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Secular Israel, Secular Diaspora | ||
We suggest that the strength and survivability of the system (or memeplex) of Halakhic Judaism derives from the tightly reinforcing interrelationships between its memes. Although the average Jew may not have been completely orthopractic — Tevya no doubt had too much to do to observe all the mitzvot all the time — by and large the difference between those who observed the commandments and those who didn’t would be quite clear, no matter whether they did so in fear of God, as Shammai would have it (per Finkelstein, p. 13) or as "an intricate symbolism, inculcating love for man. (Finklestein, p. 12)" | ||
The emancipation occasioned by the Enlightenment threatened this system in a catastrophic way. With the spread of the idea (i.e., replication of the meme) that it is possible to pick and choose the degree to which one will adhere to the religion, a thousand paths opened for variations that led, to a large degree, to wholesale exodus from membership in the community. While there are some points of stability — weaker systems such as Modern Orthodoxy and the Conservative and Reform movements, each of which seems to form a self-perpetuating memeplex -- the noted decline of identification of later generations of Diaspora Jews with any form of religious involvement shows that these systems are much weaker than the insular and fully Halakhic original. So when we come to Secular Judaism — that is, attempts to maintain Judaism (or Jewishness) without reference to the supernatural, we have to ask what is the alternative to the self-reinforcing and incredibly co-adapted Halakhic memeplex? What mechanisms could give a secular system a comparable level of survivability and cohesion? Without doubting that the survival of secular Jews qua Jews in Israel might be the topic of significant agonizing among the intelligentsia, anecdotally it does not seem to me much of a concern for the average "adama b’richov." What is secular Judaism in Israel? An Israeli (Hadary, 1999) says |
From The Challenge of Secular Judaism (Surey, 1999) This study is the result of some academic study as well as a Survey with fifty [British] Secular Jewish contacts... According to The Economist (February 1996: 143-144), the composition of British Jewry, by self-designation, is 9% Strictly Orthodox, 31% Traditional, 15% Progressive, 18% "Just Jewish", and 26% Secular. Stephen Brook claims in his book "The Club" that 100,000 of 300,000 U.K. Jews have never had any formal affiliation. | |
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Secular Judaism is the scion of an illustrious, ages-long civilization. It has embraced the scientific, artistic, and humanitarian insights of modernity. Modern secular Judaism is the legal heir to the entire tradition, the guardian of its continuing development in the future. We need to take Judaic culture back now because it is ours. We need to reassert our natural and historic leadership through a re-valorization of the qualities that early Zionism made great. We need to put a pluralistic, humanistic Judaism in place again. In rejecting fundamentalism, we transvalue Judaism--its beliefs, customs, ideals, standards, its very nature. | ||
What is secular Judaism in the Diaspora? A keen observer (Mattingly,1996; a Christian looking to make converts) says: | ||
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What is Secular Judaism ? At its most basic level it is being Jewish without Judaism. (Jewish Journal of Sociology 19:2 December 1977:185-196 ) According to Israel Finestein: "to desire to remain distinctively and discernibly Jewish whilst not holding to religious beliefs".(Jewish Journal of Sociology 1977: 187) It tends to be "Pragmatic and Sociable", wanting the best of both the Jewish and cosmopolitan worlds. … It is born out of a level of discontent with Jewish Establishment'…Secular Judaism is opposed to the exclusivity and paternalism of the Jewish community, but is more anti-clerical, than indifferent or alienated, and accuses the Rabbi's of offering a "paediatric faith" void of individual responsibility. (Judaism Today 5 Autumn 1996: Editorial) Within the world-view of Secular Jews "Individual Choice" is paramount…. Steven M Cohen includes amongst the traits of Secular Jews the rejection of a "congregational mentality" … in the area of religion they adhere only to Prophetic calls for social reform. … secular Jewishness is defined negatively, through an absence of something, whilst the historic Jewish identity was defined positively, the whole enterprise of Jewish secular culture suffers from a basic weakness. | ||
The last comment is the crux of the matter: "secular Jewishness is defined negatively, through an absence of something, whilst the historic Jewish identity was defined positively." In memetic terms, Israelis have replaced the Halakhic memeplex with one that allows more freedom of variation and diversity. The memes that define and reinforce secular Judaism in Israel are rooted in education and popular culture. When the poet Nathan Zach speaks of entering a café in which there are two men, one fat and one thin7, a secular Israeli is likely8 to recall the cattle in Pharaoh’s dream; this is much less likely in the Diaspora. Multiplied by hundreds of similar cultural references in shop windows, advertising, newspapers, and the land itself, Israelis never need to ask themselves if they are Jews. |
From a book on Secular Jewish Identity (Silver, 1998, p. 47) Zionism's most concrete goals have been achieved... But Zionism as the Jewish response to modernity is a failure. Havenism... is currently of limited use... an insurance policy, however treasured, is hardly an ideology and even less a culture... only a small portion of Diaspora Jewry is nourished by Israeli culture. | |
Interestingly, the unity of secular Israelis is founded on Biblical heroic themes and not, as Ha’Am would have had it9 on the prophets, or as Hartman would suggest (Hartman, 2000, p. 24), on Maimonides and the Talmud. Yet secular Jews in the Diaspora tend to be dismissive of Torah because of its blatant theophanies and such "appalling" stories as the Akeda. (Not that they tend to have much direct knowledge of the later books, or of Talmud.) Secular Jews in the Diaspora recognize Hartman’s question "if a person can live an ethical and fulfilling life outside a Jewish religious framework, what is special about Judaism" (Hartman, 2000, p. 126) as being the central question of their Jewish identity. Hartman’s answer, however, is not theirs. He says "We must never forget that secular Israelis perceive themselves as members of the family of the Jewish people. Their sense of community is not based on a shared faith but on the social bond between people who share a common home and memories."(Hartman, 2000, p. 152) In other words, they share a "Jewishness" memeplex. This makes even Hartman’s program of "open[ing] up discussion" to "interpret Judaism in a way that would empower Israelis and Jews throughout the world to reengage with their tradition"(Hartman, 2000, p. 158) as impractical. There is no common language (memeplex) between secular Israelis and the secular Diaspora. As Gary Rosen asks in his (admittedly hostile) review (Rosen, 1997) of Alan Dershowitz’ The Vanishing American Jew, "And what will prompt assimilated Jews to steep themselves in Jewish sources? What secular motive will take the place of the religious stirrings that have sent many Jews back to synagogue or the nostalgia that Dershowitz so clearly feels for his own Orthodox upbringing in Brooklyn? Here Dershowitz shows the incoherence of his cause…" And indeed, when Dershowitz wishes to introduce President Clinton to Judaism he takes him not to a secular community but to a shul: "[President Clinton] immediately accepted… I sat next to him during the service and shared a mahzor … with him for most of the davening."(Dershowitz, 1997, p. 92) | ||