[...]... had enjoyed in determining the pace of change in rabbinic law within movement institutions Kaplan’s primary influence came not through JTS itself, but through the seminary graduates whom he influenced With increasing support in the Rabbinical Assembly, Kaplan opposed the creation of Ginzberg’s law committee in 1918, and in 1927, he spearheaded the effort to transfer the committee from the Seminary’s aegis... conditions obtained (in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as well as in the Arab world and in parts of Latin America) , the bulk of Jews emigrated to find new 3 4 Eli Lederhendler homes in politically secure and economically more promising surroundings, either in Israel or in the diaspora Moreover, the Jewries of the English-speaking world—taken together, they comprise the largest single cohort of... personal, and localistic model Further analysis than these few essays afford is required before we attempt to articulate an integrated view of both American and Israeli Judaism at the beginning of the 21st century But even the hints contained here (in the essays by Fishman and Inbari) indicate that some Israeli Jews are more apt today to view Judaism as being rather inadequately represented by the state and. .. considered the bastion of the deracinated, upper-class Jew, have in recent years subordinated social welfare to “identity” and “continuity” concerns, and thus in effect have redefined their role vis-à-vis religious Judaism as a subordinate and enabling one In Israel, in contrast, the state itself was invested with the custodial stewardship of public Judaism As the product and exponent of Jewish national... religious school to find religion. ” The differentiation of religion as a distinct social institution transforms the relationship between the individual Jew and the Jewish people In traditional society, religion is embedded in the life of the social group, whereas in post-traditional society, religion is a form of practice and institutional affiliation that individuals choose.2 Group-oriented religion does... fundamental insistence upon the reality of spiritual exile—inside Israel itself—preached by the Uzi Meshulam sect, on the one hand, and the parallel insistence by American Jewish theologians (both Reform and neo-Orthodox) that “exile” remains—indeed, must remain—the essential Jewish religious idea in a world unredeemed This unexpected common trajectory of postliberal American Jewish theology and a fringe... ethnic values, for reasons best explained by the strength of American individual autonomism Alan Silverstein’s essay shows, further, that elements of American social politics that grow out of individual autonomism influence, in turn, the parameters of intracommunal conflict in American Judaism and, in the process, give shape to American Judaism itself What may be inferred, therefore, is that despite... workhorse and ally of national survival.” 6 Cited in Hillel A Cohen, “Analysis of a Questionnaire Sent to Members of the Rabbinical Assembly Regarding the Israel- Arab War of June 1967 and its Aftermath,” unpublished paper (May 1968), 19 7 The passage is from Glazer’s American Judaism, “Introduction, 1989,” and is also quoted in the astute essay by David Singer, “Change and Continuity in American Judaism—... military, parliamentary, or judicial authority in the name of religious supremacy, as witnessed in the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and as we may see further adumbrated in Motti Inbari’s essay on the Mishkan Ohalim sect Indeed, given the way in which religion tends to be privileged as an absolute and independent source of authority in the Middle East (as was true of most of the... affairs—including the hiring and financing of a rabbi who was granted responsibility for overseeing religious education, and who had formal legal authority over, and responsibility to, all the Jews in the geographic area.7 The officers of the community were laymen with varying degrees of religious education and familiarity with halakhah, or Jewish law.8 In legislating community bylaws (takanot) or in rendering . Fund, Seattle, Washington THE AVRAHAM HARMAN INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY JEWRY THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM WHO OWNS JUDAISM? Public Religion and Private Faith in America and Israel STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY JEWRY AN. Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data Who owns Judaism? : public religion and private faith in America and Israel / edited by Eli Lederhendler. p. cm. — (Studies in contemporary Jewry, ISSN 0740-8625. 17th volume, in which the leading topic is a discussion of religion: “Who Owns Judaism? Public Religion and Private Faith in America and Israel. ” Only one of our previous symposia (in volume 2)