Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part II

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For much of the 20th century, the major denominations—Conservative, Reform, Orthodox—loomed large over institutional Jewish life in America. But in 2019, the Jewish scene looks different; the movements hold less purchase on Jewish life than they once did, especially for the young. And the denominations look different internally as well. Reform Judaism has embraced ritual practices once deemed outmoded. Orthodoxy, which many thought on its way to extinction, is strong, growing, and confident. And Conservative Judaism, once thought to be the future of American Jewry, is caught betwixt and between, too religiously observant to facilitate intermarriage, too religiously lenient to command the encompassing solidarity and halakhic observance of Orthodoxy.

In this second installment in our series on The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today, Jack Wertheimer helps us make sense of the many changes in Jewish denominational life. He looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the major Jewish movements, and gives us insight into the variance between the denominational doctrines and the “folk religion” that Jews actually practice. Wertheimer also ponders what the Jewish movements can continue to contribute to Jewish life in our age of declining allegiance to institutions.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble, as well as the original Broadway cast recording of Fiddler on the Roof and "Above the Ocean" by Evan MacDonald.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	For much of the 20th century, the major denominations, conservative reform orthodox,
0:13.0	loomed large over institutional Jewish life in America.
0:17.2	But in 2019, the Jewish scene looks different.
0:20.7	The movements hold less purchase on Jewish life than they once did, especially for the young.
0:25.7	And the denominations look different internally as well.
0:29.5	Reform Judaism has embraced ritual practices once deemed outmoded.
0:35.0	Orthodoxy, which many thought on its way to extinction, is stronger than it has
0:39.3	ever been, and while still small in terms of overall numbers, is confidently growing.
0:46.1	Conservative Judaism, once thought to be the future of American Jewry, is caught betwixt in
0:51.0	between, too religiously observant to facilitate intermarriage,
0:55.6	too religiously lenient to command the encompassing solidarity, community, and
1:00.9	halakhic observance of Orthodoxy.
1:03.5	Welcome to the Tikva podcast.
1:05.0	I'm your host, Jonathan Silver.
1:07.3	In this second installment in our series on the new book, The New American Judaism,
1:12.2	How Jews Practice Their Religion Today, its author, historian Jack Wertheimer,
1:17.0	helps us make sense of the many changes in Jewish denominational life.
1:21.6	We look at the strengths and weaknesses of the major Jewish movements,
1:25.3	the variance between the denominational doctrines as opposed
1:28.4	to the folk religion that's actually practiced on the ground. And we wonder together about
1:33.5	what the Jewish movements have to offer in our age of declining allegiance to institutions.
1:39.3	If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on iTunes, Stitcher,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.