Pulling Toward Unity

Just as Christians are exploring the prospects for ecumenism, U.S. Jews are talking about a reunion of their major divisions: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. Last month representatives of the three branches, each of which embraces roughly one-third of the na tion's 6,000,000 Jews, agreed at the annual meeting of the Conservatives' Rabbinical Assembly that denominationalism is "the most pernicious and destructive element in American Jew ish life." In the current issue of the quarterly Judaism, some leading Jewish intellectuals discuss the possibilities of healing the old antagonisms, which in the past led Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews to form separate rabbinical and synagogue organizations.

Residue of Loyalty. To Orthodox Rabbi Irving Greenberg of Yeshiva University, history has already provided Judaism with the unity of shared experience: all Jews have been affected by the Westernization of their faith and culture, the Hitler holocaust, and the re-establishment of Israel as a nation. Nonetheless, Greenberg argues, Jewish unity seekers must face up to difficult issues. A problem facing all three branches of Judaism is that the majority of Jews are secularists living off a residue of "sentiment, loyalty and nostalgia which is vulnerable to the increasing inroads of contemporary culture."

Reform Rabbi Jakob Petuchowski of Hebrew Union College agrees that " 'denominational' affiliation is no longer any guarantee of theological commitment." Some technically Orthodox synagogues have a predominantly Conservative membership, while many Reform families are nearly as strict in their observance of the law as Orthodox Jews. Petuchowski proposes that Judaism needs a new understanding and appreciation of Halacha (religious law) as a basis for unity: a Jew's piety should not be judged by how many of the 613 daily rules he keeps but by the spirit with which he conforms his life to God's will.

A necessary first step toward unity, suggests Conservative Rabbi Seymour Siegel of Manhattan's Jewish Theological Seminary, is a recovery of Judaism's ancient tolerance. In the 1st century B.C., for example, the Sadducees and Pharisees and the rabbinical schools of Hillel and Shammai differed bitterly in their interpretations of the law; yet they did not seek to exile opponents from the ranks of accepted Judaism. Siegel concludes that in today's Judaism there can be no single interpretation--which means that Orthodoxy in particular must surrender its exclusive claim to represent true Jewry.

Pragmatic Cooperation. Within 25 years, predicts Chancellor Louis Finkelstein of the Conservative-run Jewish Theological Seminary, "there will be one overwhelming institution for the different needs of all our people." Even as the theologians are exploring unity in theory, pragmatic considerations have already created a measure of interdenominational cooperation among Jews. Except for a small group of militant Orthodox fundamentalists, all three branches participate in the Synagogue Council of America, which coordinates the assignment of federal prison chaplains and certain Jewish activities in civic affairs. Recently the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, representing 21 secular and religious agencies, voted to transform itself into a stronger and more centralized body, which hopes to enable Jewry to speak "with one voice" on all "major Jewish issues of our time."

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