I suppose the fact that it’s a typically-hurried Erev Shabbos leaves me short on time and long on sarcasm, but… this is news?

The above is the home page title of a JTA article more fully entitled “New study of young Jews finds signs of growing Orthodox clout.” Anyone even vaguely familiar with Orthodox demographics will find this mind-boggling — “this” being that so much money was spent reaching such an obvious conclusion.

The study, which looked at the 1.5 million U.S. Jews between the ages of 18-39, found that Orthodox Jews comprise some 11 percent of all U.S. Jews, and 16 percent of 18-29 year-olds. Among even younger Jews, the percentage of Orthodox is even higher, those behind the report speculate.

Further, the survey found, Orthodox Jews marry at a younger age, have more children and are more Jewishly engaged than their non-Orthodox counterparts.

It became a ritual, part of Shavuos morning in the Holy City. After learning all night, tens of thousands descended upon the Western Wall of the Holy Temple. The entire plaza was packed — Chassidim, Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Charedim, Datiim, all praying according to their own custom.

And then, into this sea of traditional Jewry dove a mixed group from the Masorti (Conservative) movement, mixing men and women in prayer in a manner foreign to Jewish tradition — indisputably for the last 2000 years, and, according to us, even before that. While the vast majority of the assembled ignored them, a small fraction would protest and jeer. A few, disgracefully, even threw pebbles to harrass the group, leading to comparisons with the aim-to-kill rock throwers of the Palestinian Intifada, and an annual PR blitz claiming that Conservative Judaism has no freedom of worship in the Holy Land.

As the Masortim eventually admitted, it was provocation more than prayer. When mixed tour groups pray each Friday night on the plaza, no one has a hostile word, because they are not there to send a message. The Conservatives were trying to say “this, too, is Jewish tradition,” and left it to the 30,000 others to figure out how to say “no, it’s not” in a reasonable way — knowing full well that some would fail.

Eventually, someone proposed a compromise: Robinson’s Arch, a site further down the Western Wall — I believe it is even closer to the Holy of Holies than the main plaza. It was never set up as a site for traditional, separate prayer under the supervision of Orthodox Rabbinic authorities, and therefore was an ideal location for “alternate forms of religious expression.”

Everyone has his or her pet theory by now about the root causes of the Boro Park “incident” a few weeks ago. Whether provoked or not provoked, whether there was large scale participation in the disturbance, or merely a few bad eggs in a wonderful and pious omelet, the fact remains that it was a massive chilul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s Name). There is value in listening to all the theories – perhaps there is some truth in all of them.

I will offer my own speculation – that is all it is – about a contributing cause. There are people in our community who see any kind of secular authority as hostile. In Israel, still in the throes of a kulturkampf that began a century and a half ago in Europe between religious and secular visions of a Jewish future, it is not difficult to understand why new generations continue to propagate the old notions. (I offer this as social commentary, not as justification.) The established brutality of out-of-contol Israeli police (who routinely flout every Western expectation of not venting anger and hatred under the color of authority) allows old ideas to seamlessly merge into new authority figures.

In America, my guess is that Old World notions of us vs. them die hard. For hundreds of years the rule - rather than the exception - was that governments sooner or later turned oppressive, and even non-Jewish neighbors who seemed friendly might eventually turn on you. The deep-seated suspicion and resentment of authority continued, especially in parts of the community that place much emphasis on cultural isolation. These have little opportunity to internalize positive interactions with non-Jews or to study the difference between governments to understand what a wonderful country this is. Sixty years on American shores have not reassured them that when push comes to shove, they are not all going to turn against us. This in turn means a certain amount of contempt where genuine appreciation ought to reign instead. Sometimes that contempt is unleashed, and gets ugly.

If there is any truth to this at all, a recent piece in Haaretz becomes so much more interesting. Shahar Ilan is hardly an admirer of the haredi world, but he reports on what seems to him to be a very changed attitude to the Days of Remembrance for the Shoah and for the fallen heroes of the IDF. Media, he says, have for the most part ceased trying to catch photos of the inevitable haredi who disregards the siren, and continues to defiantly continue to walk. Perhaps readers are simply not interested in matters of religion and state. Or perhaps more haredim have gotten the message of how obscene it is to not join in with everyone else and show respect.

by Jeff Jacoby

Of the five candidates running to succeed Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts, all but one have chosen to send their children to private schools. Nothing wrong with that — millions of parents would move their kids out of public schools tomorrow if they thought they could afford something better. For millions more, government schooling isn’t an option in the first place: They would no sooner let the state decide what their children should learn than they would let it to decide whom they should marry.

Earlier this month, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, the only Republican in the governor’s race, explained in an interview why she and her husband picked a private school for their son and daughter. “I want my kids to be in an environment where they can talk about values,” she said — talk about values, that is, “in a way that you can’t always do in a public school setting.”

It’s hard to see anything objectionable in Healey’s words, but they triggered a broadside from Attorney General Thomas Reilly, a Democrat and the only gubernatorial candidate whose children all attended public schools.

There is more than one story in the Valis case, and I would like to add my own comments to what R’ Yakov Menken wrote.

Story One, the death of an infant:
The first story is the tragic story of a baby’s death. The young father is accused of having killed his baby in a fit of rage over the baby’s crying, while others say the father was playing with his baby, threw the baby up in the air playfully as fathers do, and then tragically lost his grip, with the baby landing hard on the floor, emergency called, baby rushed to the hospital and dying in the emergency room.

Either this case was one of horrible abuse and murder, or it was a tragic, heartbreaking accident. The case is not clear, not yet proven one way or another. Demonstrations demanding the accused’s release were therefore at best premature.

I consider it unlikely that the young father is guilty, but it is certainly possible. I believe that abuse is extremely uncommon in charedi circles, but it does happen. Statistically, babies are FAR more likely to be killed by unrelated males (with Mommy’s boyfriend being by far the most common culprit) but it is not unknown or impossible for a father to kill his own baby, even a father with long payos.

A few weeks ago, a Chassid named Yisroel Valis was arrested in Israel and charged with murdering his infant son. Police claimed physical signs of injury, plus a confession from the father, proved his guilt — allegedly the baby had weak neck muscles and other developmental issues, and police say the father could not tolerate his son’s “defects.” Widespread Orthodox demonstrations protested Valis’ innocence, nonetheless.

Thanks to the demonstrations, we were treated to an incredible barrage of anti-Orthodox vitriol. The basic line was that “the Orthodox want a child killer released,” despite the statements from various Rabbis that, simply put, they did not believe he was a killer. What makes the slander especially outrageous is that no credible source doubts the incredible value and love of children in the Orthodox community.

Newspapers confidently informed us recently that Rav Yosef Sholom Elyashiv and Rav Chayim Kanievsky, two of the greatest Torah scholars alive today, had issued a “psak,” a “halachic ruling” that Valis was innocent.

In our forums, one reader posted what actually appeared on walls:

This is a story about faith meeting disloyalty. It has very little to do with Judas, though.

For many centuries, the accepted New Testament account meant that Judas was a symbol of terrible things, like betrayal and treachery. You know, craven, money-grubbing Jews. The recent translation of a second century document referred to as the Gospel of Judas stands centuries of tradition on its head. According to this ancient work, Judas was a good guy, who would bear the burden of condemnation and vilification by a world that would not understand that he was faithfully facilitating the Will of G-d.

That sent millions of Christians into a quandary. Churches are hemorrhaging from an exodus of the formerly faithful. Having learned that a treasured part of their tradition has been upended, they have quickly moved to question anything and everything. Theologians are scrambling to find a place in which they can hunker down and lick their wounds after a hasty retreat from previously held positions. The Vatican is in a state of pontifical panic.

Well, no, actually.

With regret, we must share condolences with:

The Herzberg family, on the passing of Arthur Herzberg a”h.

Jonathan Rosenblum and family, on the passing of his father, Paul Rosenblum, a”h.

Rabbi Joel Feldman and family, on the passing of his wife, the family’s mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Shoshana, a”h. She was the sister-in-law of our writer, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman.

By Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

It is almost exactly one week after the chilul Hashem in Boro Park where fires were set in the streets and a police car was torched after a respected 75-year-old man was roughly treated by police officers while being issued a summons.

I spent this past Shabbos in Boro Park celebrating a simcha in our extended family. Walking the streets and enjoying the tranquility of Shabbos in a predominantly Shomer Shabbos neighborhood, it was hard to imagine that such mayhem occurred in those streets just a few days past. Over the course of Shabbos, I spoke to many people who were in the vicinity during the melee. The vast majority of adults spoke of their horror and disgust at what happened. Several people told me that they found it to be the most embarrassing experience of their lives.

If charedi Yiddishkeit was a product, I would suggest that we took a terrible body blow to our marketing campaign (which we refer to as our kiruv movement) as a result of the events of the past Tuesday. Don’t believe me? Speak to anyone who works with or interacts with secular Jews or Gentiles and ask them how they enjoyed fielding questions about what happened in Boro Park last week.

Recent comments questioned why it is worthwhile to discuss the Conservative movement, and why the various Cross-Currents writers seem to be spending so much time on the topic.

To answer the second question first, Cross-Currents finds itself, in Rabbi Adlerstein’s words, at the “intersection between the timeless flow of authentic Torah thought, and the ebb and tide of current affairs.” So what we’re going to talk about often depends upon the news of the day. The grand total of posts in February discussing Conservative Judaism? Zero. In January? One — a response to Rabbi Neil Gilman’s speech at the United Synagogue convention. In the past month, on the other hand, they’ve announced a non-decision on homosexual ordination and selected a non-theologian to head the theological seminary. That, plus two articles from lay leaders declaring the movement has no future — one based upon sociological observation, and the latter, discussed herein, based upon its contradictory positions on basic issues in Jewish thought — and, barring a decision to ignore them, we find much to discuss.

Recently, I was invited to write for a local journal serving the Orthodox community. I knew immediately that whatever I wrote about, I wouldn’t be re-editing my thoughts from CC about Conservative Judaism. Although it is clear that leading figures in the Conservative movement feel otherwise, I do not believe that the foibles of other movements are worthy of much internal discussion.

Cross-Currents, however, is not an internal site, and that is why such discussions are worthwhile here. We have many readers and commenters affiliated with the liberal movements, interested in what we have to say. Yes, I feel that the Conservative movement is failing overall. But no, I don’t think that means we have nothing to say to Jews affiliated with Conservative synagogues. We are not rallying the troops, but provoking discussions with the very people to whom these discussions are most relevant.

The Forward reports:

Two sources familiar with the search for the next chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America told the Forward that the choice will be Stanford University professor Arnold Eisen, a leading expert on Jewish identity.

Eisen, a professor of religious studies, has written a number of books on the future of American Judaism, including the 2000 book “The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America,” which was co-written with Steven Cohen, an associate professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The book used survey data to argue that American Jews increasingly see religious identity as an individual matter, and opt to craft their own religious practices and identities, rather than depend on rabbinic authorities.

So a non-Rabbi, who, as an expert on Jewish identity, thinks that Rabbis are becoming less and less relevant, is going to be in charge of creating the next generation of Conservative Rabbis.

As noted by Rav Yitzchok Adlerstein:

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, a respected educator and public figure, said it all.

Quinoa [pronounced KEEN-wah] looks like a grain, but comes from a plant related to spinach.

Is Quinoa Kosher for Passover? The Star-K says yes; the Eidah HaChareidis says no [that article since archived here]. According to the latter article, the Chicago Rabbinical Council also says it is KFP.

The reason the Eidah prohibits it, says the article, is because “quinoa is included in the gezeiroh of kitniyos on Pesach for Ashkenazi Jewry.” There is a decree applied 1000 years ago by Ashkenazic Rabbis, to refrain from kitniyos, various types of legumes, beans, etc., on the grounds that they either can be confused with or can arrive mixed with actual grain products. So everyone agrees that Sephardic Jewry can eat Quinoa like any other kitniyos (sorry, to Sephardic Jewry, kitniyot), because the Sephardic world never had such a decree.

Rabbi Tzvi Rosen’s article calls our attention to Igros Moshe O.C. Vol. 3, 63. In that teshuvah, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l says that “there is nothing in this thing [the decree] except that which is explained [in writing] that they were accustomed to prohibit, and also that which is known and publicized.” So when a previously unknown plant — certainly one unrelated to legumes — is discovered, you don’t add it to the prohibition. [Note that according to Reb Moshe zt"l, it also seems that peanuts shouldn't be considered kitniyos, although to the best of my knowledge they are almost universally avoided by Ashkenazim on Pesach.]

The [London] Jewish Chronicle offered several participant reports about the recent conference in Spain. AP had a brief item about it, but there has not been much depth coverage of this fascinating event.

Minimally, we now know what both religions share in common: spritual leaders who speak too long.
[Thanks to Martin Brody, Los Angeles]

As I stepped into the enormous lobby of the Alcora Hotel in Seville, I was met by a cacophony of multilingual greetings, handshakes and embraces. The Second World Congress of Rabbis and Imams was about to start and participants from across the world in a variety of religious garb were renewing their acquaintance around the giant fountain.

I had been fortunate to attend last year s, inaugural event in Brussels, organised, as was last month’s, by Hommes de Parole, an international humanitarian foundation. Ar-ound 100 rabbis and imams had gathered on this occasion in Spain, along with interfaith activists, academics and directors of NGOs (non-governmental organisations).

Israel National News ran a similar story to the one on JPost that Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Katz referenced, but under the far more fitting title, “Study: Religious Girls More Comfortable With Their Bodies.” It should be a shock, but unfortunately is hardly unexpected, to find a JPost editor finding an extremely negative title with which to spin an article describing superior health in the Orthodox community.

Not so, however, when it comes to prayer, with another JPost article called “Attendance at religious services may increase life expectancy.”

Weekly attendance at religious services can add up to three years to your life, a new US medical study has found.

Dr. Daniel Hall, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the author of the study published in the March-April issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, compared the impact of regular exercise, statin therapy and religious attendance on life expectancy, and found that each accounted for an additional two to five years of life.

In the Spring 2006 issue of Reform Judaism Magazine, there is an article of particular interest to me because it is about my own father, Rabbi Nachman Bulman, of blessed memory.

The article is by David Ellenson, the president of Hebrew Union College–the Reform rabbinical seminary. He is from Newport News, VA — a city I remember with great affection from my own childhood. My father was the rabbi of the Orthodox shul there when I was a little girl.

I am particularly indebted to Menachem Butler and his American Jewish History blog, without which I never would have known about this amazing article. It was featured in his March 28 blog entry, entitled “Growing Up in Newport News,” which was sent to me by several friends.

R’ Bulman was one of the founders of NCSY and won the hearts and minds of many young Jews back to the Torah of their grandparents. But David Ellenson was not one of his success stories. Indeed, my father might well have been distressed by what became of that young boy he once taught. A Reform rabbi? The head of all the Reform rabbis?! No, that was not my father’s dream for his pupil.

Last night, the religious, Jewish community of Boro Park came out in droves to protest the alleged mistreatment of an elder Jew by the local police. The protestors believed that the police had been unjustifiably physical and assertive against an unthreatening 75 year old. The authorities assert that the police did nothing improper, and in any event, the elder man had violated the law, and had acted in an uncooperative and belligerent manner.

Not long ago, the religious community of Lakewood, New Jersey responded in similar public protest when word spread that an elder rabbi had been physically mistreated by local police. There, too, the authorities maintain that the police, responding to a traffic violation, acted in accordance with proper police protocol. The Lakewood community, led by leading local rabbis, nevertheless, held an organized march to the Lakewood police station, seeking to ensure that the police mistreatment not be ignored, and certainly not be repeated.

As a young boy, not yet in high school, I often participated in local rallies in support of Soviet Jewry. Just a bar mitzva boy, I attended rallies in support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. But then I enrolled in a yeshiva high school. Though the plight of Soviet Jewry had yet to be remedied, while in high school my participation in rallies subsided. The rabbis taught me that public protest is not the proper practice of Jews in a foreign land and while under gentile rule. I was advised that the mesorah, the tradition, of Torah Judaism is that in the era of golus, exile, we Jews employ alternative ways of making our case to the powers that be, whether friendly country or foe, and that public protests were the failed methods of the uninitiated and less religious. Rather than protesting, I was advised that religious Jews seek out the authorities privately, and behind the scenes plead the case of our community and bretheren . Barter, negotiate, pray and provide assistance, but refrain from raising a fist in protest against a gentile power, whether it be against a host country or another. Nuanced distinctions among types of rallies and gatherings may occassionally be noted, but the mesorah of silence has dominated the practice of most of the Torah community.

I have always borne a nagging concern that the failure to protest the suffering of others might reflect, or generate, a diminished sense of concern regarding the plight of fellow Jews. In their day to day lives, however, many of the very rabbis from whom I learned this mesorah of silence exhibited a greater degree of personal love and concern for other Jews than I ever observed of others. But for the students who refrain from protest because they are so guided, I have feared that they must experience by their silence a dimunition in their love and concern for others. Unless, of course, they assume other compensatory roles to express their concern.

As a follow-up to Shira Schmidt’s post about religious girls, weight, and self-esteem:

In one area I think we do a lot better than the non-Jewish world, and that has to do with social expectations in high school. Stephanie Wellen Levine, a non-Orthodox journalist, spent a year studying high school girls in Crown Heights (Lubavitch-town) and found that they had nothing like the cattiness and cliquishness of high school girls she knew in the non-Orthodox or non-Jewish schools. She reported that most of the girls did care about clothes but to a much lesser extent than in the public school she herself had attended. She also found that the heavy girls were just as socially popular and accepted as the thin girls—again, unlike the situation in non-Jewish schools.

What she found in Crown Heights squares with my own experiences teaching in a girls’ high school in Miami—not Lubavitch but of course Orthodox. The girls’ popularity and happiness and confidence do not seem related to how thin or heavy they are. On the other hand, everyone would rather be thin, that’s a fact.

Among girls and women, in my community at least, thinness is not much of a social issue, and Baruch Hashem for that. Most girls do try to look nice and are fashion-conscious, but I’m proud that these external factors count for relatively little socially, and that most of the girls care more about character and higher values.

Everything about Chovevei Torah’s hosting of a group of cardinals to its beit midrash was appalling, wrong, and dangerous. Everything other than receiving them with warmth and dignity, and recognizing some of the important changes that many Christian groups have made in their dealings with Jews.

Don’t get me wrong. I have clocked more hours of close dealings with members of other faiths than most. I have published laudatory pieces about Nostra Aetate, and the past and present Popes, pieces that were well received in Catholic circles. I can proudly point to many Christians as exemplary people and personal friends. Their growth through their deep desire to do the Will of G-d is manifest. I do not believe that all non-Jews hate Jews. I welcome non-Jews often to my home, and am proud to showcase the beauty of a Torah lifestyle to them. All the while, I firmly and unhesitatingly reject major planks of their religious platform. Nonetheless, I am more than impressed by the real quest for connection to G-d that I have found in many of the people with whom I meet in my capacity as a liaison with other faith groups.

A few years ago, I was asked by the Israeli Consulate to accompany a group of evangelical ministers to Israel. Because of the very deep convictions of the ministers, the group sponsors thought it preferable to send an Orthodox rabbi than a Reform one. On matters really close to their hearts – Divine revelation, prophecy, the divinity of the Bible – they would share a common vocabulary only with a traditional Jew.

I sought the advice of a great Torah sage. His advice was predictably sagacious. Cultivating the friendship of non-Jews friendly to Israel was important, he said, but you must be careful not to do anything that detracts from our intense pride in being Jewish.

7 bNissan
The article “Thin is not a mitzvah for religious girls” appeared in the Jerusalem Post April 2 (by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, an observant woman herself). Probably someone other than the reporter gave it a misleading title, giving the impression that religious girls tend to be or like to be fat. But the actual article reported on a study emanating from Haifa University that was quite complimentary to the national religious sector, with the researchers finding that

The more religious the girl, the less her drive for thinness, the higher her perceived self-esteem,

and

observant girls are taught to internalize traditional values such as modesty and simplicity rather than beauty and appearance. “Jewish tradition praises internal characteristics and traditional principles and not beauty,” said [Prof] Letzer. “Instead, religious girls focus on a strict lifestyle and observance of the commandments.”

6 bNissan
If you saw the following headline in the Jerusalem Post, what do you think the article would say?
(Don’t go and look at the article yet; that’s not fair.)

“Thin is not a mitzvah for religious girls”

In my next posting I will explain why I thought this is worth a comment. But first I want to see what the headline conjures up in your minds. Maybe even write a short imaginary article that would match this title.

Another interesting outcome of the Israeli elections: a chareidi party is now the third largest in Israel (tied with Likud), with the chareidi faction quite close to Labor in size. All told, the number of observant Knesset representatives will be 31 or more, or just over 25%, quite similar to the numbers in 1996.

It is no longer plausible to refer to the Orthodox parties as “special-interest” or “fringe” groups more than any other, even the Likud. The only fringe element of the Orthodox parties is worn on the corners of observant MK’s Tallisos Ketanos.*

One might hope that just as the last Knesset dismantled the Religious Affairs Ministry, this one might reduce the influence of the Education Ministry.

Here is the problem, in a nutshell. There are two national school systems: government, and government religious. No charedi school system is under direct government control — nor would they, in good conscience, put their school systems under the potential influence of the next Shulamit Aloni or Yosef Lapid (two former powerful Knesset members known for their strongly anti-Orthodox views).

During past discussions here and elsewhere, several writers referred to what they perceived as a strict division between the Chareidi and Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist groups, especially in Israel. One commenter said, for example, “Each group is focused on its own issues, and has little interest in, or sympathy for, the other.”

An interesting footnote to that discussion arrived in today’s e-mail, in the form of a special Maos Chittim appeal from Agudath Israel. [Literally, Maos Chittim means "money for wheat"; in modern parlance it is a charitable appeal to support Passover expenses for the poor.] As they have taken great pains to point out in the past, the financial situation of those learning Torah in Israel has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, following extreme cutbacks in support for both yeshivos and families with small children while Bibi Netanyahu was Finance Minister.

So in addition to the regular “Overseas Passover Fund” from Agudath Israel, this year they launched a special appeal, as mentioned above — for the evacuees from Gush Katif.

More people than ever in Agudath Israel’s “core constituency” are in need of funds — and their special appeal, “in keeping with a call from the Gedolei Eretz Yisrael [the leading Torah scholars residing in Israel],” is not for chareidi Kollel students, but for the hard-working residents of Gush Katif now searching for work.

According to the JPost, errors attributing votes to the right parties at several polling stations means that Labor will have only 19 seats in the next Knesset, with one more going to UAL-Ta’al.

Labor’s drop to 19 now hinder’s Kadima’s chances of forming a pro-convergence coalition. A coalition of Kadima, Labor, Meretz, and the Gil Pensioner’s Party would only reach a total of 60 mandates.

This being the case, Olmert now needs at least one religious or right-wing party in order to form a government, and Shas is probably closest to accepting convergence.

History provides a number of examples of ideological movements that flourish briefly and then collapse under the weight of their own internal contradictions. Classical Zionism is one such movement; Conservative Judaism another…

THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT is currently experiencing the same fate as Zionism: a decline brought about by an irreconcilable contradiction at the heart of the movement.

Sociologist Marshall Sklare’s Conservative Judaism: an American Religious Movement charted the remarkable growth of the Conservative Movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s. As late as 1990, the movement could still claim to be the largest denomination among American Jews. In the decade following, however, the movement lost 10% of “market share” (as the sociologists say), declining from 43% to 33% of American Jewry, with no bottom in sight.

The seeds of the decline, however, had been planted long before. Sherwin Pomerantz, a former Midwest regional president of the movement’s congregational arm, conducted a national survey in the late ‘70’s. That study showed, in his words, “the movement had no long-term capacity to replicate itself.”