Who’s In and Who’s Out in Orthodoxy
Roughed Up: Asher Lopatin has been given a hard time for espousing ?open Orthodoxy.? Image by Courtesy of YCT
At a time when most Jewish leaders are eagerly embracing anyone who claims a shred of Jewish identity or heritage, some Orthodox leaders are doing just the opposite: dramatically restricting the acceptable behaviors and belief systems of even their own.
So we have the embarrassing spectacle of Rabbi Asher Lopatin, the new president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, who espouses a form of “open Orthodoxy” and finds that his former colleagues won’t even return his phone calls. And Ephraim Mirvis, the newly installed chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, who announces he will attend Limmud — perhaps the most successful expression of pluralistic, exuberant Jewish learning in the world — only to be denounced by some of the very Haredi leaders he was chosen to represent.
“The endless focus on who is in and who is out,” Lopatin wrote recently in Haaretz, “only serves to sow discord and a notion that there is indeed an objective judging authority who can open windows in men’s souls.” Women’s souls, too.
Despite its growing numbers, Orthodoxy in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere is facing serious challenges, especially with increasing poverty tied to high unemployment and high rates of secular illiteracy. The Pew Research Center study found that massive Orthodox outreach efforts have brought in only tiny numbers of Jews to the movement. Perhaps the tiresome dictates of “who’s in, who’s out” are why.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
