Jews still support him is about as irrational as can be. The fact that they are joined in that support by some of the worst antisemitic elements in America makes this even more perplexing. Shocking even! How can any Jew ignore that?
Which brings me to an article in Ha’aretz by Hannah Lebovits, an Orthodox Jewish woman from a Chasidic family that attended Beis Yaakov Jerusalem (BJJ). She describes this phenomenon in more detail and offers some insights into how we can change. Here in what is a bit more lengthy excerpt than usual is what she says. I think she’s right:
For the last four years, Orthodox Jewish institutions have shown broad support for the actions and rhetoric of President Donald Trump...
For years, those Orthodox institutions would not engage with those of us who pointed out the clear signs that Donald Trump was not a moral guide of any sort, but a childish, irrational, and even violent autocrat.
(Instead) Over the last six months, these Jewish community organizations doubled down. They mobilized to get out the vote, but only for Trump: sending out mailers, statements from rabbis, and videos from prominent Roshei Yeshiva (yeshiva heads and community leaders).
Only in the days since the siege of the Capitol on January 6 have some Orthodox organizations finally agreed that they were wrong to support the chaos and confusion of the last few months. There have been calls for change, for the community to engage in a cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul.
But... Is a real soul-searching likely?
And while there have been statements that call for moral clarity, there have been few efforts to clearly frame the issue as one that demands our collective attention, based on our unifying identity as American Jews.
But there is hope. Based on the preliminary findings of my co-authored research studying synagogue responses to COVID-19.
Drawing on this existing infrastructure, I do believe that Orthodox institutions, particularly the federated ones, can encourage a soul-searching effort to shift the trajectories of their constituencies towards a definitive embrace of rational, pro-democracy politics.
But, unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, Orthodox leaders must recognize that the threat to the viability of their institutions comes from within. This time, we will not be combating an external threat, but will be engaging the hearts and minds of our own.
