Articles

A number of sociological findings point to a major political, demographic, and organizational challenge facing the American Jewish community. How prepared are our communal leaders and religious institutions to address these issues?

The global Jewish community is moving to a fundamentally different socio-political state. In some measure this moment represents the most significant transition since our encountering modernity. The changes now underway will have profound impact on Jewish identity, practice, and communal organizing.

According to a Gallup Study of the 2020 election, one’s religious beliefs correlates with their vote; the data referenced identified specific religious constituencies, noting that the degree of religiosity aligned with their political behavior and voting preferences.

Institutions live not only with the realities that inform their decisions but also with the consequences. Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion’s recent announcement that it will now admit students seeking rabbinic ordination who are in a relationship with non-Jewish partners most assuredly points to the complexities facing seminaries in this age.

Since the 7th of October, so much has undergone change within and around the Jewish community.

Based on my meetings and experiences with different Jewish audiences, here then are some specific threads or themes that seem to reflect a Jewish community in a fundamentally different place than we were nine months earlier:

With only 142 days to the 2024 election, here are some emerging developments regarding the campaign and the Jewish Vote:

The Jewish “Divides” and the 2024 election: While Jews have been divided in the past around political issues but in this current climate, we see a sharpening of these divisions. The flash points include Israel, Donald Trump, and anti-Semitism. As Jewish voters will try to use this election to express their concerns, desires, and fears. For many voters, this election is a referendum on Donald Trump!

As we approach the eighth month since the events of October 7th, we remain as a community in some measure paralyzed, distraught and uncertain by the unfolding story not only in Israel but also here in the Diaspora. In this setting, some of our institutional leaders are counseling us to move to the barricades as we face a hostile and unsafe environment.

As with all entrenched systems, the Jewish communal institutional model is resistant to change. Transitions often take decades to unfold. The events surrounding Oct. 7 and beyond require us to rethink the Jewish communal narrative, but the changes required must be more dramatic and direct than at any other time.

“Everything has changed since October 7” no longer merely represents a slogan. American Jews are experiencing a fundamental repositioning of not only how they see themselves but also how others perceive them.

While this conflict is being waged on the ground in Gaza, it is having a profound and fundamental impact on Jews in the United States. No doubt, the impact of this crisis on Jewish Americans has changed over the months since the 7th of October, creating various ripple effects on this community. A fundamental recalibration of the American Jewish experience is underway.

Many of my readers and former students have expressed frustration in the “depressing” manner in which I have interpreted current Jewish political news. Indeed, my messaging is often framed in a problematic context, sadly reflecting the state of Jewish and public affairs.

In so many ways, two articles have defined my take on the current realities. The themes in these publications speak to the deeper sense of anguish that we are feeling and seek to describe the “unsettled” character of the Jewish condition.