Judaism in America

Marc Lee Raphael

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9780231512442
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Jews have been a religious and cultural presence in America since the colonial era, and the community of Jews in the United States today—some six million people—continues to make a significant contribution to the American religious landscape. Emphasizing developments in American Judaism in the last quarter century among active participants in Jewish worship, this book provides both a look back into the 350-year history of Judaic life and a well-crafted portrait of a multifaceted tradition today. Combining extensive research into synagogue archival records and secondary sources as well as interviews and observations of worship services at more than a hundred Jewish congregations across the country, Raphael's study distinguishes itself as both a history of the Judaic tradition and a witness to the vitality and variety of contemporary American Judaic life. Beginning with a chapter on beliefs, festivals, and life-cycle events, both traditional and non-traditional, and an explanation of the enormous variation in practice, Raphael then explores Jewish history in America, from the arrival of the first Jews to the present, highlighting the emergence and development of the four branches: Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform. After documenting the considerable variety among the branches, the book addresses issues of some controversy, notably spirituality, conversion, homosexuality, Jewish education, synagogue architecture, and the relationship to Israel. Raphael turns next to a discussion of eight American Jews whose thoughts and/or activities made a huge impact on American Judaism. The final chapter focuses on the return to tradition in every branch of Judaism and examines prospects for the future.

CHAPTER ONE

What is American Judaism?

There are about six million Jews in the United States today, and the population projections by most demographers are for an “expected long-term decline in numbers.”¹ Three commonly discussed reasons for this projection are lack of new immigrants, low reproduction, and high intermarriage rates. There does not seem to be any likelihood of large-scale Jewish immigration to the United States in the near future. Jews have been notorious, at least since the 1950s, for residing in the lowest ecological fertility category, or being unable to even reproduce the parental generation. And, Jewish intermarriage rates are high, with a concomitant dilution of each generation.² Thus their absolute numbers have continually declined, and, since the American population has continually increased, they are a steadily declining percentage of the general population. When the author began his academic career, Jews were 3 percent of the American population; in 2000 they were 2 percent.

And these Jews live overwhelmingly in the suburbs of the largest American cities, and (secondarily) in those same cities. They are, by every measure, among the highest socioeconomic groupings in the United States, and they tend (no matter to which of the four branches of American Judaism they belong) to share many of the characteristics of upper-middle-class urban Americans. Whether Orthodox or Reform, their wedding receptions and bar mitzvah parties, the clothing they wear on special occasions at the synagogue, and their occupations, are quite similar to those of non-Jewish Americans at the same socioeconomic level. When the author interviewed hotel personnel who cater wedding receptions, they repeatedly told him that the only significant difference between a Jewish wedding reception and a non-Jewish wedding reception is that the Jews eat more food and drink less liquor than the non-Jews.

This sociological discussion of American Jews does not presume to know precisely how to define Jews. Jews often joke about how the definition of a Jew in modern times is anyone who asks the question “What is the definition of a Jew in modern times?” Indeed, the joke has much truth, for American Jews are preoccupied with trying to define who is a Jew. Synagogue leaders must define a Jew before they can decide who to admit and, even if they admit as members most anyone who knocks on the door and pays their dues, they must ponder how “Jewish” must one be to be called to the Torah for a bat mitzvah or to serve as an officer of a congregation.³ If this quandary is left unresolved, so congregational leaders explain, the synagogue could become a place where there are no boundaries (often citing Judaism in the first and second centuries of this era), and soon Christians (or, minimally, non-Jews) might be participating in the most sacred rites of Judaism and/or selecting the rabbi who will lead the congregation.

Thus, is someone with one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent a Jew? What if the non-Jewish parent has converted, for a Jewish convert is, legally speaking, just as “Jewish” as someone born of two Jewish parents? But are all conversions equally valid, e.g., does each wing of American Judaism recognize conversions of the other wings? Does it matter whether the Jewish parent is the mother or the father? And in how much investigation should the synagogue leaders, or “Membership Committee,” engage? Ought the policy to be “Don’t ask,” or should the membership application have sufficient questions for the congregation to determine how Jewish the applicant might be? These, and other questions about Jewish identity, must necessarily occupy the Judaic community, lest it ignore all boundaries and surrender any distinction between someone who is Jewish and someone who is not.

Early in American history Jews mastered the challenge of acculturation and became active in politics and culture on America’s own terms. But we are not chronicling the (largely) secular story of Jewish blockade-runners, civilian contractors, and financiers in the Revolution, or Jews who served important political, judicial, entrepreneurial, and (especially) cultural roles in the late nineteenth and throughout the subsequent century.

President Theodore Roosevelt, in October 1906, appointed Oscar Straus of the Macy’s department store family secretary of commerce and labor, and he became the first Jewish cabinet member. Numerous Jews early in the twentieth century—among them Eddie Cantor, Irving Berlin, and Al Jolson—and late in the same century—including Steven Sondheim, Bob Dylan, and Barbara Streisand—were deeply committed to American mass culture. But their stories have been told, repeatedly;⁴ our task is to explore the history of Judaism, the religious tradition, in the setting of America. This remains to be told by historians.

If we generally define the subjects of this book as those who participate in the religion of Judaism, whether in the synagogue, the home, or both, as opposed to those Jews who deny any interest in the religion of Judaism, it only leaves us with about half of those six million American Jews. No more than half the Jews in the United States consider themselves “religious,” and less than half the Jews in America are affiliated with a synagogue. True, many affiliate during the years they have children at home, so that they will be eligible to participate in the holidays, life-cycle events, and schooling that affect their children, and then drop their affiliation (i.e., stop paying annual dues), but many of these Jews consider themselves “religious” (Judaic), even without synagogue membership, and attend worship services on Yom Kippur, celebrate Passover with a seder or liturgical meal, and hire a rabbi to officiate at the wedding of their daughter.

Although synagogue membership alone, therefore, does not reveal all those Jews who consider themselves religious and are part of this study, it is the main arena for expressions of Judaism in America. While the number of Orthodox synagogues remains a mystery (the national organization does not reveal figures and estimates thus vary widely),⁵ there are about 875 Reform congregations, 850 Conservative congregations, and 100 Reconstructionist synagogues in the United States. Orthodox totals are less than either Reform or Conservative, as fewer than 10 percent of American Jews affiliate with an Orthodox congregation. The best and most frequently cited estimate is that of those Jews affiliating with synagogues about 45 percent are Reform, 42 percent are Conservative, 9 percent Orthodox, and 4 percent Reconstructionist. Despite the small percentage of affiliates, Orthodox Jews are often given one-third representation in Jewish communal affairs. Just as America has long been seen as “Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish,” as if Jews constituted something like a third of the religious population and Muslims did not exist, so American Judaism is often perceived as “Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform,” as if these are three more or less equal sectors of the religious community.

It is not easy to generalize, even by sectors, about the role that Judaism plays in the life of American Jews. There are Jews who consider themselves Orthodox who do not make the hundreds of commandments—ethical and ritual—part of their daily lives, and there are Conservative and Reform Jews who do. But, generally, Orthodox Jews work harder to observe the letter of scores of commandments found in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (= Torah), as interpreted by rabbinic authorities over the past two thousand years, and Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform Jews pick and choose from those same commandments. Historically speaking, the non-Orthodox wings of American Judaism have been more observant of the spirit than the letter of the commandments. Those who pick and choose from the hundreds of commandments in the Torah give those they choose to follow a liberal, rather than a literal, interpretation. Traditional Jews, for example, interpret the biblical commandment prohibiting fire on the Sabbath to include the internal combustion engine, and thus they do not ride in motorized vehicles on that day; Conservative Jews observe this prohibiton for everything except travel to and from the syngogue, while Reconstructionist and Reform Jews, including rabbis, travel on the Sabbath, but (generally) try to limit their travel to those places and activities they consider (broadly) in the spirit of the Sabbath.

All modern Judaisms—Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstuctionist, Reform, even ultra-Orthodox—are movements of either the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, and all emerged as a response to both the Enlightenment and Emancipation. There were deep divisions within Judaism over the program of the Enlightenment and Emancipation, and they may be summarized, simply, as a battle between integrationists and separatists, between those who welcomed modernity and tried to adjust Judaism to it, and those who rejected modernity and tried to not permit its influences to infect them. Some believed they could reform Judaism and make it consonant with modernity, though many argued over how much reform should be permitted. Some claimed, quite erroneously, to have maintained tradition unchanged, but they too adjusted to modernity, although they made every attempt to evaluate it via Torah, to evaluate modern culture by the standards of Jewish law. For a few, this evaluation led them to an absolute rejection of modernity, to as complete a segregation as was possible in our time. Ironically, these resisters have some of the most sophisticated websites of any religious group.

Worship

The varieties of religious expression within the American Judaic community are considerable, even within the same branch or wing. In one Reform Jewish synagogue in Washington, D.C., on almost any Friday evening (Sabbbath eve), the worshippers (men in coats and ties seated together with women in dresses) rise from their pews as the rabbis walk down the aisle of the two-thousand-seat sanctuary toward the elevated pulpit while the choir and cantor sing an English hymn that is found in the 1897 Hymnal of the Reform movement as well as the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church. In another Reform congregation, a short walk away, the Sabbath eve worshippers, dressed casually with men and women sitting on folding chairs on a cement floor in a sanctuary only a few years old, join the song leader cum cantor (and the accompanist playing keyboards) as she sings an ancient Hebrew melody with music composed by a contemporary Jewish songwriter of liturgical music.

In an Orthodox synagogue in Los Angeles on a Saturday (Sabbath day) morning, the male worshippers, separated from the women who are upstairs, pray (mostly) at their own pace exclusively in Hebrew with melodies, inflections, and body movements (so they claim) transfered through the centuries unchanged. They bow their heads and bend their knees in an exaggerated fashion, davening—investing each word and melody with all their physical, emotional, and spiritual energy. They seem to know that the perfect prayer is the one that is prayed not only with the soul but by the whole of the human being, body and soul. At another Orthodox congregation, a short distance away, the male worshippers sit on one side of an aisle from the women worshippers, each in full view of the other, the prayer book is in both Hebrew and English, and much of the latter is read, the worship leader periodically announces the page numbers, and before a portion of the Torah scroll (consisting of the Five Books of Moses in Hebrew on parchment) is read, it is passed among the men and then among the women so that every worshipper may be touched by its sanctity.

While the differences are many and significant, a visitor to a typical synagogue on a Sabbath morning would notice that the service is divided into three main parts. The first part, morning prayers, is recited in Orthodox, (most) Conservative, and (some) Reconstructionist and Reform congregations daily, with additions appropriate for the Sabbath. Psalms and the Shema, which is an affirmation of the unity and sovereignty of God (Deuteronomy 6:4—“Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One”—is one of Judaism’s central beliefs), with some blessings, follow. The Amidah, the standing devotion that combines individual and communal prayers, is recited silently in Conservative and Orthodox synagogues and chanted together in Reform and (most) Reconstructionist services. All these introductory prayers help prepare the worshippers to pray, to ready their bodies and souls and consciousness for worship. What a Jew does individually will lead her or him to the spiritual strength one derives from praying together in a community.

The Torah reading is the spiritual heart of the liturgy. It begins with the opening of the ark and taking out the Torah scroll. Though sacred, the scroll is usually carried in a procession, with abundant singing, through the sanctuary for all to see and touch. No matter the amount read in a particular synagogue, the Torah is read consecutively each Sabbath throughout the year. The rabbi (or a bar/bat mitzvah candidate) usually gives a synopsis of the weekly reading, which is further divided into seven smaller sections. Members of the congregation or family of a bar/bat mitzvah are honored by receiving an aliyah (going up) to recite blessings before and after each section is read, or, in rare occasions, to read a section themselves. When there is a bar/bat mitzvah, the young man or woman chants the final portion, known as the maftir. Following this, the Torah is usually lifted (hagbah) and redressed (g’lilah). Then a congregant, or the bar/bat mitzvah, chants the haftarah, an additional reading from the Prophets. The same Torah and haftarah portions are read in synagogues all over the world.

The third part of the service is called the musaf, or additional service. It contains concluding prayers and hymns that acknowledge the Jews’ unique relationship with God and praise God’s name, as well as the Kaddish (a mourner’s prayer), and a concluding hymn. After the final song it is customary for Jews to greet each other by saying “shabbat shalom,” (may you be blessed with) a Sabbath of peace and to move to an adjoining room for abundant food and beverage.

And yet it is very difficult to generalize about Jewish worship. Some congregations pray mostly in English, others mostly (if not even exclusively) in Hebrew; some have cantors and choirs who lead (or even sing on behalf of) the congregation, others have song leaders who maximize participation; some are formal, with directions for standing and sitting, while others have worshippers who know the liturgy so well the service unfolds without instructions. Some read or chant on Saturday morning, in Hebrew, the entire scriptural portion assigned for that week (roughly 1/54 of the Pentateuch), while others read a small portion of the several chapters designated for that week; some synagogues have Sabbath worship at which most (if not all) the worshippers walked to the synagogue (to observe the biblical Sabbath prohibitions against “work”), while others have Sabbath worship in which nearly everyone has left a car in the synagogue parking lot.

Despite this variety—and generally the larger the community, the more diversity—there are some commonalities. More Jews attend synagogues, whether Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, or Reform, on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) than on any other occasion. The equivalent of a “Christmas and Easter” Christian are the (derisive) terms High Holiday or Twice-a-Year Jew, reserved for those Jews who attend the synagogue only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews feel an obligation to pray weekly (some even daily), but whether the worshippers come weekly or only to a few Sabbath worship services each year, every synagogue places weekly Sabbath worship (Friday evening and Saturday morning) alongside the High Holidays in importance. In most American synagogues the rabbi preaches his or her “major” (formal) sermons on the High Holidays and at least one sermon (less formal) on the Sabbath.

The centrality of the Torah is nearly universal in American synagogues. Bar mitzvah (boys) and bat mitzvah (girls) are the occasions when Jews first read from the Torah. Whether all or only part of the weekly assigned portion is read or chanted during the worship services, the rituals surrounding the removing of the Torah from the ark, the passing of the scroll from person to person (often from grandparent to parent to child), the parading of the Torah around the congregation, the touching of the Torah by worshippers as it passes, the removal of the cover and (later) returning the scroll to its cover, the calling of worshippers to the pulpit to participate in the Torah reading or the blessings surrounding the reading, the actual reading or chanting, the lifting of the scroll in the air following the reading, the return of the Torah to the ark, are familiar to a worshipper no matter which synagogue he or she attends. And in virtually every synagogue in America the assigned Torah portion is read (at least in part) during the Sabbath morning service.

The variety of prayer books found in American synagogues is large. In Washington, D.C., each of the three Reform synagogues uses a different prayer book for Sabbath worship, while in Columbus, Ohio, each of the three Orthodox synagogues uses a different prayer book (they use the Hebrew name for prayer book, siddur) for Sabbath worship. The Conservative and Reconstructionist movements are more uniform in their liturgical texts, but not every congregation will have the latest (revised) edition of their favorite prayer book, and in these synagogues too there will be different books in use. Although the structure of the prayer service is generally the same (the prayers, whether in Hebrew, in a literal English translation, or in a free English rendition generally follow in the same order, whether in full or in an abridged version, whether sung by a cantor, a choir, the congregation, or just read by the worship leader or congregation) from synagogue to synagogue and book to book, the differences are often so great that a Jew who worships regularly in one branch will sometimes be quite confused with a strange book in another branch or sector of Judaism.

Holidays and Life-cycle Ceremonies

In addition to some commonality amidst mu...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter One. What is American Judaism?
• Chapter Two. Beliefs, Festivals, and Life-cycle Events
• Chapter Three. A History of Judaism in America
• Chapter Four. Institutions, Organizations, and American Jewish Religious Activity
• Chapter Five. The Synagogue
• Chapter Six. The Future of American Judaism
• Chapter Seven. Select Profiles of Judaic Thinkers in America
• Chapter Eight. The Retrieval of Tradition
• Notes
• Glossary
• Selected Further Reading
• Electronic Resources
• Index