Leaking Ship: Young Israel On The Rocks

Since its inception in 1912, the Young Israel movement has attempted to steer the precarious balance that is American Modern Orthodoxy. But according to sources inside the Young Israel as well as outside observers, the National Council of Young Israel may have run aground. A fresh series of controversial decisions asserting a greater dominance for the NCYI in ideological and halachic issues, as well an alleged neglect of support services for their synagogue, have coalesced to create a maelstrom of criticism and discontent for the venerable institution that, to some, foreshadows its potential decline.

As reported in this newspaper, the National Council decided this summer that before any Young Israel synagogue could hire any rabbinic candidate, the rabbi's ideological credentials and scholarly competency would first need to be examined and interviewed by an NCYI-appointed committee. This decision was originally announced in a memorandum sent to all Young Israel branches dated August 1, 2007, and recently acquired by The Commentator. The memorandum referred to other recent NCYI edicts from the Young Israel Council of Rabbis Vaad Halacha, including a new ban on Young Israel synagogues holding or sponsoring women's prayer services and megillah readings, and a ruling barring females and converts from becoming synagogue presidents. Conversations with dozens of Young Israel officials and rabbis, as well as a survey of Young Israel presidents and vice presidents, revealed some disquiet with the content of those decisions as well unease with NCYI's push to increase its own authority at the expense of individual synagogues. Most ominously, it also exposed simmering resentments toward the NCYI and raised serious questions as to the NCYI's continuing value to established Young Israel synagogues.

NCYI officials refused numerous requests to comment for this article. But their August memorandum, Viewpoint article and earlier conversations with The Commentator did clarify some of their positions. They argued that the NCYI was continuing with past traditions, citing decades-old policies requiring shomer Shabbat officers and closed parking lots, as well as kosher mehitzot. Additionally, they claimed robust support among the majority of Young Israel synagogues.

Many Young Israel officers, however, feel that these restrictions are a major break from past rules. They believe that the earlier directives regarding Shabbat observance and mehitzot are far more essential to and objectively representative of normative Judaism than the new rules mandating exclusively male, born Jews as president and NCYI-approved rabbinic candidates. And the high number and bitter rancor of disgruntled respondents seemed to disprove the NCYI's claims of widespread support.

Conflict Over Rabbinic Screening

The NCYI's recent decision to screen potential rabbinic candidates stoked much of the controversy and anger. Many Young Israel presidents and rabbis feel it is the community's prerogative to determine who will be their rabbi, and worried about the ideological limits on potential rabbinic candidates. To them, the NCYI's decision reeked of disrespect and even arrogance. Stanley Raskas, president of Young Israel of New Rochelle and YC Board of Directors Secretary, spoke as an individual, and termed the NCYI's decision as "insanity." One influential former president of a major New York synagogue asked, "Who else but me and my fellow shul officers, board members and congregants would be able to make this very important choice of a rabbinic leader? We're the ones in the trenches, who know our community's needs. Is the NCYI saying that we don't do our due diligence, or that we're not capable of making our own decisions? I don't think we really need their input. This is a real insult to us."

Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, admitted to a lack of trust in congregational search committees in an earlier phone interview. "If there's a rabbi whose second cousin is on a search committee, they might not care whether he has a good semicha or if he's within the mainstream," he asserted. "Also, they might be looking for someone a little different." Rabbi Lerner, though, mentioned receiving supportive comments and assumed that most Young Israel synagogues strongly supported the decision.

That does not seem to be so clear, however. A survey of twelve Young Israel presidents and conversations with several numerous other current and former officials showed broad unhappiness with the rule. 75% of Young Israel officials who responded to the survey disagreed with policy. A majority - 55% - said would definitely hire a rabbi who was rejected by the NCYI's investigatory team if they thought he was qualified, while only 28% were sure they wouldn't. (The survey was not scientific, but did attempt to reach via phone and email a fair and broad cross-section of Young Israels in North America.)

Sid Stadler, president of Young Israel of Eltingville, NY, emailed that "it is up to the respective yeshiva to do their job, and the respective shul to decide on their own." He urged the NCYI to "stay out of this theater," and preferred that they focus on national issues. "Fighting for Eretz Yisroel and getting Pollard out of jail - that's the NCYI's business. This [screening of rabbis] is not your business." If the NCYI wanted to be involved, he suggested that they send him resumes of good rabbinic prospects, but steer clear of interfering with synagogue choices.

Not all Young Israel presidents were opposed to this new regulation. Terrance Bloom, president of the Young Israel of Richmond, British Columbia felt that "people without the qualities necessary to be rabbis have passed through the semicha programs," and hoped that this policy will "standardize the quality of Young Israel rabbis." He also felt that it should augment the search committees' confidence in the rabbis they hire.

Professor Samuel Heilman, Harold Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center and Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York, argued that given the needs of today's rabbinate, the NCYI's focus seemed to be misplaced. It appeared to his analysis that the NCYI was placing too much emphasis on rigid halakhic and hashkafic standards as opposed to the more practical day-to-day elements of a pulpit rabbi's responsibilities. At one recent rabbinic seminar he noted that many of the seasoned rabbis were confident in their halakhic, talmudic and hashkafic training, but felt poorly prepared for their jobs as communal rabbis in a variety of functional skill sets, such as management, communal leadership, pastoral counseling, and social work. While the NCYI did not say whether or not they were examining particular skills, there was no indication in their memorandum or interviews that they would be looking at these factors.

Vague Screening Process Used To Sideline YCT

For some presidents, the disquiet partly stemmed from the opacity of the NCYI's screening process. The policy did not explain what questions the investigatory committees would be asking and what the standards it would use to judge prospective candidates. One New England Young Israel president feared the ill-defined process would lead to an "illusion of fairness" when in fact, there was none. He felt his synagogue judges candidates for who they are, and worried that the NCYI would hold them to a strict ideological standard. Two other synagogue presidents worried that their rabbis, whom they and their communities liked, would be too right-wing on certain issues, including not being sufficiently Zionist.

One source close to Young Israel administration and intimately familiar with the decision-making process said the vagueness of the policy resulted from the NCYI's desire to withhold their true motivations from the public sphere. He declared with certainty that the decision to investigate all rabbinic candidates was primarily intended to exclude Yeshiva Chovevei Torah graduates. "They want to come up with a way to keep YCT rabbis out of Young Israels, without doing it openly," he explained. Therefore, they referred to both internet ordinations as well as "institutions which have emerged which place insufficient stress on Talmud, Halacha, and Jewish Ethics and Hashkafa," and then made a comprehensive rule legislating all rabbinic candidates. This legerdemain, according to him, led to an ill-defined, overly broad policy that many synagogues fear could spiral out of control.

Previously, the Young Israel of Century City had hired a rabbinic fellow with ordination from YCT, Rabbi Jason Weiner, which sources say upset the NCYI and possibly led to their new policy.

Prof. Heilman also thought the NCYI was obscuring the impetus behind the decision. He thought that the lack of hard data presented for any major rise in Internet ordinations or an increase in the hirings of such rabbis showed the NCYI's argument to be "specious and smokescreen."

Some Young Israel members had problems with their exclusion of YCT. 50% of the Young Israel presidents surveyed were definitely willing to hire a qualified YCT graduate. One Young Israel president referred to the decision as a "unilateral move to screw YCT that our synagogue does not support."

Women and Converts Barred From Presidency

Young Israel officials were not only exercised by the new rabbinic screening policy; the NCYI's recent decision to bar females and converts from being a Young Israel synagogue president was heavily criticized as well.

Dr. Jay Cinnamon, past president of the Young Israel of Toco Hills, Atlanta, who spoke as a private citizen, said he was "disappointed but not shocked" that the NCYI chose to ban women from holding a synagogue presidency. But he found the ban on converts "repugnant." He explained that in Atlanta and many other cities, there is "a small but significant number of converts, many of whom are true gerei tezedek and extraordinarily devoted to the community and halacha." Many of them, he said, are "as pious as any other Jew." Dr. Cinnamon said that to categorically deny converts synagogue presidencies removes productive members from consideration, and possibly more injurious, sends a "profound and distasteful message" that converts are not fully equal Jews.

Other Young Israel officials shared his sentiments. 58% of Young Israel leaders said that they strongly felt that their president should be male. But 67% strongly believed that a convert should be able to serve as president. In practice, it seems that several Young Israels have had females serving as de facto presidents, though at times they used different titles.

The NCYI gave no defense for their restrictions on synagogue presidential candidates in their memorandum. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a leading scholar of the last generation, wrote responsa addressing the scope of the prohibition against converts or females serving in a position of coercive authority over other Jews. Medieval scholars dispute whether women can hold such positions, and Rabbi Feinstein decides strictly, mentioning in passing that women shouldn't be shul presidents. While he also upholds the prohibition on giving converts a position of major authority, he does advocate using maximum possible leniency on this issue to be sensitive to converts, and he explicitly permitted a convert to become a rosh yeshiva. He did not say whether a convert was prohibited from becoming president.

Women's Tefillah & Megillah Reading Services Banned

The NCYI also recently prohibited all Young Israels from having women's tefillah and megillah reading services. One president of a Young Israel, whose shul holds women's tefillah services under his rabbis' aegis, felt that this was a grave overreach. "This is a halachic issue, but they should allow the shul rabbis to make these decisions."

Dr. Cinnamon was particularly upset that they chose to focus their energies on these topics in the face of what he thought were "the big issues facing the Jewish community." He asked, "what is more critical to the Jewish people, and more relevant for the NCYI to be dealing with right now: massive assimilation in America and existential threats to Israeli security? Or whether converts can serve as shul presidents?"

Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, senior scholar at Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future, stressed that "the authority to decide whether women should hold a tefillah or megillah reading service, or elect a woman or ger as president, should be left up to the rabbi of the shul."

NCYI's Rightward Shift

Many officials inside the Young Israel as well as observers outside of it thought that the host of new directives reflected an ideological shift to the right by the NCYI. The specifically anti-YCT rabbinic screening process and the more restrictive, rightward shift on the issues of synagogue presidents and women's tefillah and megillah reading services seem to encroach further on what have previously been individual synagogue's prerogatives. While Rabbi Lerner had said that rabbinic candidates "don't have to match my exact hashkafa" to pass the investigatory committee's muster, some members feel that the recent decisions seem to indicate that individual synagogues need to match the NCYI's hashkafa in order to retain their Young Israel affiliation.

Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, Chair of YCT Rabbinical School's Departments of Tanakh and Jewish Thought, thought that the shift has been long in the making, noting that "I and others in the Orthodox community believe that Young Israel has a much broader issue. In the last two decades, the national office has developed a narrower conception of what Orthodoxy is and represents, in both religious and Israeli political issues. This stands in contrast to what many other fine, upstanding Orthodox institutions, rabbis and baalei batim believe and what the Young Israel itself represented in the not too distant past." Dr. Cinnamon further worried about stifling the variety within Modern Orthodoxy, saying that it was "disconcerting that one body of rabbis was making decision for synagogues and their rabbis scattered throughout country." One search committee head said that he had received several resumes, and all of them were for candidates far to the right of the synagogue and what he considered mainstream Modern Orthodoxy. Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva University, mused that the spirit and ideology of the Young Israel movement has strayed far from its original roots, which were focused on involving a broader segment of young Jews and preserving the tenets of Judaism, rather than elevating minority opinions on women's megillah readings into standardized law. "The Young Israel movement of today is not the Young Israel that I grew up with."

To some, the NCYI's fresh directives signify a greater schism in the Modern Orthodox world. Prof. Heilman thought that "the new policy obviously indicates a lack of trust in the laity to make its own choices of its needs, and is redolent of an attitude that often infects Orthodoxy that suggests that there are authorities above us who know better." Prof. Heilman was bothered by the assertion of superiority by the NCYI and asked why the NCYI should be trusted to make these judgments. Who are these authorities, he asked, and "who made them authorities? Are they specially trained in the skills needed, or endowed with special perspicacity to make judgments?" He also wondered from where they would learn the knowledge of local conditions better than the communities, or why they would possess a better sense of leadership and spiritual skills than the laity.

'System of Exploitation' - YI Shuls Claim To Receive Little

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan, organizational sociologist at MIT and vice president of Young Israel of Brookline, spoke as an expert in his field who has observed Young Israel behavior in order to explain the dynamics behind the NCYI's recent expansion of power. "The NCYI seems to exemplify the 'iron law of oligarchy,'" he said, which means that although originally the leadership existed to serve its members, it now uses the organization as "a means for retaining and deepening its leadership privileges," and adopts policies to reflect their own interests.

He also found that the NCYI franchise operates like a "system of exploitation." They assist a budding Orthodox community by providing name recognition, but later provide little else, and charge fees and enact new directives that the community often feels are costly and unwarranted. While some franchise systems are "systems of learning," actively facilitating interaction among franchises, he felt that the NCYI seems "much more concerned about retaining control than making the system valuable." Their recent directives described in the August memo, to him, seem consistent with what he deems their exploitative tendencies.

Various Young Israel officials confirmed Mr. Zuckerman Sivan's account, saying that the Young Israels paid dues but received little in return. There is a list of services the NCYI provides, but several Young Israel figures thought it was trivial and hollow. One southern Young Israel president, who remained anonymous for fear of retribution against his synagogue, related that the NCYI didn't contribute much to his shul. "Their recent restrictions and the minimal services certainly make us wonder whether people in the ivory tower are out of touch with rest of country. It seems like the NCYI is focused on their little shtetl in New York." He went through a list of services the NCYI claims it provides on their website, and explained that they were largely irrelevant. Moreover, his Young Israel was not visited by a NCYI delegate during his over three years in office, and he stated firmly that "benefits of being a branch were theoretical rather than substantive."

While some believed that this deficiency of services was due in part to a pro-New York tilt, several New Yorkers were also unaware of truly useful benefits provided by the NCYI, and strongly resented the new restrictions. A former president of the Young Israel of Woodmere, the Young Israel synagogue with the largest membership, said that "as president, the only thing I saw from them was a bill." Another past New York-area Young Israel president mused that "possibly it's helpful to belong to Young Israel for a new shul, but for an established synagogue, being a member of Young Israel is a waste." Mr. Raskas, again speaking for himself, said that "Young Israel should spend its time providing more services to its shuls, and spend less time on Jonathan Pollard and Gush Katif," he asserted. "Our members are paying dues to the national council and after this recent rabbinic standard committee was formed, members asked me what are we getting in return for the annual dues."

As the benefits remain slim and regulations increase, several synagogues have explored the ramifications of leaving the Young Israel movement. One synagogue recently held a board meeting that demurred for now but left the door open for a future exit. Other synagogues have promised to maintain their previous policies, including continuing women's megillah reading services and hiring whichever rabbi they find appropriate. One past president of a powerful Young Israel synagogue declared that "we're going to hire the rabbi we want. If the NCYI has a problem with that, we could leave, but I doubt they would want us to. It's not like they have major inducements for us to stay." Prof. Heilman predicted that due to NCYI's restrictions "that Young Israel synagogues may decide the brand name of Young Israel is not worth holding on to any longer."

The NCYI does seem to be useful for start-up synagogues and in times of crisis. Several Young Israel presidents thought that the Young Israel name and seed support could be valuable for a Young Israel starting anew in a previously barren community, or for a synagogue that wishes to break off from an existing one. They also helped organize support for the Jewish community of New Orleans after they were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Rabbi Yehoshua Sauer, the NCYI's Director of Synagogue Services, told the Five Towns Jewish Times at the time that "it's true that Eretz Yisrael is a major priority for the NCYI. But we still have a responsibility to help Jewish communities in other parts of the world as well."

NCYI Threatens Punishments

The fact that many Young Israels are considering violating the rules and possibly parting ways with their name and organization has raised serious questions as to what degree NCYI will go to prosecute these offenses, and what the possible consequences are for leaving the Young Israel. Rabbi Lerner has said that the NCYI "will not allow the name of Young Israel to get watered down, God forbid," and repeated their memorandum's threat to expel offenders from the movement.

The NCYI Constitution maintains the right to expel synagogues that do not follow all halachic decisions of their Halacha Committee, according to article 3, sections 3.3 and 3.9 and article 9, section 9.7. Additionally, article 12, section 12.4 states that "in the event that a branch is dissolved or expelled, all its assets, both personal and real, shall become the property of the Organization." Notably, while the memorandum included the other relevant sections, it did not include section 12.4, which threatens to strip offending Young Israel synagogues of their assets.

Still, there have been times over the past few years where the NCYI has explicitly threatened to expropriate the Young Israel's assets. One Young Israel synagogue outside of New York was in the midst of a major dispute with the NCYI, and Shlomo Mostofsky, president of NCYI, wrote a letter to this synagogue that The Commentator acquired, in which he threatened to expel the synagogue from the Young Israel and take possession of their assets, citing the NCYI's constitutional right to do so. However, lawyers for this synagogue did not think that the NCYI would be successful, both due to the difficulties inherent in suing out of state and the general reluctance of courts to strip churches and synagogues of their property. NCYI did not carry out their threat to sue for the property, and the dispute was later settled.

In other instances, the NCYI has seemed less prone to continue to battle. Article 3, section 3.5 of the Constitution declares that "no branch shall become a member or affiliate of any other organization without express recommendation of the Board of Directors and approval of the Delegates Assembly." In New York State alone, there are 27 Young Israels that are members of the Orthodox Union. The NCYI did not comment as to whether those and other Young Israels which are members of other organizations received the Board's recommendation and the Assembly's approval; but there were disputes over the original Young Israel congregations that joined the OU. While the NCYI has, up to this point, rebuffed the OU's advances to have a closer concord, it is not currently forcing its own synagogues to choose between the organizations, despite its apparent constitutional prerogative.

How Representative is NCYI of Young Israels?

The ideological disparity between some of the congregations and the NCYI led some to question how representative the NCYI is of their branches. The Viewpoint article and August memorandum emphasized that these actions were taken in order to protect "Traditional Torah-True Judaism," at the direction of the Young Council of Rabbis Vaad Halacha, and instituted by the NCYI's Board of Directors. There have been complaints about the manner in which the Board of Directors is elected and the Delegates Assembly, the NCYI's legislative body, makes decisions. The Constitution gives each synagogue the right to have a minimum of three delegates, including the president of the branch (article 7, section 7.1). To vote, the NCYI requires a quorum of at least 15 delegates from seven branches.

But while the Assembly votes meet this quorum, it seems that some of the delegates are often not informed of meetings. One delegate familiar with the NCYI's workings reported that delegates are not directly informed about the votes; shul presidents are supposed to be notified of upcoming meetings and inform their representatives. Often, though, shul presidents are not informed by the NCYI, and several delegates have missed these meetings. While Rabbi Lerner told the Five Towns Jewish Times that "this delegates' meeting [electing Mr. Mostofsky as president and installing the latest board] was one of the best attended meetings in years," several delegates were not informed of the recent board vote and therefore did not attend, missing out on a chance to express their preferences for the board and president. Multiple presidents mentioned that while it was possible the NCYI had vaguely informed them of the assembly, due to the general irrelevance of the NCYI to their synagogue workings, they did not notice any such references. Mr. Zuckerman Sivan said this confusion was a common affliction of "controlling" franchises, as the leadership benefits when their branches do not have the information to challenge their policies.

The sheer force of much of the criticism of the NCYI - the condemnation of their restrictions and denigration of their services - was striking. Some want the NCYI to focus more time on freeing Pollard and defending Jerusalem as opposed to enacting specific regulations, while others think the NCYI should place less emphasis on national policies and greater effort on synagogue services. There are those who complain that the NCYI is straying too far from its original, more flexible traditions, and others who worry that NCYI is not utilizing sufficiently modern governance policies. As the NCYI attempts to navigate through the current stormy waters, it is clear that they will need to grapple with how to negotiate these disparate concerns in order to protect their own brand and preserve their 95-year old tradition. But most important to their ability to succeed might be to discover how to calm those waters and eliminate some of the rancor and controversy. Without such soothing measures, the tempest may be just beginning.

Elie Friedman contributed to this article