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Over 50% of the world’s Jews are secular, for whom a return to traditional religion is no longer an option. This is the most talked-about section of the Jewish nation and yet the least targeted in terms of trying to re-interest them in Judaism on any meaningful basis.
We are inundated by titles such as ‘Lost Jews’ and ‘Vanishing Diaspora’ (an excellent book on contemporary Jewish history). The message seems to be that, historically, something dangerous ---- even life-threatening ---- is in the process of happening to the Jewish people.
I do not subscribe to this pessimism. Of course, we are facing new and difficult problems, but then Jews have faced even more serious challenges numerous times in their past. Historically speaking, are we in greater danger today than we were when slaves in Egypt, or after the fall of the First and Second Temples, or decimated after the Bar Kochba uprising, or persecuted by the Inquisition, or slaughtered by pogroms, and last but not least, during the Holocaust?
There have always been reasons why Jews have ‘got lost’, why some have moved in and out of Judaism, in and out of religiosity, in and out of orthodoxy. Today's new phenomenon is twofold.
First, there is massive intermarriage. Secondly, a majority of Jews have little left to help them maintain their identity as Jews, due to a combination of lack of religiosity and Jewish learning, and the absence of community.
This, indeed, is a serious new challenge but I doubt it will mean the end, or even cause a serious reduction in numbers, of the Jewish people. During the first century C.E. there was massive intermarriage which, in the long run, did not hurt either the demographic situation or the strength and development of our culture and civilization.
In our history, there has never been only one Judaism or one form of Orthodoxy, one form of Hasidism, one form of Reform, one form of anything related to Judaism. We Jews have always specialized in diversity and debate. In fact, diversity might be a condition of our 'unity' --- characterized more by disunity than unity. Indeed, one of the most important traditions of our culture is a non-conformity which is a great plus towards creativity.
The Hebrew University historian, Professor Yehuda Bauer, has described Judaism as follows: “Bible is Judaism. Talmud is Judaism. Everyday life is Judaism. Jewish history is Judaism. Jewish poetry is Judaism. Jewish customs are Judaism. Jewish food is Judaism. Jewish jokes are Judaism --- just as religion is Judaism. But you cannot argue that Judaism equals the religious beliefs of Jews; first, because these beliefs were and are different, even mutually contradictory; and second, because religion was and is just one aspect of Jewish existence; today, for many Jews, it is not even that. Judaism, then, is everything that the Jewish people in their very long history have produced. Judaism is Jewish civilization, Judaism is the culture of the Jewish people”.
One of the explanations for Jews relinquishing elements of observance and/or belief in God, as well as some traditions, is the Enlightenment that came with the development of rational philosophy, scientific research, and general scholarship [in the 18th century]. The secular skepticism of the last two centuries has been found more acceptable than the theistic piety of earlier periods. For many, the traditional religious way of life has lost relevance. Today, there is a perception of insult to the innocent victims of the Holocaust in talk of ‘a just God’ or the theology of the prophets.
One of the facts glaring us ---- staring us ---- in the face is that well over 50% of the Jews in the world, including of course Jewry’s main centers in the U.S.A., Israel and Europe, are secular ---- people for whom the concept of God and the keeping of mitzvot [religious commandments] are no longer an option. Yet most of these people consider themselves, culturally and emotionally, Jews. Often they identify, superficially or profoundly, with Jewish traditions and organizations and their feeling of Jewishness runs deep.
This is the largest single section of the Jewish nation today and where most --- though certainly not all --- of the interfaith marriages occur. It is also the most talked-about phenomenon. And yet it is the least targeted section in terms of trying to interest, or re-interest, its members in Judaism on any meaningful basis. It would seem to me that if the Jews who bleat so much about the horror that appears to be facing the Jewish people were to concentrate their minds, efforts and money more on this huge single section of the nation, they might be able to get some results only a few decades hence. In fact, some communities, particularly in North America, and soon in Israel, are addressing exactly this possibility.
A Secular Yeshiva
The definition of the word 'secular' is clear. The connotation is not. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, being 'secular' means to concern oneself with the affairs of the world, not with spiritual or sacred affairs. The connotation includes the feeling that secularists are anti-religious --- which is unfortunately sometimes true. Some cultures consider secular people to be ‘bad’ Jews or ‘bad’ Christians or ‘bad’ Muslims. In some countries, the word is used to describe the state. Turkey, for example, calls itself a ‘secular’ state although most of the Muslims there say they still believe in the Koran and Allah. It is really mixing up ‘secularism’ with ‘pluralism’, (i.e. the state allows any religion to practice),.
The enmity between the religious and the secular is a needless tragedy, similar to the strife between sects within a religion. It need not be so. Most secular people are indifferent to the beliefs of others --- live and let live. Religious belief or belief in a deity should be a personal matter --- that is the essence and backbone of pluralism. I object as much to secular people who are anti-religious as to religious people who despise those who are not religious. All decent people, regardless of their religion or belief, should be treated with dignity. Life in a religious culture does not compel Jews to believe in God according to a specific definition of the divine force or divine role. By the same token, life in a secular culture is not dependent on disbelief in a divine presence, either in this world or in the infinite beyond. In both instances, the decisive factor is the style of life rather than the content of the faith.
There is clearly a problem about transmitting Jewish culture to the next generation of a Jewish community that is very much assimilated to the host nation’s culture and does not teach its children and youngsters anything about their own history and heritage. What distinguishes the English from the French or the Germans or the Spanish is their language, literature, customs and culture. Most secular Jews no longer know their language or learn anything about Jewish literature, customs and traditions. Going through the perfunctory process of bar-mitzvah and bat-mitzvah is irrelevant to adult life if it is not reinforced later on with meaningful education and/or community. It has been said by many wise people that if you do not know where you come from you are akin to a barbarian.
If a secular Jew decides to hold on to his and his family’s identification with Jewish culture and civilization, there are only three possible routes for him:
The first is religious observance --- which we have seen half of Jewry have already rejected.
The second is being part of a community --- which is impractical if you do not belong to a synagogue, Jewish Community Center or other such organization. The development of secular Jewish culture depends on its ability to renew community life by resorting to traditional devices of proven effectiveness.
The third way is education --- to learn the glories of our extensive literature and long history as well as the language, customs and tradition.
The problem with the third route is to teach our culture so that secular people carelate to it, take in its value, and appreciate its depth and beauty. Rarely is it possible for a learned person, steeped in religious beliefs, to transmit that glorious heritage to a secular person. The problem is one of language --- in the widest sense of that word.
If this analysis is correct then one possible solution is to train teachers in our history, traditions, and literature to teach in a ‘language’ that the secular Jew both accepts and understands. This takes a specialized teaching technique.
The core of this approach would be to read the biblical texts as works of literature, of prose and poetry, grammar and philosophy and to teach the role of the Bible in the whole world of Jewish literature. In addition, one should have acquaintance with other parts of our written inheritance, the prophets as literary heroes of narrative works, the Talmud, Midrash, mediaeval and modern literature.
God would be taught as a human creation symbolizing freedom rather than justice. He would be a literary character. As a secular savant has said “Nietzsche is wrong. God is not dead. He lives in the same way as Hamlet and Anna Karenina live”.
To bring this about requires teachers who are familiar with this technique and approach. For this purpose, there is a move afoot in Israel to create the first secular yeshiva which will train a cadre of teachers knowledgeable enough to transmit our culture throughout the secular school system in Israel, which hopefully should excite some students to see the worth of their heritage. [A yeshiva has been till now an institution to train young Jews in the texts and rules of Orthodox Talmudic Judaism, some of the students going on to be ordained as rabbis].
All this will take decades. We will not know whether it has succeeded for a very long time. But if nothing else it will help toward a clarification of the main considerations which have been mentioned above --- and which have not been tackled by the international Jewish community.
It is, of course, hoped that one day there will be a cadre of teachers in many countries who will help to create hosts of knowledgeable Jews. They, in turn, will create communities of like-minded souls who will perform the celebration of our traditions and festivals without which the transmission of any culture or religion is hard to sustain. Exempting oneself from religious observances should impose the self-discipline of an alternative way of implementing Judaism. If you release yourself from halakhic duties [observance of rabbinic law and regulations] you need to impose on yourself an alternative discipline of your own choice.
I predict that out of the challenge of today’s “Vanishing Diaspora” we will yet again rise with something relevant, worthy and creative to keep the tribe going. Religious Jewry, one may be sure, will ensure the continuity of the religious way of life and thought. I am hoping that also the non-religious and secular Jews, who have contributed so much to humanity in general ---- witness the prodigious creative output rewarded by many Nobel prizes ---- and especially through their creation of the State of Israel, will also find the fuel and the energy to keep their own traditions strong and vigorous.
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Reprinted from Judaism Today No. 5, Autumn 1996
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