AMERICAN ORTHODOXY IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY

One hundred years ago no one would have predicted that there would be any Orthodox Jews in America to participate in this panel this evening. America was and continues to be a land of opportunity for Jews a "goldener medina" (a golden land), but from the perspective of traditional religious observance it was a "treife medina" (a non-kosher land). Not yet having a five-day workweek, Sabbath observance was almost impossible. The public school and the American University replaced the cheder, the Jewish doctor, lawyer and professor the successor to the Talmudic scholar. Americanization seemed to require dropping a European observant life style.

Fifty years ago we had survived but prospects for the future were still doubtful. The first key to Orthodoxy's revival has been the day school movement, Jewish and secular education in one school. On an advanced level, Yeshiva University represents an American amalgam of a yeshiva and a university. This education is not limited to rabbis, in that respect Yeshiva University is fundamentally different from the other rabbinical schools represented at this panel. Our undergraduates, both male and female, spend half their day on Judaic studies whether they will become professionals, business people, secular scholars or rabbis.

America has become more accommodating to religious diversity. Civil rights laws prohibit religious discrimination. One can leave an office early on a winter Friday afternoon without threat of being fired. Remarkably, in many cities the sign of a flourishing Orthodox community is a major medical center. Four years ago an observant Jew, keeping kashrut and Shabbat, ran for vice-president of the United States and his religious life was not a significant issue in the election.

A small group of optimistic religious leaders, who came from Europe with a variety of perspectives, led this revival. At Yeshiva, the presence of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, whose intellectual credentials as both a Talmudist and philosopher, were acknowledged across the religious spectrum, gave Orthodoxy respectability. Rabbi Pinchas Teitz created a model community and introduced use of modern media to spread Torah. Rabbi Aharon Kotler recreated a European yeshiva in Lakewood New Jersey. The Bobover, Lubavicher and Satmar rebbes established major and diverse Hassidic communities.

Today our rabbinical scholars and intellectuals were born and educated in this country. The emergence of the State of Israel re-ignited Jewish pride and it is a given that Orthodox youth, female and male, will spend a year or more studying in Israel. The Orthodox community is most closely aligned with Israel and while its aliya rate is small it includes a number of potential leaders.

A baal teshuva movement has emerged with a significant number of Jews from non-traditional homes returning to the observance of grandparents and great grandparents. In fact one of the challenges facing modern Orthodoxy is that many of these returnees are attracted to a European Orthodoxy and they see us as too accommodating to western culture.

Orthodoxy in America is multi-faceted. It includes both Orthodox feminists and opponents of any public role for women. Scientists and Wall-Street lawyers co-exist with kollel students who consider working a compromise with a true religious life. Some look to rabbis to decide personal questions and others never ask.

American culture is constantly in flux which requires that modern Orthodoxy continuously reevaluate its relationship with the external society. New challenges are inevitable. It is easier to either accept all the values in vogue or to reject modernity totally.

Responding to the changing role of women in society is particularly complex for a religious tradition that values knowledge and is also centered on the home and family. The remarkable development of formal Jewish education for women, which in less than a century has gone from a select group of knowledgeable women to a system of schools educating all young Orthodox women for at least twelve years leaves many questions.

Rabbinical leadership in Orthodoxy in America will need to be expert in traditional texts as the laity is also yeshiva educated and secularly knowledgeable as well. At Yeshiva's rabbinical seminary we are expanding pastoral training and trying to imbue our students with a broad vision of the Jewish community. We have to find the proper balance between loyalty to tradition and innovation for both men and women to produce the leadership needed to ensure a vibrant Jewish future.