One Day, They’ll ALL Be Orthodox

September 2, 2008 at 9:15 pm | In culture, dating and marriage, jewish denominations, orthodox | 5 Comments

That’s what an Orthodox rabbi once told me when I asked him what the Orthodox Jewish plan was for dealing with the majority of Jews who are not Orthodox, and, in my mind, are unlikely to ever be Orthodox. Like many others, he had written off the other denominations as having no staying power and being unable to pass on their rite and ritual to their children. Eventually, all those other denominations, all those other Jews would die out, and the swarming, fertile, and ever-multiplying Orthodox would inherit the earth.

That approached bugged the hell out of me, mostly because I couldn’t imagine being smugly content at the thought of so many Jews fading from the world. Turns out, there’s a better reason to reject the approach – it doesn’t appear to be true. If you only read one blog post on Jewish denominational demographics this week, let it be this one. If you read more than one… well, let’s just say that you better be a sociologist.

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On one hand, there will always be heterdox Jews, mostly because of drop out from Orthodoxy. On the other hand, according to the last survey in the US, the Jewish population has dropped by 2 million, and that’s with an incredibly liberal definition of “Who is a Jew” (eg. I dated a girl who knew one in college). Where did they go?

Comment by Garnel Ironheart — September 3, 2008 #

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Not sure where you’re getting that 2 million person drop. Post a link?

Comment by rejewvenator — September 3, 2008 #

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Orthodoxy is headed for a crack-up no different from the Catholic doldrums that brought on Vatican II and still ended up with defections to Protestantism, most notably evangelical/Born Again style denominations.

They may have more kids, but kids grow up and think for themselves. If you have too much spirituality without any religious tradition you cause emotional exhaustion and eventually cynicism and contempt (#1 reason for defection from evangelism to secularism). If you have too much rote religious ritual and legalism, you cause emotional hunger and eventually doubt and cynicism and contempt (#1 reason for defection from UO to MO->CO->RE->Secularism).

It’s not easy to hold a center blending and embodying both. The Catholic Church through the latter 20th century has tried very very hard to do it but has ultimately come down on the ritualism over spiritualism side every time, guitar playing nuns notwithstanding.

UO is even worse, almost reflexively burying itself in Talmudic legalism, too often as if a giant game of who can violate the spirit of the Torah without violating any specific rule or law. That the Conservative movement allows driving to synagogue on Shabbat should then come as zero surprise. Yet making exceptions to save lives? No, we have charedi throwing rocks at ambulances in Israel. But the Agriprocessors mess? Make every excuse under the sun.

Kids grow up and human children being the contrarian rebellious sort that they can be, and naturally looking for excuses to be misfits, they are walking bull**** detectors and that sort of thing sticks with them. There’s lots of people who are going to go OTD at warp speed and you can’t blame skeptical bloggers like XGH and company.

Catholicism’s recent spate of priest pervert scandals and their move to rely on excuses and not admit to mistakes and beg forgiveness, puts the lie to their claim they care about righteousness. Catholic kids become not so Catholic adults.

Hypocrisy whether overt or covert or even subliminal sticks with kids.

The chasidism of the foundation of the modern wave of it, back to the Baal Shem Tov, might be in retrospect often mythologized and made more rosy than it was, but that very mythological rosiness provides a certain hope for the future that things can be like that, that there can be such happiness is being a religious Jew. Mussar, if honestly kept to and applied, and combined with chasidism, could provide the moral and spiritual components to go with the ritualism and formalism of the Talmud and Torah.

All the seeds are there and I see nothing but a genuine desire among Jews to maintain the people, all that is lacking is a certain clarity. I don’t know the answers any more than I did when I was a Christian kid growing up, but I know the difference between the picture presented to kids in religion and what we see for ourselves growing up and that divide between intention/marketing and reality is what drives us into ennui and estrangement.

On the other hand, if we didn’t engage in that, French intellectuals would have to find some other area to endlessly obsess over.

Comment by suitepotato — September 3, 2008 #

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But, Catholics never claim among themselves to be worth more than non-Catholics (or rather that Catholics are the only people that matter).

That is the difference here. Ultimately, what non-Catholics said and did exposed the festering sore in the church (i.e. “non-Catholic” standards).

As long as the only “standards” are “Jewish” standards and as long as “Jewish” is defined by these corrupt people, then nobody inside the movement will have anything to compare what is going on with.

Remember, even most Jews are “non-Jewish” in these communities.

Comment by Jon — November 28, 2008 #

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Orthodox Judaism may be somewhat more sealed off from external criticism than Catholicism, but it’s hardly airtight.

Comment by rejewvenator — November 29, 2008 #

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