Letter from America
Written by Ben Rich Tuesday, 20 December 2011
As I packed to return home from the North American Union of Reform Judaism’s Biennial, I struggled to get the words of L’dor v’dor out of my head. Not the traditional rendition you probably know from many a Shabbat service in the UK, but a haunting, piano-led English/Hebrew version performed by the unfairly hip Josh Nelson, the Biennial’s music director.
Two dozen Brits from seven communities attended the 6000-person conference in Washington DC. When we got together last night for a debrief there was broad agreement that the most striking difference between ourselves and our American sister movement – apart from sheer scale – was the all-pervasive nature of music – in worship, in entertainment, in celebration.
Upwards of 90 per cent of any service was ‘sung’ with the ubiquitous cantors - rather than the numerous rabbis - to the fore. Services veered in style from the NFTY fireside sing-song to sub-operatic concert, but there was never any question that it was music which nourished the soul and provided a powerful spiritualism, albeit one perhaps more akin with a Pentecostal church that a British shul.
And yet, there was much which was familiar: the boisterous youth movement whose apparently impromptu dance routines enlivened the services and drew tuts from the more traditional delegates; the sessions on negotiating broigus between congregational presidents and their clergy; the endless visioning sessions; the small, small congregations lounge.
Like us, the URJ is at somewhat of turning point. This was the final conference of the long serving President, Rabbi Eric Yoffie. A financial crisis has precipitated a major restructuring and a stream of redundancies. The Movement is in the midst of two year strategic review and a new generation of leaders is seeking to establish itself and a fresh voice.
The merest crack revealed the superficiality of the Movement’s self-confidence; four out of five post-B'nei Mitzvah teens go missing from American shuls, never to return; half of US Reform children marry non-Jews; many communities are dying.
But I did find grounds for optimism too. The Reform Jewish narrative in the US is powerfully centred on social justice. There is huge pride in the work of the Religious Action Center, the Movement’s lobbying and social action arm. Marking its 50th anniversary, its offices in downtown Washington were the venue for the drafting of much of the US’s civil rights legislation in the sixties. In the seventies and eighties, the RAC was in the forefront of the campaign for women’s reproductive rights. In the nineties and noughties it has led the parallel battle for LGBT equality.
The success of the RAC is at the core of American Reform Judaism’s own self-image. In the words of Eric Yoffie: “the prophets were not partisan but they were political”, adding “what good are the words of Torah if they do not get under his skin?”
There can be no doubting the effectiveness or the pulling power of the RAC. The undoubted highlight of the conference was the speech of Barack Obama, who came to tell American Reform Jewry that he could never have been President without it. He quoted Torah, told gags about Bar Mitzvahs and gave a ‘call out’ to NFTY to rapturous applause ( it is hard to imagine our own Prime Minister receiving a similar response).
So what did we learn from our American cousins?
First, we should be proud of the values of Reform Judaism, which underpin a liberal approach to religion - a model of tolerance, of reason and of passion for tikkun olam not only within our own Jewish community or within the UK, but the world over.
Second, we share many of the same threats and challenges – there is little new under the sun, but the sheer scale of American Jewry mean the odds are the whatever issues we face there will be precedents from the US from which we can draw wisdom, applying their lessons in a uniquely British way, responding to our own community and its needs.
And third, we have grounds for cautious optimism. There is energy, resource, skills and innovation aplenty across the progressive Jewish world. American Reform Jewry is a powerful counterweight to settler extremism in Israel or fundamentalist growth the world over.
There is a powerful, progressive Jewish voice. It is strong and passionate and motivated and we are part of it. And we should be proud of our Movement’s values and achievements, even as we continue our own Jewish journey.
Photograph of President Obama, courtesy Union for Reform Judaism
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