Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life

CHAPTER XXVIII JEWISH MILIEU

CHAPTER XXVIII JEWISH MILIEU A. The Jewi~h family-The fundamental unit of Jewish life-The need [or a constructive attitude toward intermarriage-The vitality of a civilization depend('nt upon functioning of family--Jewish family the backbone of Jewish civilization-Social and spiritual function of the family as fostered by J udaism-The community to be responsible for inte~rity of family institution. B. The synagogue-The synagogue to be transformed into the Jewish neighborhood center-Its functions. A THE JEWISH FAMILY WHAT native soil is to a plant, territory is to a civilization. Yet a tropical plant may be enabled to thrive in a northern clime by means of an enclosure within which the necessary conditions of temperature and sunshine are provided. Likewise, if Jewish life is to be cultivated outside its national homeland, it must be provided with a milieu congenial to its aims and modes of self-expression. The primary and indispensable locus of Jewish life is undoubtedly the home, where the child receives his first impressions, and where he obtains the basic layer of his cultural and spiritual life. It is there that the principal Jewish habits and Jewish values should be transmitted from one generation to the other. Therefore, whatever touches upon Judaism as a way of life has a bearing upon the Jewish home. Since Judaism is more than a religion or a religious philosophy, it cannot even begin to function in the individual as such. The family is the smallest social unit through which it can articulate itself. A philosophy, whether religious or secular, presupposes a high degree of individualization and detachment from the heat and turmoil of life; but it is only some form of associated life with all its accompanying vicissitudes that gives rise to a civilization. The minimum unit of a civilization consists of man, wife and child, for no person by himself can be the carrier of a civilization, which depenr.ls upon social interaction as well as upon transmission of 416 JEWISH MILIEU cultural content from one generation to the next. From that standpoint , the problem of adjusting the Jewish home to social conditions of modern life is at the center of the problem of Judaism. It is necessary , therefore, to consider the readjustment which the home must undergo in order that it may continue both to influence Jewish civilization, and to be influenced by it. For the home to serve as the mainstay of Judaism, the man and wife who establish it must possess enough of positive Jewish background to create a milieu which will supply their children. with that intangible and spontaneous quality of a civilization which is often referred to as "atmosphere." To meet that condition, both parents must be Jews. The possibility of intermarriage was so negligible in the past that it hardly entered into the discussions and responsa of the rabbis of former days. But now the freer social intercourse and the more numerous and varied contacts with Gentiles bring to the fore the problem of intermarriage. That intermarriages increase with alarming rapidity from one generation to the next has been shown by Zollschan, Ruppin, Drachsler and others. The conclusion which these students of Jewish life draw from the growing tendency to intermarriage is that diaspora Judaism will inevitably disappear. Their conclusion may indeed be proved by the event, if the present policy of ignoring the problem continues. Jewish leaders are as reluctant to probe into the status of Jewish mixed marriages as one who is ailing from disease is afraid to consult a physician lest he learn that his disease is fatal. It is certain that, if nothing is done to prevent the tendency to intermarriage, Judaism can barely survive another century, and, even if it does survive, it will have become hopelessly devitalized. The inadequacy of the Reformist reconstruction of Judaism is most clearly evidenced by its vacillating policy with regard to intermarriage .1 The fact that Reformism itself is a compromise between an avowed acceptance of Judaism as a religious philosophy and an unacknowledged and covert reckoning with it as a mode of social life has prevented any definite policy toward intermarriage. Some Reformists insist that the Gentile party to the marriage accept Judaism, while others have been known to solemnize marriages in which the Gentile remained unconverted. Neo-Orthodoxy still pretends to follow the principle which has been current for centuries, JUDAISM AS A CIVILIZATION while...