David Wolpe: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Rabbi, thank you so much for sharing your evening with us. When this synagogue here was also the second home for Adas Israel. When Adas Israel left here, in 1959 I believe [1951— Ed.], Conservative Judaism was the top stream of Judaism in the United States. In the decade or 15 years later, Conservative Judaism lost over 600,000 members. Could you tell us a little bit, in your own words so to speak, why you think that happened and what steps are being taken to recover that attraction that Conservative Judaism once had for American Jewry? Sure, but let me also add one more thing that I was thinking about the capitalism thing, which is that capitalism also has the almost inevitable byproduct of creating tremendous inequalities, and a Jewish ethic has to address that as well. It can’t be capitalism that ignores the fact that it creates an underclass that suffers. So it has to be a capitalist socialism. [laughter] Not that I split differences as a pope and rabbi, but you’re right too. I don’t know if you know that: that’s an old joke about the rabbi who has two people in front of him, and they each make their case. He goes, “You’re right,” and the second one makes a case; “You’re right.” And then his wife says, “Dear, they can’t both be right.” He goes, “You’re right too.” [laughter] So Conservative Judaism, the dilemma that Conservative Judaism had was that it tried to hold on to a serious Jewish observance with modern scholarship that didn’t consistently say, “God told you, you have to do this.” And modern Jewish observance is a very hard thing to hold on to. And so people who had grown up with the traditional observance lived that out, but as the motivational piece of it weakened, so did that lifestyle that would maintain them as Conservative Jews. Unless and until — not only Conservative Judaism by the way, but liberal religion in general — unless and until . . . But the problem is worse in Judaism because it makes greater demands than other religions. Christianity doesn’t make such lifestyle demands on Christians as Judaism does on Jews. Unless and until there is a compelling nonfundamentalist rationale for why I should eat a certain way and why I shouldn’t go out on Saturday, in other words, the ritual behaviors that maintain the cohesion of the tradition. Until that is created — and many philosophers have tried to and many rabbis have tried — till that’s created, Conservative Judaism is going to face a huge uphill battle. That’s the short answer. Even if creation is eternal, this session is not. The two last questions and answers will sum to seven minutes. Yes, please.…

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