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Welcome to our blog

Monday, December 8 2008

Shalom, and welcome to our new blog. I hope to use this blog to share my thinking on a variety of topics, and to elicit your responses, comments, questions.

I want to begin by describing why I established the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, in October 2007. From 1969 through 2007, I had the wonderful privilege of serving as rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, the historic Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City (founded 1654). During those years, I also served in many communal capacities--as President of the Rabbinical Council of America; President of the Rabbic Alumni of Yeshiva University; Chairman of the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of the Jewish National Fund; President of the Commission on Synagogue Relations of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies; and as officer and board member of many communal organizations. I believed that Orthodox Judaism had an important message for all Jews--and for all humanity. I believed that many Orthodox Jews shared this vision.

As years passed, though, I became increasingly troubled by the growing narrowness within Orthodoxy; the rise of extemism and fundamentalism; the disengagement from the non-Orthodox Jewish community and from non-Jewish society as a whole. Orthodoxy was slipping into a sect-like orientation, rather than seeing itself as a world religion. Orthodoxy was becoming more conformist--in thought, behavior and dress. An authoritarianism arose that de-legitimitized views not "acceptable" to the self-appointed thought-police. 

Various efforts to bolster modern Orthodoxy did not result in grand success. The pendulum had certainly shifted "to the right". While this shift has resulted in some positive things, it has also resulted in many negative things. I asked myself: when I must face the Master of the Universe in 120 years, He will ask me what I did to help keep Orthodox Judaism on an even keel, to help Jews experience Orthodoxy as an intellectually vibrant, compassionate and inclusive world religion. These questions nagged at me with ever greater pressure when I saw how poorly the Orthodox rabbinate was dealing with the issue of conversion to Judaism, the agunah issue and so many other issues of vital importance. 

I decided to establish the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals as a vehicle for creating a counter-balance to the growing narrowness and extremism within Orthodoxy. Through our website and journal, Conversations, we publish articles that expand the framework for thought and discussion within the Orthodox community. We want people to feel that they have a right--and responsibility--to voice their opinions. We want to foster open and responsible discussion on a wide range of issues, and to combat the authoritarianism that has gained so much ground in our community.

The Institute has been a catalyst for the establishment of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss and me. Our goal is to bring together Orthodox rabbis from throughout the world, to empower local rabbis, to maintain "safe space" where rabbis can voice opinions honestly and without fear of ostracism.  We have about 150 rabbis in our group, and we continue to grow. We have made important connections with fellow rabbis in Israel who share our concerns.

The Institute has established a University Network to serve as a resource for university students. Our Members Forum provides a "safe space" for serious discussion among Institute members. We are hoping to launch a serious publication program, that will include books and educational materials.

I believe there are many thousands--even hundreds of thousands--of individuals who believe in a vibrant, creative Orthodox Judaism. Yet, for reasons to be explored another time, they have not come together as a confident force that can reshape the direction of contemporary Orthodoxy. I am hoping that the Institute will grow in membership and in financial resources, so that it can serve as a meaningful and positive influence in the unfolding of Judaism's future.

So far, I am pleased with the positive steps we have taken and with the enthusiastic support and commitment of so many individuals from throughout the world. But we have a very long way to go.

I invite readers to share their ideas and ideals, how they think we can move ahead in developing an Orthodox Judaism which is intellectually vibrant, compassionate and inclusive. I look forward to hearing from you, and learning from you.

mikewinddale's picture
mikewinddale, December 11, 2008 - 10:38am
For about the first two years of baal teshuva-ing, my entire impression of Jewish Orthodoxy was Hirschian; I learned mostly Ravs Hirsch and J. H. Hertz and Isidore Epstein, along with a few assorted American Modern Orthodox rabbis. You can imagine how I felt when I discovered that what I had considered Orthodoxy par excellence, was in actuality but a tiny beleaguered sect within Orthodoxy. I hardly think I need to say more. Rabbi Angel: hazak v'amitz!
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RDAltabet's picture
RDAltabet, December 18, 2008 - 11:00am
Rabbi Angel raises some good questions in this week's Angel for Shabbat Vayesheb. He not only sees the crisis for Jewish philanthropy but recognizes the great opportunity in crisis to transform for the better. The current system has become overly dependent on large donors to the detriment of the community. The reasons remind us that too businesslike an approach can have unintended consequences. It is so much more efficient to target those large donors and so horribly inefficient to target the small donors. As a community, we then lose contact with those without the wherewithal for large contributions. Further, since the young are frequently not yet capable of large donations we lose touch with them as well; as they age we have not fostered the habits of giving. Education comes not only from our schools and study sessions, but from the examples we set and the messages we send by engagement of everyone in the community. Rabbi Angel relates in this context the lessons of the donations raised for the Mishkan. Moses may have been “inefficient,” but his choice shows why Moses was Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher), by example as well as in his discourses. We need to return to this model, like my memories of the 1950s (as a youngster then I can’t vouch for accuracy, but I can vouch for the lesson) when we still solicited from all. I can recall door-to-door solicitations of even a few coins when that is all anyone had. From Gittin 7b, we learn, “Mar Zutra said: Even a poor man who himself subsists on charity should give charity.” But we as a community, not only have the obligation to collect money, but also the obligation to create the opportunity for all, regardless of circumstances, to fulfill their obligations. We especially have that pedagogic obligation for our young adults, newly in the workforce, to engage them in the communities work so that as said in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” “The unprecedented ponzi scheme,” as Rabbi Angel describes it, provides one impetus to action, and concurrently we have seen from the recent Presidential election campaign the effectiveness of new internet technology in reaching out to both the young and the less well off. It is time to use this for the Jewish Community. We also need to rationalize the bewildering number of Jewish organizations soliciting though a collective solicitation approach, the original theory behind UJA (and the old Federation of Jewish Philanthropies). This also requires more unity among diverse Jewish groups for the good of Klal Yisrael, subject that Rabbi Angel has discussed extensively. Let’s see how we can make Rabbi Angels Shabbat observations a call to action for the entire Jewish Community.
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jbarach's picture
jbarach, January 13, 2009 - 11:23am
Hello All. I am looking for a Rabbi in Los Angeles that embraces the ideals I find here and at IRF. My girlfriend (a buddhist) and I have been searching for a Rabbi to begin the conversion process for some time, thus far to no avail. Can someone please reccommend a Rabbi in the area, one "who will promote an intellectually vibrant, com­passionate and inclusive Orthodoxy—one that will address the issues of our time in an open, nonauthoritarian and halakhically proper manner." Todah and Shalom, Jonathan
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