Walk through many non-Orthodox synagogues today and the effects become visible. Fewer young adults can comfortably read Hebrew or lead prayer without transliteration. Jewish identity often remains emotionally meaningful, yet it is increasingly detached from the literacy and confidence that once sustained communal leadership. Institutions rarely disappear overnight, but they become harder to reproduce.
2 heterodox schools that are now merging
Samuel J. Abrams made this observation in a recent Jewish Journal op-ed. He may not realize it yet, but he is a dying breed—something
I very much lament. Because if there were ever a prototype of the American Jew
determined to save American Jewry from near extinction, it is people like him.
Abrams is one of those rare individuals educated in a
non-Orthodox Jewish day school and high school who actually took that education
seriously. That much is clear from the sentiment above. Seeing the handwriting
on the wall with respect to non-Orthodox Jewish education, he challenged fellow
non-Orthodox leaders to ask “whether we believe that with equal seriousness and
whether we are willing to invest, sacrifice, and build accordingly.”
Sadly, I think it is too late.
About ten years ago, an Orthodox Jewish philanthropist here
in Chicago was honored by the Jewish Federation (of which he is a board member)
for his generous contributions to Jewish education. When it was his turn to
speak, he made a simple observation about where the growth of Chicago’s Jewish
community was taking place—and where it wasn’t.
Many of the large Conservative and Reform synagogues so
common in mid-20th-century Chicago, once filled every Friday night or Shabbos,
have either closed their doors, merged with other struggling congregations, or
been sold and converted into Orthodox shuls that are once again filling seats.
Conservative and Reform synagogues still exist, of course.
But many now carry the long combined names of merged congregations—and even
those continue to shrink.
The question is: why?
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