oh, life at Brandeis
Forgive the preponderance of snarky-nostalgic posts about Deis recently. I think I can be forgiven for a little reminiscing, seeing as my normally scheduled departure is approaching rapidly enough even WITHOUT the possibility of my last few weeks being cut short. I want to record those moments of pride and gratitude for experiences that I could only have here.
Case in point: Three Jews. One raised and still practicing Reform, one raised Con-form and practicing egalitarian neo-Chassidism, one raised Orthodox and practicing flexible halachic observance (got that?). All sitting in the campus coffeeshop and discussing the future of the American Jewish community as inspired by Rabbi Avi Weiss, the founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Among the topics discussed: How do you create community? What does "open Orthodoxy" mean? what are its limits, especially vis a vis women's participation and welcoming queer Jews? How amazing is it to have a charismatic leader who understands the importance of making religious Judiasm emotionally supportive, socially conscious, and spiritually creative, all while maintaining the credibility of respect for halacha? Isn't it so much cooler to be a modern Orthodox rabbi with wide-ranging knowledge about topics secular and religious, with a sharp critical perspective, than to be a cookie-cutter parroter of a movement's party line (*cough* JTS *cough*)? How do we make living a Jewish life economically viable? How do we properly compensate and value teaching and spiritual leadership?
And really, where else in life is that conversation with those people going to take place spontaneously and with such humor and insight, on a cold Wednesday night? Amazing.
posted by Amy Schiller @ 9:37 PM
3 Comments:
I'm not quite sure how many cookie cutters you'd find up here at 122nd street. You might want to check out http://keshetjts.org/ for some of the opposition. Also, other than one man who is retiring this spring, we are pretty much all leaning one direction on a particular issue...But I would say there is a lot more diversity at JTS than people might think. Especially if you read the Forward...
I think further that Orthodoxy would have fewer people leaving it if it had those considerations in general. On the other hand, if Conservative Judaism were to be more explicit with how it followed halakha, and actually gave halakhic opinions (or takanot), it would be a really popular movement. And, note that the Masorti movement neatly sliced across the halakhic status of women with respect to prayer by ruling that all women are obligated. ;)
Daniel: The student body's stance on the queer ordination issue isn't as uniform as it might seem. There are students (some of whom I know, which is how I can say this) who are opposed to a policy change, but who are usually afraid to express their opinions publicly. Of course, that would mean that the Seminary encourages people to refute the party line mindlessly, which isn't any better from the standpoint of intellectual honesty or integrity.
'Tex: The Conservative movement does make explicit its stance on halakha and does issue rulings and takanot. The problem is that (1) the movement is very bad at getting anyone to pay attention to this and (2) many of its laity would probably leave if they actually understood what Conservative Judaism is.
I'm not sure what you mean by "sliced across" in that statement. Clarify?
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