Vibrant Opportunities for European Jewry
We are engaged in a war for the future of the Jewish soul, a war that is being fought in many communities on almost every continent. If we win, Jews in future generations will be able to choose a Judaism that offers different options for finding meaning in life. If we win, Jews will live in a world with others, express political opinions, and be intellectually challenged. If we lose, Jewish life will slide backwards into a world of fundamentalism, trivialized ritual observance, and increasing closed-mindedness. I believe that a window of opportunity exists at this moment to make a significant difference. We need to understand it and act aggressively.
Europe is one of the key places of engagement. In the past decade, French Massorti (the French spelling) has grown from a single congregation in Paris to five synagogues across the country. Similar growth has occurred in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal.
I recently had the privilege of traveling to the south of France to assist in the creation of two new Massorti congregations. Thanks to the efforts of Yeshaya Dalsace, the rabbi in our thriving congregation in Nice, two completely different communities are now in formation.
The first is in Aix-en-Provence, a university town boasting one synagogue and nearly 5,000 Jews. The community is composed of academics, professionals, and merchants, but the one synagogue there now does not speak to modern Europeans. It follows the Algerian tradition, and unlike North American synagogues it does not reach out. Less than a year ago, when a young Jewish couple traveled from Aix to a bat mitzvah in Nice, the woman found the experience incredible. She never before had considered that men and women could sit together, that lay people could ask questions about Jewish life, or that the rabbi would engage in dialogue and teaching rather than simply preaching. She told her husband that if there were a synagogue like that in their community, she would become active. That was all he needed. Last Yom Kippur, 50 people gathered in a rented space to pray, with children from their new talmud Torah in attendance. The community, which now meets regularly and has its own website (massorti@ free.fr), incorporated and became part of the Massorti movement.
The other community is in Marseilles, France’s second largest city and home to approximately 100,000 Jewish families. A group broke away from the local liberal synagogue several years ago because it was more traditionally inclined. With about 80 families and 40 children, the community owned a building and sought a place to affiliate. After finding the Massorti France website, it is now joining the movement, and through Massorti France will become part of Masorti Europe and Masorti Olami. I am pleased to be working with the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to create two part-time pulpits for rabbinical students to serve these communities.
While only 30 miles apart, the two communities couldn’t be more different: Aix is western, Marseilles, eastern. The Sephardic Marseilles community, North African Jews who came to France in the 1960s, follows the customs of Algeria and Libya. Like the communities in Aix and Nice, the members were attracted to Massorti’s intellectual openness, egalitarian nature, and understanding that a synagogue is a place of unity and identity. With their inherent traditionalism, Massorti is a good match for them. In a recently published siddur, based on Sim Shalom and using French as the second language, Massorti France incorporated many sephardic piyyutim, making the siddur more accessible.
It is not an easy road. These people and institutions are challenging the religious establishment and are criticized openly for their desire to worship in the Conservative/Masorti tradition. They are discriminated against in a number of ways. Massorti rabbis in some instances even have been forbidden to officiate at weddings and funerals.
Our presence is like a breath of fresh air to European Jewry, which is just realizing that you can live in modernity and at the same time maintain a meaningful Jewish life. France has the largest Jewish population in Europe – over 750,000 – and whatever occurs there during the next few decades will be mirrored across the continent. The growth of Masorti Europe is inspiring for the Conservative movement. European Masorti Jews have achieved a tremendous amount with very little, meeting the needs of changing times in a manner that should be admired, even emulated.
Rabbi Charles Simon is the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs.
