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Antimodernism and Orthodox Judaism's Heretical Imperative: An American Religious Counterpoint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2020

Zev Eleff  and
Seth Farber
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Abstract

This article argues that the case of religious authority within Orthodox Judaism is an important counterexample to the broader and understudied developments in American religion during the final decades of the twentieth century. Using an array of untapped primary sources and drawing on themes addressed by scholars of American religious history and modern Jewish history, this article demonstrates how Orthodox Jewish elites used “approximational heresies” to police their faith community. In so doing, Orthodox leaders furnished “indicators” of apostasy that were unknown in previous epochs and served to stand in for traditional types that proved otherwise insufficient to counteract new trends in modern life and culture. Orthodox Jewish “antimodernism” was animated by a need to demonstrate what was “in” and what was “out” of bounds as well as by the emergence of a triumphalism that was unique among American faiths. Likewise, the rank-and-file abided because they either agreed with these measures or feared becoming “outsiders.” This outlook contrasts with the attitudes of other religious groups—on the “left” and the “right”—that absorbed a spirit of “inclusiveness” and, therefore, eschewed heresy hunting and the boldness evinced by Orthodox elites during this period. The article concludes that the pervasiveness of this counterculture among the Orthodox Jewish community was so powerful that it, counterintuitively, introduced the strategies of the antimodernists to the American-acculturated, so-called Modern Orthodox community.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , Summer 2020 , pp. 237 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture

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References

Notes

We extend our thanks to David Bashevkin, Menachem Butler, Adam Ferziger, and Jonathan Sarna for reading earlier drafts of this article and offering helpful suggestions. We are also grateful to the editors of the journal and the anonymous referees for their careful review and constructive guidance.

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72 Kotler, Aharon, Mishnat Rebbe Aharon, vol. 4 (Lakewood, NJ: Mekhon Mishnat Rebbe Aharon, 2005), 212–13Google Scholar. See also “Kinus shel Roshei Yeshivot ve-Talmideihen lima'an Haganah al Kevodah shel Torah,” Hapardes 32 (July 1958): 39; and Meler, Shimon Yosef, Ha-Rav mi-Brisk: Toldot Maran Ri”z ha-Levi, vol. 4 (Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2011), 365–70Google Scholar. Kotler's well-publicized attack on college reportedly convinced a handful of young men to drop out. See Dershowitz, Yitzchok, A Living ‘Mishnas Rav Aharon’: The Legacy of Maran Rav Aharon Kotler (Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2005), 155–57Google Scholar. On Kotler's influence on dissuading young women to attend college, see Leslie M. Ginsparg, “Defining Bais Yaakov: A Historical Study of Yeshivish Orthodox Girls High School Education in America, 1963–1984” (PhD diss., New York University, 2009), 227. On the influence of Kotler and his students on Kaplan, see Ginsparg, “Defining Bais Yaakov,” 131. See also Leibowitz, Danielle S. and Gliksman, Devora, Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan: The Founder of the Bais Yaakov Movement in America (Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2016), 424–34Google Scholar; and Finkelman, Yoel, “Haredi Isolation in Changing Environments: A Case Study in Yeshiva Immigration,” Modern Judaism 22 (February 2002): 61–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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80 Avrohom Y. HaCohen, “A Famine in the Land,” Jewish Observer, May–June 1980, 29; Batya Zimmerman, “On Being Beings,” Jewish Observer, November 1984, 34.

81 See Ruth Ben Avraham, “Baale Teshuva in Turbulence,” Jewish Observer, April 1983, 39. For a recent presentation on the curious history of Bais Yaakov, see Seidman, Naomi, Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition (Oxford: Littman Library, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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83 R. Roth, “Beyond the Crossroads,” Jewish Observer, May 1982, 37.

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86 Marshall Sklare, interview with Norman Lamm, February 1977, Box 21, Folder 39, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.

87 See Rodgers, Age of Fracture, 180–220.

88 See “Lecture on ‘Daas Torah,’” Hamevaser, January 11, 1984, 1. On the described challenges facing the Modern Orthodox rabbinate, see Liebman, Charles S., “Extremism as a Religious Norm,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 22 (March 1983): 75–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On a repudiation of a harsh criticism of Da'as Torah within the Modern Orthodox fold, see Kaplan, Lawrence, “Rabbi Isaac Hutner's ‘Daat Torah Perspective’ on the Holocaust: A Critical Analysis,” Tradition 18 (Fall 1980): 235–48Google Scholar; and the letters published in Tradition 21 (Summer 1983): 180–87. Regarding Lamm's frustrations, it is little wonder, then, that he began to rebrand his group as “Centrist Orthodox” in the 1980s. See Lamm, “Some Comments on Centrist Orthodoxy,” 1.

89 Nisson Lipa Alpert and others to Eliezer Bernstein, 19 Kislev 5745. A copy of this text is in our possession. The writer David Singer coined the term RIETS Five. See Singer, David, “A Failure of Halachic ‘Objectivity,’” Sh'ma 15 (May 17, 1985): 108Google Scholar. Initially produced and disseminated as a one-page, mimeographed document, the responsum attracted significant attention and was then published in the RCA's Hebrew journal. See “Teshuvah bi- Inyan Nashim bi-Hakefot,” Ha-Darom 54 (Sivan 1985): 51–53. For a translation, see Eleff, Modern Orthodox Judaism, 379. On the attention the responsum received, see Larry Cohler, “Orthodox Rabbis’ Responsa Condemns Women's Prayer Groups,” Jewish World, February 15, 1985, 2.

90 Riskin, Shlomo, Listening to God: Inspirational Stories for My Grandchildren (New Milford, CT: Maggid, 2010), 193–96Google Scholar.

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92 See Evans, Sara M., “Feminism in the 1980s: Surviving the Backlash,” in Living in the Eighties, ed. Troy, Gil and Cannato, Vincent J. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 85–97Google Scholar.

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95 See Fishman, Sylvia Barack, A Breath of Life: Feminism in the American Jewish Community (New York: Free Press, 1993), 158–68Google Scholar. For two notable exceptions that link feminism and women's prayer, see Cheryl J. Goldberg, “Should Women's Prayer Groups Be RCA Concern?” Jewish World, December 7, 1984, 29; and “Davening with Women,” Jewish World, November 9, 1979, 7.

96 See Larry Cohler, “Women's Davening Group Comes into Its Own, Despite Criticism,” Jewish World, July 13, 1984, 18. For accusations to the contrary, see Dvorah Shurin, “On a Minyan for Women,” Jewish Press, December 24, 1982, 5.

97 On the pivotal role of women and gender in determining the relatively recent fault lines of denominationalism within American Judaism, see Sarna, Jonathan D., “The Debate over Mixed Seating in the American Synagogue,” in The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed, ed. Wertheimer, Jack (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 386Google Scholar.

98 Charles Abrams, “Women behind the Pulpit,” Hamevaser, December 2, 1983, 3.

99 See “Councilwoman Alter Announces First Women's Minyan in Brooklyn,” Jewish Press, December 10, 1982, 11; Susan Rosenbluth, “Orthodox Women's Tefillah Thriving in Teaneck Area,” Jewish Standard, January 27, 1984, 3; and Larry Cohler, “Women's Davening Group Comes into Its Own, Despite Criticism,” Jewish World, July 13, 1984, 18–19.

100 “Union of Orthodox Rabbis Condemns ‘Minyan’ of Women,” Jewish Press, December 24, 1982, 3.

101 See Chernick, Michael, “In Support of Women's Prayer Groups,” Sh'ma 15 (May 17, 1985): 105–8Google Scholar.

102 See Bronspigel, Abba, “Minyan Meyuhadim li-Nashim,” Ha-Darom 54 (Sivan 5745): 52Google Scholar; and Schachter, Zvi, “Tzei Lekha bi-Ikvei ha-Tzon, Beit Yitzhak 17 (1985): 119Google Scholar. Bronspigel's statement connecting women's prayer groups with heresy is drawn from a responsum authored in the 1970s by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. See also Ferziger, Adam S., “Feminism and Heresy: The Construction of a Jewish Metanarrative,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 77 (September 2009): 494–546CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Adler, Rachel, “Innovation and Authority: A Feminist Reading of the ‘Women's Minyan’ Responsum,” in Gender Issues in Jewish Law: Essays and Responsa, ed. Jacob, Walter and Zemer, Moshe (New York: Berghahn, 2001), 3–32Google Scholar.

103 Bronspigel, “Minyan Meyuhadim li-Nashim,” 51–52. In addition, Schachter issued an attack on “Orthodox rabbis espousing anti-Torah views,” presumably the few among the Orthodox rabbinate who supported women's prayer groups. See Schachter, Hershel, “Where to Place the Menorah,” Beit Kotlei Ha-Yeshiva 3 (Kislev 1985): 26Google Scholar. For a Yeshiva University student's response, see Yosef Kanefsky, “Political Publications,” Hamevaser, December 1985, 2.

104 Yaakov Jacobs, Letter to the Editor, Jewish World, March 1, 1985, 4.

105 Soloveitchik often said that he would not censure people publicly, something that would enable both the modernists, on one side, and the antimodernists, on the other, to claim his legacy. On his reluctance to impose his position, see, for example, Joseph B. Soloveitchik to Irving Greenberg, September 29, 1965, Box 56, Folder 20, Papers of Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Widener Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. See also Farber, Seth, “Reproach, Recognition and Respect: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Orthodoxy's Mid-Century Attitude toward Non-Orthodox Denominations,” American Jewish History 89 (June 2001): 193–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Berman, Saul J., “The Approach of the Rav to P'sak and Public Policy,” in Mentor of Generations: Reflections on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, ed. Eleff, Zev (Jersey City, NJ: Ktav, 2008), 61–66Google Scholar. For an important exceptional case in which Soloveitchik issued severe condemnation of colleague Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, calling his Orthodoxy into question, see Singer, David, “Emanuel Rackman: Gadfly of Modern Orthodoxy,” Modern Judaism 28 (May 2008): 134–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

106 In addition to the Riskin memoir and the YU responsum cited previously, see, for example, Judith Rosenbaum, “Oppose Women's Tefillah,” Jewish Standard, February 10, 1984, 3; and Meiselman, Moshe, Jewish Women in Jewish Law (New York: Ktav, 1978), 146, 197, n. 64Google Scholar.

107 Soloveitchik was inconsistent on issuing public policies in formal and informal ways. For example, he never did issue a public ruling on the limits of cooperation with non-Orthodox organizations and participation in the intradenominational Synagogue Council of America. See Louis Bernstein, “The Emergence of the English Speaking Orthodox Rabbinate” (PhD diss., Yeshiva University, 1977), 309–10. Critics of this presumed policy were aware of this. See also Nisson Wolpin, “When There Is a Need for Distinction,” Jewish Observer, May 1985, 7–12. In contrast, Soloveitchik was very clear about his position when addressing Christian missionizing in Israel. See Steven Prystowsky, “Rabbi Soloveitchik Wants Action against Missionary Threat,” The Commentator (December 4, 1963): 1. This article points out that this instance of Soloveitchik issuing a policy and speaking on “modern problems” was a rarity.

108 See, for example, Norma Baumel Joseph, “Letters,” Women's Tefillah Newsletter, August 1985, 4.

109 Gary Rosenblatt, “Religious McCarthyism,” Baltimore Jewish Times, November 22, 1991, 10, 16.

110 See Unterman, Yael, Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar (Jerusalem: Urim, 2009), 298–303Google Scholar. In many cases, the charges of heresy, such as the one involving Leibowitz's lecturing in front of men, were levied by Rabbi Elazar Shach, the head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and foremost leader of Israel's haredi Jews. In addition to his attack on Riskin, Shach issued bans on several of the “heretical” works of Rabbis Joseph Soloveitchik and Adin Steinsaltz. See Eleff, Zev, “Psychohistory and the Imaginary Couch: Diagnosing Historical and Biblical Figures,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80 (March 2012): 116–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Shapiro, Marc B., “Of Books and Bans,” Edah Journal 3 (Elul 2003): 1–16Google Scholar.

111 Greenberg was a veteran target of YU rabbinical faculty members. See Singer, David, “Debating Modern Orthodoxy at Yeshiva College: The Greenberg-Lichtenstein Exchange of 1966,” Modern Judaism 26 (May 2006): 113–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

112 Greenberg, Irving, “The Relationship of Judaism and Christianity: Toward a New Organic Model,” Quarterly Review 4 (Winter 1984): 13–14Google Scholar. See a more developed position in Greenberg, Irving, For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter between Judaism and Christianity (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2004), 145–61Google Scholar.

113 Schachter, “Gidrei Yohsin bi-Umma ha-Yisraelit,” 230–31. Interestingly, when Schachter republished his article in his collected essays, he omitted all references to Greenberg. One should also note that, in the original article, Greenberg's name is never mentioned explicitly. See Schachter, Zvi, Eretz Ha-Zvi (Brooklyn: Flatbush Beth Hamedrosh, 1992), 118–26Google Scholar.

114 See Don Well to Herschel Schachter, April 9, 1987, Rosh Yeshiva Search Committee File, Hebrew Theological College, Skokie, Illinois.

115 See Bernard Rosensweig to Yitzchak Greenberg, May 13, 1987, Box 14, Folder 9, Papers of Rabbi Irving Greenberg. See also Greenberg, For the Sake of Heaven and Earth, 33–35.

116 See Irving Greenberg to Norman Lamm, June 9, 1987, Box 14, Folder 9, Papers of Rabbi Irving Greenberg.

117 See Jonathan Mark, “Modern Orthodox Rabbis Claim Assault from RCA Right Wing,” Jewish Week, July 19, 1990, 29.

118 See Evans, “Feminism in the 1980s,” 94–95. The historian Jonathan Sarna has argued that “Judaism's treatment of women had long been viewed as a test of its ability to parry modernity's challenges.” See Sarna, Jonathan D., American Judaism: A History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 240Google Scholar. For a good comparison between the gender-minded Jewish reformist attitudes in Europe and the United States, see Goldman, Karla, Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 17–37Google Scholar.

119 See Jeff Helmreich, “Rabbinical Supervision,” Jewish World, January 31, 1997, 3; and Norimitsu Onishi, “Reading the Torah, an Orthodox Women's Group Takes on Tradition,” New York Times, February 16, 1997, 43.

120 See Elicia Brown, “The Politics of Prayer,” Jewish Week, January 31, 1997, 14.

121 Reuel Shinnar, “Exclusive Orthodoxy,” Jewish World, February 14, 1997, 8.

122 See Waxman, Chaim I., “Patterns of American Jewish Religious Behavior,” in The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism, ed. Kaplan, Dana Evan (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 112–13Google Scholar.

123 Mordechai Fishman, “RIETS Adult Education Program Finds Itself Entangled in Controversy,” The Commentator, March 18, 1997, 6.

124 See Sarah Breger, “Do 1 Rabba + 2 Rabbis + 1 Yeshiva = A New Denomination?” Moment 35 (December 2010): 38–42, 60–63.

125 See Josh Nathan-Kazis, “Female Rabbis Banned, with Loophole,” Forward, May 7, 2010, 3.

126 See, for example, Daniel Retter, “Open Orthodox Is Openly Unorthodox,” Jewish Press, November 4, 2016, 10; and Yaakov Feitman, “A Window into Open Orthodoxy and How to Close It,” Yated Ne'eman, December 2, 2016, 26.

127 See “Rabbi Avi Weiss Quits Rabbinical Council of America,” Washington Jewish Week, July 2, 2015, 14.

128 See Elizabeth Kratz, “RCBC Draws ‘Boundary Line’ on Women Rabbis,” Jewish Link, February 7, 2019, 8.

129 “A New Era in Jewish History,” CLAL News and Perspectives, n.d.

130 See Hutchison, William R., Religious Pluralism in America: The Contentious History of a Founding Ideal (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 219–40Google Scholar.