USCJ Review - Spring 2007
President's Forum
An interesting phenomenon was acknowledged this winter, when the United States government identified polar bears as a threatened species.
Why? The polar bear’s habitat is disappearing. The great ice rafts of the Arctic are decreasing in size and number. Evolution shaped the species’ success, but now the top terrestrial predator above the Arctic Circle is losing its home.
I would like to acknowledge another threatened population, the committed youth of the Conservative movement. Our children and teens have been shaped by Solomon Schechter day schools, USY, and Ramah camps. We have taught them to be religiously educated, religiously committed young adults. We have provided the habitat and resources to create these highly evolved people. Sadly, their habitat seems to be threatened, so severely restricted in our congregations that they are threatened as Conservative Jews. Their habitat is defined by kashrut, Shabbat, and pursuit of mitzvot, but they are having a difficult time in finding them in Conservative kehillot.
In order to save this population from extinction in our movement we must first recognize that this cohort is threatened by an adult population that tells them how they should live as Jews – but then not only fails to live by those expectations but makes them feel as if there is something wrong with them for trying to do so, by attempting to live halakhically. We must admit that we provide few role models for these young people. Leadership in many congregations has lost sight of why they are a Conservative kehillah. At one time that reason was to provide houses of gathering and study where Conservative Jews could come together to worship and to study and to practice the mitzvot in a fashion unique to Conservative Judaism.
We have told our young people to live in that way, but our places of gathering have lost sight of that goal. Yes, we have klei kodesh, spiritual leaders, who are dugmaot, role models, but too often they too live separately from their congregational members and congregational leadership, who see the role of the clergy as being the community’s representatives in living a halakhic life.
Are we ready to admit we have a problem, living one agenda while teaching the importance of another? Leadership must lead. It is not too late for us to begin to repair the environmental perturbations that are threatening the future of the Conservative movement.
The nominating committee of the United Synagogue has taken a step to repair our environment. It has decided that observing kashrut and Shabbat, participating in talmud Torah – are required of anybody who is nominated for the United Synagogue board. This is a small step, but we hope it will be emulated by member congregations.
This December I had the privilege of attending my second USY international convention. Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of Our Fathers, teaches: Rear many students; build a hedge around Torah. As I looked at the 1,100 USYers engaged in study and tefillah, it was apparent that we have reared many students. It is the hedge that we have provided around Torah that is troubling. Hedges can be functional barriers, or they may be simply decorative. We must stop providing decorative hedges and instead plant hedges that have real purpose, real meaning. Too many congregations spend time trimming the hedge around the Torah to accommodate those who want no barriers. Each trim destroys the habitat for our committed young people.
Spring is a time of rebirth for plants that have lain dormant during the winter. Let us commit to allowing our congregations to leaf out and grow, to form fences around Torah that will allow our committed young people to rebound from the edge. Let us recognize the problem and reverse the trends that threaten both polar bears and our own young adults.
