Orthodoxy's New Look

In Jerusalem last week, more than 1,600 rabbis and laymen gathered at the marble-colonnaded Hechal Shlomo (Solomon's Palace) for the first world conference of Orthodox Jewry. Although Orthodoxy is traditionally associated with the ghettos of Europe, more than a fourth of the delegates were American; mingling with rabbis wearing beards and ankle-length frock coats were clean-shaven men in business suits. Conversation turned on how to preserve religious tradition, but there were also lengthy debates on such present-day problems as how to reach out to the religiously alienated Jew.

The mixture of old and new at the conference was an apt symbol of the state of Orthodoxy, the largest of Judaism's three branches. About a quarter of the 5,600,000 Jews in the U.S. are Orthodox. Elsewhere, a Jew who is at all religiously observant will, more often than not, be Orthodox; of Israel's 6,000 synagogues, only nine are nonOrthodox. Far more than Reform or Conservative Judaism, Orthodoxy lives by the letter of God's law. It accepts every word of the Hebrew Bible as divinely inspired and insists that the God-fearing Jew must keep every one of the 613 rules of Halaka--the Scripture-based religious law that forbids servile work on the Sabbath, prohibits the eating of meat and dairy food at the same meal, and prescribes ritual bathing for men and women at certain times. Until a generation ago, Orthodox Jewry was also distinguished by its hostility and indifference to the secular world, and its adherents lived clannishly together in urban ghettos--as the fervent Hasidic sects still do.

Native-Born Leaders. World War II marked the beginning of a change for Orthodoxy. Hitler's holocaust wiped out the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, where most of Orthodoxy's spiritual leaders lived; Orthodox communities elsewhere started to develop more of their own native-born leaders, many of whom were less inhibited by tradition--and were shaken by the fact that thousands of young Jews were abandoning the faith for less rigorous branches of Judaism, or for no faith at all.

The changing outlook of Orthodoxy is most striking in the U.S. Halakic proscriptions have not been abandoned, but the accent on observance has been changed from burdensome don'ts to more appealing dos. For example, youths are no longer simply ordered to observe the Sabbath, but are reminded that by honoring it they will become more faithful Jews. Where Orthodox Jews once limited themselves to a handful of chosen professions--the jewelry or garment business, for example--they now are taking jobs that would have been unthinkable to their grandparents. There is even an Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, with more than 1,000 members.

Kosher Cola. Technology has also helped Orthodoxy adapt Halaka to modern life. Although shaving with a razor is forbidden by a Biblical injunction against cutting the skin, "shearing" is not; on that logic, Orthodox rabbis approved the use of electric shavers--and off went many beards. There have been ingenious efforts to make the dietary laws more acceptable. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has worked with major food companies to place rabbinical stamps of approval on thousands of food goods, from cola to canned beans. Many supermarkets carry such modern kosher delicacies as a "bacon" made from beef rather than forbidden pork, and a soybean-based ice cream, made without milk, which can be eaten as a dessert at meals where there is meat.

Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. claim that their synagogues are beginning to attract thousands of Jews who had previously been indifferent to the faith-- especially young, middle-class couples. An example is Los Angeles' Beth Jacob temple: 44% of the congregation is made up of young professional persons under 38 years of age. More and more Jewish parents are sending their children to Orthodox day schools--which in the U.S. have expanded from 49 elementary and high schools in 1945 to 339 today.

Struggles & Divisions. Many Jews still regard Orthodoxy's insistence on ritual observance as old-fashioned and untenable. In an era of ecumenism, Orthodoxy tends to be proudly self-sufficient, uninterested in religious dialogue with Reform and Conservative Jews, much less with Christianity. Moreover, Orthodoxy has its own internal struggles; many Hasidic Jews regard their more modern Orthodox brethren as heretics and resent any effort to abandon the cultural traditions of Old Europe.

This division was reflected at the Jerusalem conference, which was bitterly opposed by a minority of right-wing Orthodox Jews who foresaw it as an at tempt to water down Halaka. Israel's chief rabbis, who endorsed the conference, even received threatening messages--forcing the sessions to be held under police guard. While firmly denying any intention of diluting the law, conference leaders insisted on the need for further enhancing Orthodoxy's appeal to all Jewry. At the session's end, the delegates created a permanent committee to coordinate further Orthodox efforts to make tradition compatible with contemporary life.

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