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Transcript
was made by new criteria. The new members were selected in terms of whether the new group could live side-by-side; the requirements of pursuing active Judaica, Israel and a Jewish house were given lipservice, but not much more. The essence of Habayit was changing. The center for active Judaica was effectively becoming a Jewish dormitory. In its new capacity, Habayit again became relatively successful. For half a semester, people lived side-byside. The house functioned as a residence hall, although the number of public events was minimal — almost nonexistent. After half a semester, the tension started building again. Likes and dislikes were surfacing. There was a tension between "veteran" Habayit members and newer members. The hint of sexuality persisted. By December, the tension was just as high as it had been the previous May, but this time the rationalizations were gone. Habayit simply was not functioning as a Jewish center. In January (still the third semester), the American Students for Israel terminated its experiment at Habayit and established headquarters in the student office of the Hillel Foundation. A.S.I, left Habayit for two reasons. The first was methodological. An experiment is meaningless unless the data is analyzed and conclusions are formulated. At no point had all the members of Habayit communally attempted an honest self-evaluation. The second was a question of purpose. A.S.I, had nothing against a Jewish dormitory, but a bayit which A.S.I, supported and was prepared to subsidize was intended to serve the Jewish community — not, simply, the ten people who lived there. An uncertain future Habayit is now beginning its fourth semester. In January, three people left and were replaced. It is functioning, primarily, as a dormitory, although several of its members are still active in Jewish affairs. Since Habayit has always reflected the values of its members, there is talk of remaining a dorm. There also is talk of returning to the original ideals. It will again be hard to find new people, but I assume that there will be a Habayit again next year. What its nature will be, I cannot guess. After two years, I have outlived Habayit. Of the founders, I am the only one still living in the House. In June, I will graduate and I, too, will be gone. Upon reflection, Habayit was worth the trip. I don't know how long this Habayit will remain, but already others are talking of forming batim on this campus. At least one group has begun planning for a bayit which will begin next September. 110 For years, people spoke of organizing a bayit on this campus. Until we did it, it was only talk. We were a partial success and a partial failure. Yet each of us learned more about our Jewish commitment and identity. If others can look, realistically, at what we did — if others can learn from our mistakes and either improve Habayit or form other batim avoiding the traps into which we fell — then Habayit has been a worthwhile experience — both for its members and for the entire community. Life with jews is not yet Jewish life Jon D. Levenson Many Jews today attach great hopes to the revival of what they call "community." "Community" means for them a warmer, more organic way of relating to one another, a context of relation which mitigates anxiety and alienation. Many Jews attribute the malaise which afflicts so much of our society to the dissolution of the bonds which held premodern societies together, so that only the repair of those bonds can restore a sense of wholeness to modern life. In the past several years, many experiments have been born whose aim is to realize in practice the ideal of community. Thus, we see around us chavurot, free universities, discussion groups, etc.. The ideas upon which these experiments are conceived vary widely. It is therefore fitting to inquire as to the realistic requirements for community in contemporary American Jewry. Exclusivity and the need for goals We should first note that community requires exclusivity. In any real community, members relate to each other differently from the way they relate to outsiders. The warmth we experience in community is in direct proportion with the coolness and rejection we experience when we set foot out of our community. Community is thus a source of pain as well as joy. A community can aspire to bring everyone under the wings of its warmth and love, but when it encounters communities founded on different principles, friction results. In a highly pluralistic society, where geographical isolation is precluded, that friction will be more frequent, though perhaps less dangerous. Anyone unwilling to bear the burden of the friction is not really dedicated to the ideal of community In fact, men do not assemble in communities simply in order to exist in community. This is the "paradox of instrumentality" — that every community is orga- ' nized about particular goals — economic, ideological or whatever — and the existence of the community is a by-product of their pursuit. Every real community must pursue a goal outside itself. The question to ask, then, is, "What shall be the goal about which our community will assemble?" For most American Jews today, curiously, the answer is "the well being of another community." I shall give three illustrations: liberalism, counter-culture, and Zionism. > The liberal goal of social reform For the liberal expositors of Judaism, Jewish existence is a more intense dedication to the goals of social jus:« tice in the society at large. The rationale for Jewish community thus lies in the general American com11 munity, and the Jew merely feels a stronger motivai tion than most people to build a kingdom of justice ii on earth. (Their hypothesis, of course, is that liberalism promotes social justice.) Should that just society i« appear, Jewry would thus lose its rationale. Therefore, | those who make social justice the Absolute are for| ever working for their own destruction. If, on S the other hand, the kingdom of justice is impossible I for man to achieve, then this suggests the necessity for a structure of ideas in terms of which that imposi sibility makes sense. The concept of Judaism as a religion of social justice alone is, thus, too full of contradictions to be a sound basis for Jewish community; and it comes as no surprise that this idea, so popular a few decades ago, today faces extinction. The youthful goal of oppositon Like liberalism, the Jewish counter-culture locates the rationale for Jewish community outside its own communities. The counter-culture exists in opposition to the prevailing tone and institutions of American Jewish life. But opposition cannot be an end in itself, and the youthful mystics of the counter-culture have not proposed workable alternatives to the present structures. Their institutions, such as the chavurot, speak only to a small percentage of American Jewry, even though they may speak powerfully and Jewishly to their own members. There is more to American Jewry than can be served by small conventicles of mystics, all in their twenties, huddling in proximity to major universities. There comes a time when graduate school must end, when Daddy (inevitably an establishment Jew) stops footing the bill, and when the contradiction of chasidim without a rebbe becomes too painful to ignore any longer. In short, the Jewish counter-culture is a desirable protest against the easy conscience and 111 genteel agnosticism of our contemporary Jewish institutions, but it cannot be the basis for an enduring community. The zionist goal of israel Zionism locates the rationale for Jewish community on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Consistent Zionists emigrate to participate in building communities there. Obviously, consistent Zionism is incompatible with the ideal of community in American Jewry. Most American Jews are possessed of too little passion for consistency, however, to ask the critical question: Are we American Jews merely an extension of the Israeli self? Is our existence purely a supportive one for the Israeli state? Is there nothing left to Judaism after political Zionism is subtracted? It will do no good to take a critical stand towards the Israeli government, since the issue is not the policy of a regime but the role of the sovereign state in our selfimage. Some have tried to obscure the question by a reversion to the semi-nomadic life-style of our patriarchs — a semester in Jerusalem, a semester in New York, a year there, three years here. But commuting is no answer. Others are forever planning to emigrate — after college, after medical school, after retirement — but are somehow always with us. Their solution also is to avoid the problem. Nor will it do to transplant a piece of the Israeli state, as some have tried, onto American soil. The State of Israel is more Israeli than any American summer-camp or coffee-house. And we cannot revive failing faith by a few weeks in the State of Israel any more than we can acquire a permanent tan by a few weeks in Miami. People who resort to all these dodges refuse to face the issue of community. For the peripatetic Zionists, the State of Israel results from a search for roots and for authenticity, but always outside permanent community structures. Perhaps they recognize unconsciously that settling in the Israeli state will raise the question of community again and that the potential for alienation, even alienation from Judaism, is no smaller there than here. The issue cannot be evaded permanently. Sooner or later, American Jews will have to give up on the gimmicks and face the crucial question of their own future. There must be transcendent goals Liberalism and Zionism pursue political ideals, goals which are entirely enclosed within history. Thus, neither can deal with the transcendent dimension of human existence, the dimension rooted beyond history. Today there is a growing scepticism, especially among young people, about the absoluteness of poli- tical goals and a renewed interest in spiritual life. At its worst, this results in an evasion of social responsibility and a lack of appreciation for the system that allows them the freedom and the leisure to pursue their private visions. The private visions are many — Jesus, macrobiotics, all kinds of Eastern mysticism — but underlying them all is a thirst for a contentment that even the best politics will never provide. It is exactly that thirst that American Judaism, with its lopsided emphasis on Zionism, cannot quench. Young people eager to hear about "revelation" and "resurrection" will not rest content with "mandate" and "occupied territory." Much of the mindless support of young Jews for Arab aggression is due to a reaction against the servile Zionism of their parents. And I suspect the Jewish Jesus freaks are a result of a similar process. Sometimes the failure of our institutions to deal with the spiritual dimension to Jewishness reaches ludicrous proportions. I once took an Arabic class with a girl with only an elementary knowledge of Hebrew who was tackling the harder language in order to read the Sufi mystics! She is only one of many young Jews alienated from Judaism partly because they seek a more fulfilling and immediate experience than the vicarious Israeli-hood of the American Zionists. The goal of torah The diagnosis is easier to give than the prescription, but some elements of the latter should now be clear. The bonds of relation characteristic of community will not come into existence until we pursue a higher goal. The cultivation of Yiddishkeit for its own sake cannot succeed. On the other hand, the hoped-for Jewish community will not emerge here so long as its rationale is the contradictory one of support for another community. We American Jews must develop the self-confidence to be, in part, for ourselves, even though the many assimilated liberals and verbal Zionists among us urge us in another direction. 112 What do we have that can serve as the beginning of this new self-confident community? Its embryo is already to be found in the synagogues, and it is to be hoped that rabbis will stop lecturing their captive audiences on Freud, the welfare-state, or the Golan Heights and will start to speak about the transcendent concerns of Judaism — God, Torah, Israel, creation, revelation, redemption. The most urgent need is for the rabbis to stress the personal obligations of their congregants under Jewish law, particularly their liturgical obligations. There is no better way to gain a quick knowledge of Jewish beliefs than through the siddur (prayer book), and when a group of Jews learns that prayer in Judaism is not optional, common prayer can be the shared activity which becomes the basis for a deeper and wider commitment to the study and practice of Torah. Jewish community such as existed in Eastern Europe is irretrievable and sought only by sentimentalists. But through Torah we may yet come to know some of the joys and sorrows that characterize life in community. May we hear from you? We are in the midst of Sh'ma's annual deficit reduction campaign. If you haven't yet sent your contribution (tax deductible), please do so right away. No gift is too small for our thanks, for we value your interest as much as your capital. Make out your check to Sh'ma Inc. and send it to Box 567, Port Washington, N.Y. 11050. JON GRONER, who has served as a Sh'ma Fellow this year, brought together the articles in this issue on Jewish residences. The authors of the articles live in the residences they describe. JON D. LEVENSON studies Near Eastern and literature at Harvard University. languages | j i jj