Thursday, September 09, 2004

Blurring denominational boundaries

Elf seems to agree with the gist of my prediction for American Jewry in the next decade: that it will be influenced by the conflict with radical Islam, and that the result might be less intermarriage, and a push to conform religiously (as I put it) / a shift toward a more conservative, ethnocentric, nationalist approach to religion (as she put it, with a little more sophistication!).
I like the way she frames her vision, however, within the context of an American Jewish community today which is more religiously diverse than ever before. She concludes: "The terms "Orthodox," "Conservative," and "Reform," which defined American Judaism for so long, are well on their way to becoming entirely meaningless. We will have to continue to find new ways of articulating who we are and what we believe."
Zackary Sholem Berger wrote an interesting article a few months ago in the London Jewish Quarterly arguing that this process is already underway, and that denominational boundaries are already blurring. For many NY Jews, he says,

"flexibility and experimentation in matters doctrinal, halachic, and cultural are precisely at those junctures where organizations and institutions have planted red flags. They walk across the minefield not even looking at the danger signs. So Maimonides’ thirteen principles, the authorship of the Torah, and the binding nature of mitzvot are topics freely discussed by Orthodox and non-Orthodox scholars at a number of forums. Recognition of intermarried couples and of homosexual relationships, a danger zone for the Conservative movement, is approached more and more often, albeit quite gingerly and only in lay organizations. And the Reform leadership, seemingly heedless of a disconnect with the membership such as is bedeviling the Conservatives, is inching ever closer to an appreciation, if not a binding understanding of halachah."

So what are we going to end up with? 'Secular,' 'traditional' and 'Ultra-Orthodox'? What new kinds of distinctions are we going to make / can be made within that 'traditional' spectrum?

UPDATE: A reader emailed me this Azure article, arguing roughly along the lines above. Denominational boundaries are crumbling!

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