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January 21, 2008
The Death of Education and Torah at Hebrew Union College
Seraphic Secret has many friends in many corners of the religious world. We have formed close friendships with Christians of numerous denominations.
We have also developed warm relationships with Jews who are active members of the Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism. Several of these friends are deeply concerned with the radical leftists agendas of their movements and thus lead secret lives as political Conservatives, and yes, as Torah loving Jews.
We have become particularly close to a Rabbinic Student at Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement's college for Rabbinic ordination. This student loves Torah, Judaism, is an ardent Zionist and an American patriot. But at Hebrew Union College, according to our friend, these values are sharply undermined.
To give our readers an idea of the arch leftist agenda at Hebrew Union College, here is just one of this student's letters.
Dear Robert:
With two weeks of vacation here from school, I finally sat down and tried to gather up some of my thoughts that you have so kindly indulged in our correspondence. I tried to focus on just looking at what is, in my opinion, a root problem among HUC faculty and Reform Jewish leadership — that of the confusion between “liberal politics” and “liberal religion.” It’s my hope is that there is a significant part of Reform Jewry that is more “centered”— both politically and in terms of religious sentiment — than the radical fringe left leadership that is cultivated at my current school, Hebrew Union College.
Deleting Torah from Judaism—It's Politically Correct
When I started rabbinical school I think I was somewhat aware that the leadership tended to the left — politically and academically. I certainly wasn’t aware of how much those ideological worldviews are inculcated at the school itself.
Often, it's hard to tell where the leftist ideology stops and plain old shoddy academics begins at school. I have a hunch that they are intertwined — as the lack of intellectual diversity leads to stagnation, or even a drop in the level of academic integrity.
No doubt that sounds harsh — and let me make clear that there are definitely one or two fabulous professors here. But when the assistant dean of the school gives a Rosh Hashanah sermon on how we need to "share the road" with the Palestinians, based on a revelatory bike trip in the wine country of Sonoma Valley, where she saw a road sign with the same message, albeit with a different intended audience.
And another assistant dean talks about how "the environmental cycle of the planet has sped up" (and yes, anyone that can help clarify what the “environmental cycle” is)** I really started to wonder: do my professors believe it's possible for one to be politically conservative and a Reform Jew? And has an across-the-board conflagration of leftist political ideology with Reform Judaism destroyed intellectual integrity?
Here’s another example of how it seems to me that my professors have confused liberal politics with liberal religion — and how that translates into skipping over important questions in class. In a liturgy class, we were told that we [Reform Jews] don’t say Shirat Ha-Yam [Exodus:15] during psukei d’zimrah, part of the Morning Liturgy, because “it’s very obviously not a liberal prayer.”
Well wait a minute, What about it is not “liberal,” per se, I asked.
“It’s just so obviously very violent,” he responded. I looked around at my classmates, who nodded in agreement.
I’ll have to leave aside my nitpicky grammar about how the prayer itself is not violent, though it may contain terms that describe violent action. That G-d is doing, on behalf of the Jews, I might add. I’m all in favor of that.
“The prayer is describing G-d’s immeasurable strength,” I said. “How are images of strength not liberal?”
And does that mean that “conservatism” is for violence? Just what sort of liberalism are we talking about here?
And what does that have to do with whether G-d is portrayed as a warrior who will defend His people?
I didn’t get an answer, just a moral relevance mumbling about how do we “as liberals” really want to have a prayer that gets dangerously close to jihad-type stuff?
The professor does not, of course, point out the key difference which is that in Shirat Ha-yam G-d is taking care of business, rather than in jihad, in which the terrorist is targeting civilians. It was a frustrating discussion, but I think it points out how the term “liberalism” is used and abused at school to mainly mean “things that I, as a professor, personally agree with in my imagined political world.”
As I said earlier, I don’t know for sure—but it’s certainly my hunch—that conflating one’s personal politics (and however confused those may be, considering how many of HUC’s faculty are involved with Peace Now, the radical left organization) with history, or biblical criticism, is a form of laziness that leads to intellectual collapse.
The Yom Kippur War—Sorta, Kinda, Maybe; Well, Not Really
Here are my notes, for example, from a lecture supposedly on “The Yom Kippur War and Its Aftermath.”
We learned one date: "October 1973." We also "learned" that Golda Meir was Prime Minister at the time. I cannot think of any other facts that were taught. We did not learn which countries—other than Israel— were involved. We did not learn the names of any generals, names or places of battles, etc. Here's what we did learn - I took very detailed notes—as a coping technique:
—"Every major event in history has to be put in a certain context..." so he is going to tell us HIS story in relationship to the Yom Kippur war. He got a phone call one night when he was in England...story of his aliyah to Israel... a few anecdotes about getting to Israel and it was very confusing and he thought about swimming to Cyprus (??) but he didn't know where Cyprus was (big laughs)...
—Differences between 6-Day War and Yom Kippur war. "The feeling in June '67... well Israel was still small, but it was bigger. Israel was now perceived in a vast range of realms [sic, believe it or not]. For example, people would flock down to the Wall now. With my Reform background, I feel differently about the Wall [??] but that's another story."
—He was personally very shocked in Sept 1973 because he went down and took a look at some Israeli outposts down on the Egyptian border...long story about how he was fascinated by night vision binoculars.
—Finally he gets to Oct 1973 ...talks about going down to the bomb shelter and it was full of storage junk, and long description of what the toilet facilities were like. It was a very "weird feeling" being there with his neighbors. 15 minutes.
—"The long and short of it [the Yom Kippur War ] is that it was very controversial. The map gives you one story, and I'll give you another, and you can make up your mind... 18 days just felt so much longer than the 6-day war." [??] Never actually gets around to saying anything about the map. "Chaim Herzog believes the war was a victory. But the other way to see it- which is my bias - is that the war was a tremendous disaster. We had no faith in our leadership and no moral compass... I want to say something about death. The number of Israelis killed doesn't tell us anything about the number of people killed on the other side." Long story about how his kids were in the bomb shelter with him, and two of them are officers in the army, and two of them aren't... kind of lost me on the point of that story.
Student followed up with a question — in college he took a "course on human rights, and we really talked a lot about how Israel violated human rights in the Yom Kippur War." Professor says "there are many different voices, and it's not always just one or the other."
HUC "Share" About Loss of Civil Liberties After 9-11
I think that the lack of intellectual depth is best represented by the profs’ inability to articulate themselves clearly. When telling us about a new URJ Women’s Torah Commentary, the assistant dean said it would finally give Jewish women a chance to “fix history.” We are graded on an “assessment matrix” which, we were told, will also include a way for the faculty to track and include our “spiritual growth.” URJ leadership urges us to make Reform Judaism into a “religion of meaning” (and they don’t even give credit to Michael Lerner in swiping that phrase!)
The students, of course, tend to the political lefty side as well. We had Shacharit, Morning prayer, on 9/11 and students were allowed to "share" their feelings about "their journeys" since that day six years ago. Students spoke about how their civil liberties had been taken away — "not only their civil liberties as Americans, but the civil liberties of those who aren't Americans," — their anger at actions being taken on their behalf by the government, how they still "couldn't find any meaning" in anything that had happened since that day, etc.
One student lamented how her mother couldn't accompany her to the gate at the airport anymore. The ability to engage in a little critical questioning would help here. For example — has anyone actually had their privacy invaded by wiretapping? Wouldn’t CNN report it if it happened to anyone at all? Is being escorted to the gate by your mother (at age 25) really a civil liberty? The lack of knowledge about basic American society is astonishing.
When I got my commission, one student asked if “military people have to get re-sworn in when the regime changes.”
That would be the "Bush regime" she was talking about.
Another asked if there was a lot of tension on ships between the Navy people and the "air force people on board who fly all those planes".
The Irrelevant Relevant Sermons
We, as students, are constantly encouraged to make our sermons “relevant” and that we should feel compelled to address the “pressing issues” of our day, meaning the pressing political issues. But these are the sorts of examples that make me want to say, please don’t try and make your sermons “relevant” to American politics or situations because the chances seem high that you know little about the actual situation (see above, “environmental cycles”).
It seems to me that Hebrew Union College is simply taking its cues from the majority of academia in the U.S., replacing the true pursuit of knowledge with pandering to the P.C./multiculti gods.
A strength of Judaism has always been its commitment to rationalism, text study, and above all – learning. It would be a pity if, in Reform Judaism, we let that go in lieu of spiritual naval-gazing and preoccupation with dried-up ideological “feelings” trends of the 60’s.
**My dad's favorite example of this happened at his own shul back in Dallas—a sermon given by a newly minted HUC graduate—on how Abraham's purchase of the burial cave at Machpelah was related to Bush's "dismal failure" in the subprime mortgage housing crisis.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at January 21, 2008 10:25 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
This is all very depressing.
Reminds me of an analysis by C S Lewis of some religously-tinted "progressive" idiocy in Britain--more than 50 years ago.
Posted by: david foster at January 21, 2008 12:47 PM
Dear Robert,
Well, seems that things really have not changed much at all at HUC since the days of Isaac Mayer Wise and the first graduation class, I think of 1894, which served shrimp cocktails, at the graduation dinner. How that is related to the "kashrus observance" of some liberal co-religionists who'll eat treif meat but are machmir on shellfish, I cannot fathom, but hey I'm
from the kleiner menschen ... as a friend of mine likes to say.
Alan
Posted by: alan d. busch at January 21, 2008 01:08 PM
Robert:
A very excellent, if unsurprising, letter from the HUC student.
A couple of things were really disappointing:
1) As a military chaplain, I fear that all the non-liberal leanings of the letter writer will be written off by his classmates and teachers as the result of being "brainwashed by the military." Which is too bad, because every objective judge of the U.S. military today, (left and right), agrees that today's soldier is probably the best in quality in American history.
2) I have yet to see any religious group that has successfully been able to keep a healthy distance between itself and the current winds of politics. BUT, I also have never seen any movement that does the job less well than the Reform Movement in Judaism. The easy answer to why that is could be that since the movement stripped away much of the traditional liturgy and Jewish legal practices, it needed to fill the void with a more contemporary cultural ethos. Let me say that I am not 100% intolerant of that idea. It can get tiresome to hear sermon after sermon or Gemara shir after Gemara shir that makes it sound like the ancient sages knew everything about everything from 21st century science to present-day military weaponry. I'm not trying to disrespect the idea of a our many generations of Rabbinic scholars, (known as Chazal), but I do think there has to be room in Judaism for committed Jews of any stripe to present their own learned and respectful opinions.
But some of that idea also seems a lot like cheating. You know what I mean? I mean learning Talmud in Aramaic, English or any language is really HARD. Having to cite ancient sources from any Jewish text is HARD. And well, quoting from a New York Times article, popular movie, or a Beatles song is EASY. I may not know a lot, but I know that most things that come very easily aren't really worth that much.
3) The writer is really right on the money when he assumes that the HUC faculty just can't separate itself from the general trends exhibited in American academia today. Look, being a full-time professor is a job like any other job in many ways, and there is a certain type of person attracted to that profession whether it's at Harvard, UCLA, HUC or YU for that matter. When it comes to teaching our Rabbinical students, this trend certainly makes one pine for the days when Rabbinical training was done in a more informal setting.
But that academic "type" is really dominant. My dad has been a professor for more than 35 years and a full-time tenured professor with endowed chairs for the last 20 years. Like most of his colleagues he's iconoclastic and well-read, but he is also on the extreme right-wing of the political spectrum in his own university simply because he's voted for a Republican for president twice in the last 30 years. Whatever attracts very liberal people to the world of academia is something bigger than any of us.
This situation is no more fun for Orthodox Jews in communities who sometimes find themselves at the whim of Yeshiva University when it comes to helping them fill vacant synagogue rabbinic posts. I know of many vibrant Orthodox synagogues in North America today that have been told by Y.U. that they either hire one of the 2-3 candidates approved by the school or face dire consequences. This is Ivory Tower abuse of the worst kind.
HUC does not, and will not, ever be able to lay down those kinds of terms to Reform congregations. But it seems like it's trying to make up for it by hammering certain philosophies into the heads of all Reform congregants, summer campers, and youth group attendees.
4) I wish I didn't have to be the one to say it, but I just don't think the writer should stay in the Reform movement. I know there are more moderate and even right wing Reform Jews out there, but I'm not sure if there are enough of them who are really active in synagogues across the country to make a difference.
I know it's easy for me to say that he should explore other options, (especially since the academic situation within Conservative Judaism is basically the same way), but he really should.
Of course, the first thing he should do is seek out the professors he does admire and also seek out some Rabbis with congregations within the Reform movement to ask them whether his plight will be over as soon as he's ordained or if he'll face this stuff as long as he remains in the movement.
Even if he only hopes to make a career out of the military, he needs to do his research in some actual synagogues.
I certainly wish him the best of luck.
Posted by: Jake at January 21, 2008 01:25 PM
At a Purim party a certain friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) had a couple of shnaps and in a moment of loosened tongue referred to Reform Judaism as "Deformed Judaism." I think I cringed but said nothing. I wanted to disagree with him outright but I being modern Orthodox I wasn't really that aware of what goes on in Reform congregations. As the years have past I have been more exposed to the movement as most of us are and the more I see, the more I realized that my friend, although somewhat tipsy was right. The farther they go from the Emet of Torah, the farther go from Emet period (which for me is the same thing...Reading alot of Mussar and Remez lately!:::)) Unfortunately this letter only confirms just that. What can be done? It's scary and sad to watch people run at full speed off a cliff! But that what I feel like they are doing. And I can't just stand by idly but, when I've tried to speak about it, I just get stared at, as if I was a loon. I guess the best thing is to just keep on talking. When communication line are open you still stand a chance and making contact. ABZ
Posted by: Aliza Z at January 21, 2008 01:39 PM
The confabulation of religion and politics was inevitable once the Reform chose to reject the divinity of the Torah. If there is no absolute power, no divine commandments, there is no source of immutable right and wrong. Everything hinges on your "feeling." All becomes subjective. Hence, left wing, juvenile (note the absent father) "feel good" relativistic political views are a direct outgrowth of the rejection of Halachic, Sinai transmitted Torah. Facts are irrelevant, egocentrism and the id reign supreme. If the Six Day War felt like ten, so be it.
Posted by: Karen Avrech at January 21, 2008 06:09 PM
Karen,
This letter tells a similar story to that going on in some of the mainline Christian denominations who have rejected the Bible as G-d's Word. They are experiencing the same issues of moral relativism (gay bishops are just a symptom). The orthodox among them are splitting off in order to maintain their beliefs and the response of the hierarchy is to persecute the clergy and people, and to sue these congregations. It's heartbreaking, and it's wrong.
Once you cut the rope to your anchor, you're at the mercy of the wind and waves.
Posted by: DrCarol at January 21, 2008 08:08 PM
Thank you. An excellent post.
A friend just lent me a DVD called "Farewell Israel - Bush, Iran, and The Revolt of Islam"
The end of the movie is a hard core realist look at Israel and how it has dealt with Islam.
It would fit in extremely well with the observations of your student, liberalism, and the HUC.
Back in a different lifetime, my wife and I belonged to a Conservative synagogue. We listened, over a couple of years to various "sermons" that were: intricately involved in tracking the progress of baseball teams; or a movie review of "A Stranger Among Us" (at the end of which, during the question and answer period, an older member of the congregation asked, "Excuse me Rabbi, but what the hell does that have to do with this week's parsha?"); or the one that finally drove my wife to declare that we were going to become Torah observant Jews and never go back to that synagogue again: "Joseph, Jew Boy on the Make."
The point being that it is Judaism that seems to be an anathema to these folks and Liberalism that is their "new G-d."
Posted by: Moishe3rd at January 22, 2008 06:55 AM
" ... Here’s another example of how it seems to me that my professors have confused liberal politics with liberal religion — and how that translates into skipping over important questions in class. In a liturgy class, we were told that we [Reform Jews] don’t say Shirat Ha-Yam [Exodus:15] during psukei d’zimrah, part of the Morning Liturgy, because “it’s very obviously not a liberal prayer.” ...
interesting ;-)
am not familiar with Reform Liturgy,
how do they end the Shema Koleinu prayer in Shemona Esray?
"ki Atoh Shhomayah Tefillas Kol peh Amchoh Yisroel B'Rachamim"?
maybe they should switch to Nusach Ari-Zal,
which is far more 'liberal' ;-)
and ends just with:
"Ki Atoh Shohmayah Tefillas Kol Peh"
Anyway,
i do know some Reform people personally,
who are quite conservative (even NRA members), and Zionist,
who like religious philosophy,
as long as 'you don't have to do anything',
but still want to be 'connected' in some way with G-Dliness,
and find their comfort zone in Reform
the problem is not so much with Reform, as with the liberal conviction, that nothing can stand in the way of 'liberalism', and they are willing to sacrifice Religion and Tradition because of it.
without bringing up names,
there are at least 2 liberal Orthodox Rabbis,
who unquestionably know how to learn,
who suffer from the same malady...
historically, in the 1800's, some Jews thought that the strong philosophical and scientific culture in Germany would provide refuge and equality for Jews ...
the Liberals are repeating the same mistake,
as it is painfully obvious that the Liberal principles are NOT applied equally to all groups of people
time for them to finally see the light,
and become 'exlibs' ;-)
Posted by: exdemexlib at January 22, 2008 06:59 AM
chose to reject the divinity of the Torah.
This is a particularly thorny road, or maybe it is just that I find it troubling.
Over the years I have participated in numerous discussions about how the Torah was given to us. The explanations have run the gamut from it being the literal word of Hashem to something fabricated by man.
My own beliefs are somewhere in between. FWIW, it seems to me that the big challenge is trying to decide if one truly believes in Hashem. That is a very simplistic way of putting it, but at the same time it makes sense.
Anyway, I don't want to take this completely off tangent so I'll swing it back towards the post.
In my experience I have found that the people who are having the most trouble with current events are those who expect the world to operate the way that they would. In other words, they assume that nice begets nice. They can't accept the idea that some people will do horrible things regardless of how they are treated.
And that is a fundamental problem.
Posted by: Jack at January 22, 2008 09:03 AM
"the people who are having the most trouble with current events are those who expect the world to operate the way that they would. In other words, they assume that nice begets nice"...I think that's true of *some* of the people of the type we are discussing, but not all--maybe not even a majority. There is also a large category of people who are not nice people at all and who act out their suppressed hostilities by cheering on the terrorist and various dictators.
Believing that Hamas and the Iranian leadership (for example) are benign forces requires *far* more willingnes to shut ones eyes to reality than believing that the Russian dictatorship in the 1930s was a good thing (and that already required considerable insulation from reality.) There is likely to be something very wrong with those who justify and even support such entities.
Posted by: david foster at January 22, 2008 02:52 PM
G-d help us all.
peter
Posted by: doc at January 22, 2008 07:55 PM
Having been a congregational Reform Rabbi for decades, I can tell you that, as with all branches of Judaism, there are Reform Jews of every political stripe! It would be a shame if every politically conservative, or staunch defender of Israel were to abandon our movement! We, like every other group of Jews, have 3 opinions! The only way to make some progress among our youth and our congregants is for us to stay and teach a more moderate and moderated approach to politics, values and faith. Please don't abandon Reform to the loudest radicals and leftists! Dear HUC student, get my email privately from our gracious host Robert, and I'll happily give you support, solace and good news about an increasing number of Reform but not liberal "Jews in the Pews."
Posted by: Jac at January 24, 2008 09:22 AM
ALIZA Z.
"At a Purim party a certain friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) had a couple of shnaps and in a moment of loosened tongue referred to Reform Judaism as 'Deformed Judaism.'"
moses dropsie in the 1890s published a pamphlet "on deform in judaism." on the other hand, j. leonard levy (himself a reform rabbi), published a lecture entitled "reformers, deformers and defamers" (but i have not seen this yet, so i'm not sure what he's alluding to).
ALLAN:
"Well, seems that things really have not changed much at all at HUC since the days of Isaac Mayer Wise and the first graduation class, I think of 1894, which served shrimp cocktails, at the graduation dinner."
it is not clear exactly how the "treyfe banquet" came to be (1883, btw) with its seafood and ice cream desert following fleishig food. while some in attendance had no compunctions about participating, other refused to eat and wise himself was aquitted by an HUC investigation of being responsible for the menu (and he himself kept kosher)
Posted by: Lion of Zion at January 28, 2008 10:56 AM
@ Rabbinical Student:
You certainly aren't the only university student who's noticed a decline in intellectual rigor. What's funny is that the day after I read your post, I was listening to a lecture in which someone argued that way back at Mount Sinai, the Israelites wanted to preserve their right to reinterpret the Torah in the light of evolving, contemporary sensibilities.
Which HUC campus are you on? If you happen to be in Cincinnati, the local community kollel has a staff member whose beat includes U.C., and I'd be happy to put you in touch with him.
And if you want, I can try to e-mail you the audio.
Robert has my contact info.
Posted by: Alterbentzion at January 30, 2008 11:38 AM
(U.C., the University of Cincinnati, is across the street from HUC in Cincinnati.)
Posted by: Alterbentzion at January 30, 2008 11:40 AM