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Development and Changes in Religious Institutions
In an earlier commentator I presented a brief outline of the growth of the Reform Movement in the United States. With the three million immigrants that arrived between 1880 and 1924, there were new forms of Judaism developing. Solomon Schechter was the leading rabbi and scholar of the Conservative Movement. In 1902, he established an extensive library and teacher training program at the Jewish Theological Seminary, JTS.

This became the training ground for the Rabbinic program to train rabbis for the new world. It was also a reaction to what was created by the Reform Movement at Hebrew Union College. This was soon followed by the United Synagogue of America in 1913 (USY). The Conservative Movement recognized the end of ghetto and shtetl Judaism and accepted the ideas of emancipation, separation of church and state, the need for the Americanization of the East European Jews. They believed some changes had to be made based on biblical and rabbinic precedent. “Judaism is an ongoing creative response to new challenges.” They felt it was necessary to conserve knowledge of the past and maintain the practice of historical Judaism. They believed in the validity of halachah. The Conservative Movement was strongly identified with Zionism. “The formation of United Synagogue is to maintain Jewish tradition in its historical continuity, and at the same time, adapt to new knowledge and circumstances in the new world.”

The children of the East European immigrants felt comfortable with the Conservative views and most of their membership came from these traditional Jews.

Mordecai Kaplan and an alternative view of Judaism: Reconstructionism, 1918
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan was originally part of the Conservative Movement. He had a deep understanding of historical Judaism, and he also was trained in secular philosophy. He began to write some radical ideas which led to a completely American form of Judaism that was to influence both Conservative and Reform thinking. He taught for five decades at ITS, confronting generations of Rabbis and challenging them to integrate modern thought with traditional beliefs and practices. He wrote: “Tradition can guide, but not dictate.” In his famous
book, Judaism as a Civilization, he outlined and explained a new way of thinking about Judaism:

“Judaism is an evolving religious civilization.” I cannot give a full understanding of his ideas in this column, so I suggest you get the book. Basically, he believed that Judaism has changed over the course of the centuries, always adapting to new circumstances: the Jewish People constantly are rejuvenating the religious and cultural aspects of Jewish life. He emphasized “godliness” within each person, rather than the traditional idea of a personal God relationship. He had a vision that the synagogue-center would serve all the people of the community. Although there are not many Reconstructionist Synagogues, there are certainly many rabbis in the Conservative and Reform Movements who took some of his ideas and integrated them into the life of their synagogues.

Modern Orthodox Judaism: Yeshiva University
Bernard Revel immigrated to the United States in 1906. He studied at the Elchanan Theological Seminary as well as at New York University, Temple University and Dropsie College. He founded Yeshiva College in 1928. It was the first liberal arts college under Jewish governance which combined a traditional Talmudic education with modern secular studies. He was the President of the college and established the graduate school of Jewish studies, named for him in 1937. He was the first leader to give rabbinic ordination to Orthodox rabbis in the United States. He said the following at the groundbreaking of the school in 1927:

“The Yeshiva will bring to ever-increasing numbers of American Jewish youth the true perspective of historic Judaism in the complex organization of modern life, combining with the learning of the world today those values and ideals which have been the strength of the sustaining faith of our fathers. The Yeshiva will help span the widening chasm between intellectualism and faith in Jewish life and thought. “

Yeshiva University today continues to serve the Jewish and American community with high standards of learning in all areas and has many famous alumni who are rabbis, lawyers, writers, educators, doctors and business leaders.

Reform Judaism Makes More Changes
In 1937 the Reform Rabbis met and established the Columbus Platform. Realizing the need to react and meet the needs of the new immigrants, and the rise of the Conservative and Orthodox movements, they changed some of the ideas that they held as guiding principles in the Pittsburgh Platform. They especially changed their view about Zionism and the need to establish a new Israel. They emphasized the themes of God and Prayer, Torah tradition with ongoing interpretation and Am Yisrael, the unity of the Jewish People. Two important Reform rabbis, Stephen Wise and Abba Hillel Silver, were strong leaders of American Zionism.

World War Il, before and after
The 1930s saw many changes in the United States that strongly affected the Jewish Community, positively and negatively. The economic depression years. the rise of unions, the growth of Jewish institutions to fight anti-Semitism, the rise of synagogues, the strengthening of Zionist Movement due to the circumstances in Europe. How did we respond? During the prewar years 1935-1939, Henrietta Szold established Youth Aliyah villages in Israel to rescue the children from Europe. Our leaders tried to influence the United States government to intercede in Germany, however, there were elements in the State Department that prevented any significant action. There are so many resources in our library about this period for you to read. When we finally entered the war, Jewish soldiers participated in all the armed forces, and a surge of patriotism was everywhere. On a personal note, I remember that time vividly even though I was still in elementary school. Rolling bandages for the Red Cross, ration stamps at the grocery store, uncles and cousins as soldiers, and nightly radio reports. But it wasn’t until the conclusion of the war that the catastrophe of what occurred was there for us to see those images. Almost every family was affected by the loss of relatives.
Being a young person at that time, and at the time of the establishment of Israel in 1948, made a powerful impression on many of us and definitely influenced me to care about the survival of the Jewish People the rest of my life.

Highlights from the 2002 Commentators

• Cantor Nelson arranged for Beth Shafer, a Jewish song writer and singer, to perform in a special musical concert.
• Dr. Nathan Katz, FIU Professor to teach a six week class at Beth Am, World Religion from a Jewish Perspective.
• The Axler Scholar in Residence this year was Dr. Michael Meyer from HUC. His topic for the weekend was Transforming Reform Judaism, Past, Present and for the Future.
• Premiere Evening with Rabbi Bookman and Cantor Nelson of their new recording, “Bless Our Lives”.
• The Best of Jewish Humor program with Dr. Stephen Cohen from Chicago.
• Temple Beth Am L’Dor VaDor Video project, interviews of persons describing the growth of the Temple from the early years to the present.
• Project Tango, new ways to include Spanish articles in the Commentator.
• Shavuot celebrations: Rabbi Simon writes an inspiring description of the festival.
• Doreen Marks wrote a personal letter of thanks for the many years of support for the Concert series. They will no longer be held monthly at Beth Am.
• Crisis in Argentina article report from Rabbi Ruben Saperstein.
• Three Faith Forum Panel Discussion
• Resurgence of Antisemitism, Why? Arthur Teitelbaum presented an update report from ADL.

L’shalom,
Lenore