The Future of Orthodoxy: A Political Appraisal
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger is Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at Wagner College in Staten Island, where he also serves as Campus Rabbi. This article appears in issue 25 of Conversations,the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
In assessing the future of Orthodoxy, it is important to remember we are considering only 10 percent of the American Jewish population as of the latest American Jewish census.[1] Orthodoxy is no larger than it was 15 years ago at last official count.[2] The only historical antecedent that American Jewry has in terms of assimilation and the rise of modern Jewish denominations in a Western country was pre-War Germany. Orthodoxy was, at best, only between 10 and 20 percent of the German Jewish population.[3] Therefore, when discussing Orthodoxy’s place in modern, pluralistic Jewry, we are facing a minority within a minority. Read more
A Modern Orthodox Approach to Interfaith Dialogue
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger is Assistant Professor and Director of Urban Programs in the Department of Government and Politics at Wagner College, and serves as Campus Rabbi of the College Chaplaincy. He is founding Co-Chair of the Faith and Public Policy Roundtable.
In 1964, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Soloveitchik (the Rav), the formative intellectual leader of postwar American Modern Orthodoxy, wrote that Jewish-Christian interfaith relations "must be outer-directed and related to the secular orders with which men of faith come face to face. In the secular sphere, we may discuss positions to be taken, ideas to be evolved, and plans to be formulated. Read more