Retiring Leader of America’s Oldest Congregation Excoriates Modern Orthodox
Rabbi Marc Angel is the retiring leader of Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest congregation in America – or, to be precise, the founding congregation of America. For my haredi readers who may be confused, that is meant as a compliment. My point is, when he has something to say, we need to listen.
Debra Nussbaum Cohen and Stewart Ain report,
As he prepares to retire from the pulpit this fall, the prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi and former president of the Rabbinical Council of America, has fired a salvo at his own movement, saying it is “slipping over the line to a cultic superstitious kind of religion.�
“In the early part of my rabbinate, Orthodoxy was free, open to dialogue and discussion, and had a message for other Jews and for the world,� he said.
But during his 38 years as spiritual leader of the Upper West Side’s Congregation Shearith Israel, known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Rabbi Angel said he has seen a growing insular perspective that shuns innovative thought and relies instead on the opinions of so-called authorities.
“There’s been an increasing tendency to defer to certain authorities and of the individual rabbi or individual Jew to back off on personal responsibilities,� he told The Jewish Week.
Thus, instead of answering a congregant’s question about halacha or Jewish law, many Modern Orthodox rabbis are turning to a rosh yeshiva (the head of a yeshiva) for the answer.
“If the rabbi doesn’t know the answer, he should try to find out� and can consult a rosh yeshiva as part of his research, Rabbi Angel, 62, suggested.
“The answer should come from the rabbi of that congregation. He shouldn’t say, ‘I’m not capable of answering; that kind of question has to go to a rosh yeshiva.’
“And in general, this is what is happening. … The Modern Orthodox have surrendered in almost every area of responsibility to the more right-wing group.â€?
The result, Rabbi Angel said, is that “people with independent opinions get shut out. When people stop thinking and expressing creatively, then there’s no more intellectual dynamism.
“Once that intellectual dynamism is gone that’s the beginning of stultification, of cultism. There’s a very fine line between true religion and cultism. Orthodoxy to a certain extent is slipping over the line to a cultic, superstitious kind of religion,� he said. “It bothers me endlessly.�
Samuel Heilman, a sociology professor at Queens College who has written extensively about Orthodox Judaism in America, agreed, saying that there are younger rabbis today who were educated by “more haredi and less modernist� Jews.
If this is how one of America’s most important Modern Orthodox leaders view today’s right-wing Modern Orthodox, how should secular and liberal Jewry view them?
Should they be happy they are infesting their public school system? Should the federations be supporting this infestation?
Please note, this should be used as an opportunity for introspection, and not as an opportunity for haredim to whine about how they think Dr. Heilman is a “haredi basher.”
14 comments
This is a very important piece to post. We also need to question how do people really get to be gedolim and why they are chosen, and should we even have gedolim.
Jenny,
I don’t see a need for “gedolim.” Just the word suggests a separate class. Who needs that? The authority granted with this label is inappropriately broad.
Rabbi Angel regrets the end of the reign of proud mediocrity, half-measures and lukewarm commitment that he once believed he was heralding in. What he regrets most of all is that, by all indications, he will not be missed.
Ron Coleman: Mean spirited and small minded.Rabbi Angel is a true Sephardi. The tragedy of our generation is that the model for Orthodoxy has become the idealized world of late 19th C. Eastern Europe; a world that never existed except in the minds of those of backward vision and understanding.That world was a failed world of external oppression and internal repression. People left when they could and those who stayed wanted revolution.Unless we recognize that fantasy will ultimately fail, we are in for some very bad times indeed.
Yes, and look at the great Sephardic orthodoxy Rabbi Angel’s ancestors built here since the 17th century.
Oh, what? They’re all assimilated? The New York ones? The ones in New England? Down South, too? But didn’t they build yeshivot?
Uh, no. But they had a lot of great synagogue rabbis and boy did they build some beautiful buildings.
They make great museums.
The point is that then was then and now is now. Why do you think the majority of young Israelis hate religion? All this is coming to a neighborhood near you; we need new thinking and a new paradigm. To take from Swift’s “The Bee and the Spider”, the bee goes into the world and makes it possible to produce all that is good. As a result, it returns and gives forth sweetness and light ( honey and wax for candles). The spider, on the other hand, contributes nothing and only produces more spiders and webs to snare the unsuspecting.What do you want the Jewish people to become, the bee or the spider?
Dr Fred — the honey bees are dying. So are the moderate Modern Orthodox.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/.....ory=travel
I am Sephardic, and I think we have a kind gentle Judaism that sadly sometimes our Ashkenazi brethren and sisters sorely lack. What is this business of two choices- haredi or atheist? I refuse such a choice.
“Should they be happy they are infesting their public school system? Should the federations be supporting this infestation?”
Are right-wing modern orthodox Jews a kind of vermin?
“infestation” - that sounds a bit too much like like Der Sturmer.
“Are right-wing modern orthodox Jews a kind of vermin?”
NCSY — “The Frummifier” — is not right-wing Modern Orthodox. They are heavily haredi influenced, such as Rabbi Jack Abramowitz and Rabbis Felsenthal.
serious question not one that should prompt an attacking sarcastic answer.
what is the difference between haredi and right wing modern orthodox (im not saying they are the same im just wondering what makes NCSY haredi and not right wing MO)
This is an excellent question, and quite frankly, I used to think NCSY was a right-wing Modern Orthodox (RWMO) organization as well, and some aspects of NCSY remain that, particularly at the lower levels of the organization. Unfortunately, NCSY has many haredi aspects to its organization, which is not widely understood.
These include but are not limited to:
Allowing a rejection of macro-evolutionary theory in favor of strict creationism, as Rabbi Jack Abromowitz advocates, contrary to Rabbi Weinreb, the head of the Orthodox Union.
Rabbi Felsenthal, the director of alumni, and an Aish product three times over. His allegiance is clearly for haredism.
The encouragement of haredi dress.
A means justifies the ends mentality, such as encouraging Orthodoxy as rebellion, particularly against the parent, and speaking in terms of spiritual wars.
A Chassidic influence, such as crowd surfing, and emotional Havdalah candlelight ceremonies where NCSYers are encouraged to outdo each other in mesiras nefesh stories, and assumption of observant life, as well as endless dancing. Emotionalism and the secular fun (which is always devoid of any educational value, since this would send the wrong message) is preferred almost to the point of anti-Intellectualism. Paintball, bowling, arcade – secular activities seem designed to be utterly devoid of higher western culture, which is deemed threatening.
A lack of interest in hard textual skills in favor of “Hashkafa.�
A preference for maximum halachic compliance.
A contempt for western college education, such as the policy against non-dual curriculum schools as outlined in essay “Poison Ivies� in the official NCSY educational guide.
Now, it is also important to note that in terms of direction, NCSY does not advocate the same haredi trajectory to already Modern Orthodox teens as it does to Jews from secular and liberal backgrounds, in part because the former’s parents understand the difference. For instance, NCSY works and recruits for Aish HaTorah and Ohr Soamayach (and parallel womens institutions) for baal teshuvahs, but does not work with such institutions for Modern Orthodox Jews. They seek to send the RWMO Jews closer to haredism, but not necessarily actually haredi. Secular and liberal Jews are directed not only to left-wing ULTRA-Orthodox institutions, but even right-wing Ultra-Orthodox institutions, such as O.S. /Neve Yerushalayim and Kol Yaakov.
wow. didn’t expect that did ya fran? lol
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