Mon Mar 22, 2010 at 14:21:43 PM EDT
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| There is a growing consensus in the Jewish community that the Jewish service learning movement - along with other efforts to engage Jews with the broader social causes of our time - is doing its part to help restore a sense of purpose and meaning to Jewish existence. It is successfully and powerfully answering the call to provide a compelling way to live a Jewish life in our global culture.
Millennia of Jewish values tell us that this work is inherently part of the Jewish mission. These are the very values that rest at the heart of a relevant and meaningful Jewish life.
In a recent article in Commentary, Dr. Jack Wertheimer, Provost of JTS, sees things differently. Service to others is a luxury we cannot afford as long as Jews are in need of service, and Jewish institutions remain out of reach for even the middle class. Wertheimer would have us turn inward, to throw up our shtetl walls once more and care only about "our own" as he narrowly defines this term.
This perspective runs counter to teachings, going all the way back to Isaiah, to be a "light unto the nations." But maybe Jack is right, and despite our long tradition, turning outward as part of our identity is a mistake. If we follow his lead, a few more people might observe certain rituals, pay their synagogue dues, and send kids to day school. In a world of endless options, where he narrowly asks "how do we afford to be Jewish?" the more relevant question to answer is "why be Jewish?" |
| Jeremy Burton :: Jack Wertheimer's Narrow Place |
Today we are all Jews by choice, and when we make that choice we do so sitting fully in our identities as Jews. We sit fully in multiple identities: as men and women, as Americans, of a particular generation, as global citizens, gay or straight, and so on. Yet we also value our Jewish identity for the strength and meaning that it gives us. So it is of great importance to define that Jewish identity, to give it strength of purpose so that we as Jews may draw sustenance from it.
The act of engaging with the world around us through our charity and our service is fundamentally informed, even driven, by Jewish teaching and values. It is within those values that we can root ourselves to offer a compelling vision for our next generation.
To build on Rabbi Jill Jacobs' recent op-ed in the Forward, the prophet Jeremiah taught us that we must seek the welfare of the cities of our exile for in this is our own welfare. That alone should compel us to be fully committed to the wellbeing of our society. But there is more than just self interest at stake. Hillel teaches us in the mishnaic tractate Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), that our inherent identity is interlinked with our concern for the other, that if we are only for ourselves "what am I?"
What are we? We are Jews, guided by a thousands years old framework of Tzedakah (charitable works) and Chesed (acts of loving kindness). That framework sits at the center of what John Ruskay, CEO of New York's Jewish Federation, has described as our countercultural gift to the world. We act from selflessness rather than selfishness. We understand that we cannot ignore the poor, the defenseless, and the needy among us.
A thousand years ago Maimonides taught us how to do Tzedakah and how to understand and define the words "among us." We learned to operate from a framework of circles; our immediate family first, then our broader family, then later those in our city, and then those elsewhere. Jack would argue that "among us" is confined only to Jews. He is wrong. Maimonides' framework was built upon a logical and ethical basis: first understand who we are connected to and then, from that, who we are responsible for.
In this age of complex identities, our connections extend beyond our fellow Jews to include all of humanity. To deny those connections is to invite us to reject portions of our identity, to force us to choose between "I the Jew" and "I the fill in the blank."
But this choice is not inherent in the Jewish tradition. To embrace the other within and beyond our tribe has always been a part of our way, for as we recall again come Passover, we were strangers (Ger) in a strange land. So much of biblical injunction is rooted in this comprehension. So many of the commandments were built upon this rationale. So early was this frame of Ger rooted in our collective psyche that even before the Jews emerged out of the Sinai as a nation, those who demanded inclusion and justice within our community, from the daughters of Zelophchad to the burial crews denied the paschal ritual, used this frame of Ger in their appeals to Moses.
Even the "modern" understanding of our Tzedakah obligation as extending to non-Jews is neither a radical nor new idea, for the enlightened in Europe some two hundred years ago embraced and understood this. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the early 19th century founder of the Orthodox movement, taught in Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observance:
Everyone in need has a claim on your charity; those poor who are not Jewish, even those who practice idolatry, are cared for in a like fashion, as all are parts of one all-embracing mankind…
To a non-Jew… the law accords a claim on your charity fully equal to that of a Jew.
Wertheimer's attack on service learning is a surprising given that service, as a practice of Chesed (loving kindness), is even more valued in the Jewish tradition than charitable works.
It is certainly ironic in that it is an attack rooted in false choice between Jews and non-Jews because, of all the things we do in the Jewish social justice movement, service learning may most directly get to the heart of breaking this paradigm.
The Talmud teaches us that acts of Chesed are even greater than those of Tzedakah, amongst other reasons because charity happens only with property while acts of loving kindness are performed both through our person and our property (Sukkot 49B). To follow the inherent Talmudic logical tradition of "then how much more so for this?" all that we have said and learned about the values and responsibilities underlying charity inform even more so our values when we bring them to service.
And it is within service that those values get put not only into practice in the world, but in the hearts and minds of participants. To cite just one example, "K" is a young post-college woman who was living in Atlanta and whom I had the privilege of taking on trip to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward two summers ago. In a letter afterward to the Marcus Foundation, sponsor of our JFSJ Service Corps: Atlanta, K wrote:
I was raised in South Florida to two Jewish parents, but unfortunately, never had much religious training as my parents chose not to join a synagogue and never enrolled me in Hebrew school. While we observed the holidays, we only did so by getting together for dinner and never practiced any rituals associated with them. I'm ashamed to say that I learned about the story of Passover by watching the Disney movie "The Prince of Egypt" and never experienced a Seder until post-college when various friends "adopted" me and invited me to their homes. As I have gotten older, I have found myself drawn to learning more about Judaism. Since moving to Atlanta, I have made various attempts to do so including taking an Intro to Judaism class…, attending High Holiday services throughout the city, and attending more than my share of Jewish social events. Despite these attempts, I have never truly felt a part of the Jewish community. That is, until I attended the JFSJ trip.
This trip was truly about community. I learned so much about resiliency, strength and hope from the members of the Holy Cross neighborhood and equally as much about my own Jewish community, of which I am now inspired to become more spiritually connected to.
One of the learning experiences on the trip was a values clarification exercise in which we were asked to choose the statement with which we felt most aligned. One statement focused on our duty as Jews to help fellow Jews first and foremost. The other focused on the idea that Jews, who have done well for themselves as a community, have a responsibility to help others less fortunate than them. Many of the participants, myself included, had difficulty choosing one side as we believe both are essential… your generosity helped both the Atlanta Jewish community members as well as the Holy Cross community of New Orleans.
Today, K is living out her values as a passionate and increasingly self confidently educated Jew.
When we engage Jews in service learning and are asked the question why be Jewish, our answer, quite simply, is how can we afford not to be? How can we live in a world without this countercultural imagination of passion for more than ourselves? How can we not bring a vision of care for the other into all our relationships?
The Jewish community has known remarkable opportunity and abundance. In this country, we, as a demographic, have some the highest per capita levels of education and income. That is not to deny the internal challenges of pockets of poverty and the staggering cost to participate in many Jewish institutions.
Dr. Wertheimer's response to these challenges is an argument that we must be profoundly selfish in service of our own self-interest.
At Jewish Funds for Justice we know that it is a profound act of selflessness that embodies both the highest Jewish ideals, as well as the long term interests of the Jewish people.
To be Jewish is to walk in the world with a Jewish perspective. When we do so fully, we will transform both the world and ourselves. |
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