Jewish Counterreformation

... Go on, be wed.

And tear out my beard and uncover my head.

Tradition!

They 're not even asking permission ...

One little time I pulled out a thread And where has it led? Where has it led?

--Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof

The unraveling of Orthodox Jewish tradition during the past two centuries has been marked by considerable pain, but by a sizable amount of success as well. The most notable example is Reform Judaism, which today represents roughly one-third of some 3,000,000 religious Jews in North America. Last week 3,500 Reform delegates met in Manhattan to celebrate the centennial of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Reform Judaism's central body, founded in Cincinnati by Rabbi Isaac Wise in 1873. Another purpose of the gathering was to pay tribute to Retiring President Maurice N. Eisendrath, 71, the outspoken liberal rabbi who has been U.A.H.C.'S guiding force since 1943.

For 30 years, as head of the U.A.H.C., Eisendrath helped shape Reform policy in support of such issues as civil rights and the state of Israel, and against U.S. involvement in Viet Nam. Sadly, hours before he was to deliver his valedictory address, Eisendrath died of a heart attack in his hotel room. Much of his life was spent overseeing change in Reform Judaism, which has always been one of the most flexible of faiths.

The movement had its beginnings during the late 1700s in Europe at the time of the Enlightenment. Seeing for the first time a more open society around them--as well as a growing defection of Orthodox Jews to Christianity--Reform leaders sought to modify the strict laws and ritual that had held Jews together during some 1,600 years of the Diaspora. Eventually transplanted to the New World, the Reform movement drew strength from the pluralism of the U.S. Newly arrived German immigrants, eager to prove their Americanism, continued to reshape traditional Jewish customs and worship toward the image of Protestantism. The vernacular replaced Hebrew as the principal language of worship; organ music and Sunday services became widely popular. Confirmation replaced the bar mitzvah; dietary restrictions were relaxed. While Orthodox Jews continued to pray, in the traditional phrase, for their return "next year" to Jerusalem, Reform Jews became anti-Zionist, awaiting instead a "universal" kingdom of God.

More recently, however, American Reform Judaism has begun to re-embrace some of the long-scorned traditions--and to move toward the acceptance of Zionist ideals. The killing of 6,000,000 Jews during World War II burned home the need for a Jewish state, if only as a refuge. After four Arab-Israeli wars, the new attitude toward Israel was evident at last week's U.A.H.C. convention in an official vote of thanks to the Nixon Administration for its military and diplomatic support.

Kosher Kitchens. The whole idea of assimilation has come to seem to some Reform Jews what it has always seemed to the Orthodox--the road to godlessness. Quietly symbolic of this reverse evolution is Rabbi Alexander Moshe Schindler, the roundish, cigar-smoking World War II ski trooper who was chosen to replace Rabbi Eisendrath as the U.A.H.c.'s president. Schindler was born in Munich 47 years ago. He joined the flood of refugees who fled to the U.S. in the late 1930s, eventually becoming the U.A.H.C.'S director of education and--six years ago--its vice president. Unlike Eisendrath, Schindler was raised in a traditional Jewish household. "We are recognizing the worth of that tradition," he says. "The human story can't be told without respect for the majesty that transcends man, without a sense of the holy in life."

Reform Jews across the U.S. are reintroducing more Hebrew to the worship service, and some are even establishing kosher kitchens. Skullcaps and prayer shawls are reappearing, and Sunday services have all but vanished. In a resolution passed earlier this year, Reform rabbis strengthened their opposition to marriages with non-Jews. Still another phase of Reform's reformation is Havurot, or small fellowship groups, meeting in synagogues or private houses across the country. As many as 200 such groups now discuss everything from the Torah to Jewish humor.

Such changes have steadily narrowed the ceremonial gulf between Reform and Conservative Jews. An official union is unlikely, in part because the Conservatives insist on a far stricter adherence to rabbinic law. But in some areas the two groups have lately started merging their religious school facilities.

Whether such changes in religious practice represent a form of pop nostalgia or a genuine yearning for an older, more stable faith is still a matter of debate. Indeed, the renewal of interest in Jewish heritage and customs does not seem to be accompanied by any sweeping resurgence of faith in God. A survey conducted for Reform rabbis last year showed that 37% of Reform youth regarded themselves either as agnostics or atheists. Yet Rabbi Schindler, who calls himself a "cockeyed optimist," feels the return to tradition is a harbinger of a return to a more spiritual faith. "There was a time in Reform when it was a sin to read a prayer in Hebrew unless you knew the translation," he points out. "Now we know there can be a language of the heart."

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