Religion without thought? On American Judaism and its challenges today

Comment published in New York Times online blog in reply to article, Gai Beckerman, “American Jews Face a Choice: Create Meaning of Fade Away,” November 12, 2018:

It is at the level of ideas, not style, rhetoric or methods of pedagogy, nor trendy New Age spiritualisms, that American Judaism will or will not undergo any renewal that would stem its decline. 



There are two ways to be assimilated: to the mainstream society and its professional and social roles and opportunities; or to a culture of criticism of that society that is engaged with and immanent to it. This culture would naturally center around politics, often radical left, and the arts, often avant-garde.
 

As it often did in Europe before the war.

None of this was taken up within Judaism proper, especially in America. It was seen as secular and so not religious.

This false division could be healed with creativity. For Judaism in America has flourished as mere religion. Where is the great Jewish intellectual culture?

Philosophy and criticism of society and the arts informed by its topics and methods is the modern equivalent of Talmud study. Rabbinical seminaries and synagogue classes for members should make it a focus.

For Judaism to remain vital in practical and demographic terms, more effort must be devoted to engaging with the modern world at the level of thought. Most “Jewish philosophy” is awful because of a poverty of scholarly rigor and a disconnect with the broader world of ideas. 


The real demographic decline is due to boredom. Anything that can help will come from the broad world of ideas and thinking.