MANNA 89 Why TXT Messages are not enough
Written by Michael Wegier Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Three years ago, I returned to England after a twelve-year absence to become Director of Jewish Renewal at the UJIA. I had spent the preceding years mostly in Israel with a three-year stay in the United States in the mid-late nineties. I have thus been privileged to live and work in three great Jewish communities, all of whom are undergoing tremendous changes in both structure and identification.Three years ago, I returned to Englanda fter a twelve-year absence to become Director of Jewish Renewal at the UJIA. I had spent the preceding years mostly in Israel with a three-year stay in the United States in the mid-late nineties. I have thus been privileged to live and work in three great Jewish communities, all of whom are undergoing tremendous changes in both structure and identification.
The British context, and particularly the London one, seems so different from the others. The city is among the most multicultural and diverse in the world. The people, languages, dress and foods that one experiences in this city have created an international environment that is both exciting and challenging for those of us committed to developing our particularistic culture. Recent events serve to highlight the challenge facing London’s citizens.
The multicultural environment means that Judaism in the UKis no longer defined as ‘other’ against white Christianity alone. London comprises such a large number of nationalities, ethnic groups and religions that Judaism is just one of many ‘others’ struggling to be heard. Metaphors such as ‘Mosaic’, ‘Rainbow’ or ‘Melting Pot’ are attempts to label this phenomenon. They fail to do justice to the dynamism and tension that accompany the contemporary context. Outside of major cities, more of a British – English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish – culture may prevail but urban Britain, where most Jews live, looks very different.
The question of ‘continuity’ or ‘survival’ for ethnic/religious minorities in multicultural Britain is beginning to mirror the American experience where Judaism has long been one of many ethnic groups contributing to the American story. Following on from the American Jewish panic at the intermarriage figures that emerged in the early 1990s, the UK community has also placed education at the forefront of its concern. This is the single biggest change that I have noticed in the community. My job is just one outcome of how this concern is addressed by the UJIA. In the American experience, the failure of the community to preserve its ethnic distinctiveness has seen the children of the less committed members of Reform and Conservative families leave Jewish life in droves.
In Britain, the last decade has seen an enormous investment in Jewish day schools. They cater for the types of Jews who would never have attended sectarian schools just one generation ago. As a graduate of a Jewish primary school in the 1970s, I was struck by how few of my United Synagogue friends attended one. We were a small minority. In the non-orthodox sector, the figures were even lower. Today, in many parts of the Jewish community it is now the norm to attend a Jewish primary school. Indeed, for some parents, the motivation to send children to a Jewish school may be less about the content of Jewish education and more about a desire to ensure Jewish friends for their children. They are conscious that ethnicity is waning and they are concerned to strengthen it with a more systematic educational enrichment.
Whatever the motivations might be, the large and still growing number of children in Jewish day schools enables the community to devote both financial and intellectual capital to determining what kind of Jewish world we want to transmit to our children.
The phenomenon of Jewish day schools is a blessing but it may come at a certain cost. Parents provide the foremost influence on their children’s commitment to Jewish living. If Jewish day school leads parents to abrogate their own responsibility to provide a meaningful Jewish home, it is unclear just how effective the schools can be in nurturing a new generation of religiously or culturally committed Jews, as opposed to ethnic ones. The school cannot simply replace the home or the synagogue as the place where ‘Jewish’ happens. Rather, parents must be supported by shuls and schools to resume their rightful role as Jewish mentors for their children.
If the phenomenon of Jewish day schools is one major change in the community, so is the changing role of synagogues. One of the most fascinating developments of our community is the decline of the ‘cathedral’ synagogue with its large, formal, ‘high church’ approach and the steady rise of intimate shul communities both as part of bigger complexes or as stand alone units.
Without wishing to sentimentalise the term ‘community’, which can also be an alienating and judgmental place, I believe that when a shul community works well, it provides an unequalled opportunity for social, educational, religious and cultural relationships to flourish. In the USA, I was inspired by the popular revolts against dull shuls that led to the creation of new minyanim. I am sometimes astonished to hear friends and colleagues complain about dull services which they accept as ‘unchangeable’. We have some outstanding shuls in the UK and need to replicate and adapt these models as a matter of top priority.
The essential American contribution has been to show that a shul must not ‘provide’ for its membership but rather must motivate them to take ownership of the daily activities on both Shabbat and weekdays. The outstanding rabbi of my Conservative shul in Baltimore almost never led davening, the prayers, or layned, read from the Scroll. She only occasionally gave a sermon. Her role was to ensure that we, the membership, were able and enthusiastic to run both prayer services as well as educational, social and charitable projects ourselves. Not every rabbi can or should work in the same way but just as there are many ‘right’ ways so there are many ‘wrong’ ways and it is up to shul members, rabbis and central agencies to work out what is right for their shul.
The ‘transformed’ shul is not an end in itself. Rather is it a crucial stage on the way to a transformed Jewish people. Jewish communities need to produce scholars, ‘text’ people who can interpret the great texts of the Jewish people with new meanings that in turn ‘write the narrative’ of this community. The emergence of textually literate Jews cannot be solely the responsibility of teachers and rabbis, however important their contribution continues to be. Certain sectors of Western Jewry have embraced adult learning in the last decade. Programmes such as Limmud, the Melton mini-school, and lifelong learning programmes at LBC-CJE, are the UK’s important contribution to the worldwide phenomenon.
Adults are acknowledging that their own Jewish upbringing failed to give them certain competencies. Now they are seeking to repair the deficiencies. The difference in the UK since I left has been remarkable. The amount of learning programmes that are available for adults is beyond anything imaginable fifteen years ago. If once, only the most committed Jews engaged in learning, today one finds Jews of all levels of commitment at the study table.
We cannot leave it there. For research into the graduates of the American Melton mini school has not shown significant changes in graduates’ patterns of behaviour. Learning has not led to increased commitment – only to increased learning. So the challenge we have is to move from seasonal adult education towards ongoing and sophisticated learning which transforms the whole community and not simply the inner life of the student.
Beyond that, the great conversation about Jewish ideas, texts and values cannot take place in English alone. It must be grounded in a real knowledge of the vocabulary, grammar and logic of Hebrew. Here, I see no improvement in the last decade. I am greatly concerned about the lack of interest in Hebrew among vast sections of the community. The serious engagement with Judaism must be grounded in this language. Otherwise, we are studying Judaism through a non-Jewish lens, which limits our deeper understanding. So while we can all take pride in the growth of Jewish learning over the past fifteen years, we cannot be satisfied until we have placed knowledge of Hebrew at the centre of the endeavour.
Israel poises a similar problem that is not identical. The UK Jewish commitment to Israel – but not necessarily to her governments – is a remarkable feature of our community. The extraordinary success of the UJIA supported Israel Experience programmes speaks volumes. This year 2,200 young people participated in an Israel programme through a Zionist Youth Movement, school, Union of Jewish Students or other framework. Among sixteen year olds, 45 per cent of the target population were in Israel this summer. The UK excels in this field and we lead the world.
But support for Israel is weaker among less ethnically and religiously committed Jews. This too, mirrors the American experience. Some of the liberal left in the UK disdains the nation-state and Israel often bears the brunt of the criticism. Over a prolonged period, this affects the way liberal Jews see Israel. Progressive Jews have a major responsibility to build bridges to their peers in Israel. The intifada did a great deal of damage to Israel’s peace camp and it is in desperate need of allies to help it regroup. Diaspora Jews who identify both with Israel and with progressive politics must be at the forefront of this project.
So the community to which I have temporarily returned is a much more dynamic and varied community than the one I left fifteen years ago. It draws on both ethnic and religious characteristics. But it is not translating these into ongoing practice, ritual and commitment. The challenge for all Jews is to assume responsibility for actively shaping the future of Anglo Jewry in their vision
MICHAEL WEGIER has been Executive Director for Jewish Renewal at the UJIA since 2002. He has worked extensively in informal/adult Jewish education in the UK, Israel and the United States. Michael is a graduate of the Jerusalem Fellows Programme at the Mandel School and has a Masters degree in Contemporary Jewry from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is married to Daniela Greiber with whom he has three children.
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