Speakers for Streams of Judaism

by Aaron Orshan,      11^th grade,      NJ

Throughout the course of our Jewish studies curriculum, we students have the amazing ability to hear guest lecturers talk about subjects directly related to our studies, and also the ability to hear talks about things that aren't necessarily directly related. On Tuesday, March 19th, my fellow students and I had the eye-opening opportunity to hear from three guest lecturers on modern streams of Judaism. Each speaker is an active member of a difference stream and discussed with us what their movement is about.  The speakers did this through telling us about their upbringing, telling what continues to keep them in that stream, and also giving us the opportunity to ask them questions on any subject relating to their life and the practices associated with it both biologically and physically.

speakers for the Hassidic movement:  Yehoshua and Bracha

The first speaker was a married couple who represented the Hassidic movement.  They were very interesting speakers and because of that and many other reasons eventually became my favorite speakers of the day. Though both hailing from NY they had a very different beginnings from a parental point of view. While the man, Yehoshua, was raised from two Holocaust survivors, the wife was born from two parents both hailing from different parts of the United States. Interestingly enough, they compared their Brooklyn community to that of ghetto/Shtetl, this was something I had never really thought about, but was very cool to hear. After talking about this section of their life they then went into detail about their decision to depart the US for around a year in 1991 to move to Kiev, Ukraine. In Kiev, the couple worked tirelessly to help teach the local Jewish community more about Judaism with the intention of reviving the Jewish life that had been oppressed by communism. They did this through hosting shabbat dinners, teaching the practices of the religion and putting a huge emphasis on the more ideological sides of the religion. Following this brief section of their lives, the couple, along with many of their students from Russia, made Aliyah.

Yehoshua and Bracha taking questions from the audience

After this section of the lecture they opened up the session for questions from the students. I can honestly say that every comment asked seemed to be extremely thoughtful and well put resulting in a very comprehensive answer. Though this is true, I thought there definitely were some questions that stood out more than others. A great example is when someone in the crowd decided to ask them about their opinion about Women of The Wall. They started off their answer by discussing how they believe that every member of the Jewish faith has the right to pray at the Western Wall, but he believes that there truly is only one way to pray. They then went into detail about how they believe that the WOW organization itself is simply trying to promote feminism in an unnecessary way. They discussed how the egalitarian section was put there, that way any member of the Jewish faith can practice the religion at the wall in whatever fashion suits them best, but he mentioned how the kotel plaza itself is meant for practicing the orthodox Jewish faith as it directly “ is mean to be” practiced. Knowing that most of us would be supporters of Women of the Wall they didn’t ask us to change our opinion on the organization, but to simply look at it from their point of view.

One of the other very interesting questions brought up to them involved asking does personal Jewish identity work on a spectrum based on religiousness. The couple answered with a simple yes and then went onto explain that by simply looking at assimilation rates among the various streams of Judaism, one would see that the more religiously observant retain more followers than that of the less religious. Towards the end of their talk one student asked them how they felt their religion connected to their life and they replied by explaining that religion simply is their life. They went onto to say how it influences their morals, their practices and more.

One of the final questions asked the speakers to give their take on gender roles within Judaism and the reasons for them. The speakers talked about how they truly believed that men and women are biologically meant for different roles. The man gave the example that women have the mental capacity and physical body type to be able to raise children while men don’t. Though seen as a very controversial answer to the question the audience seemed to be astounded by the sheer fact that they believed this.      

Rabbi Alona Nir Keren from the Kamatz Synagogue in Mevesseret speaks to our group

The next speaker was a Reform rabbi from Israel, Rabbi Alona Nir Keren. She was born in Israel to very secular parents. This resulted in her being raised with very little Jewish religious practice throughout her life, and gave her a negative outlook on observant Jews. Once in the army, she was given the job of a nature guide where she had the amazing opportunity to meet with Jewish youth groups from all over the western world. Through these interactions she started to discover a whole new meaning for what Judaism means and how it can be practiced. She spent the majority of her session talking about what Reform Judaism means within the State of Israel. A great example of this discussion is when the rabbi asked the audience “How much do you think it costs to belong to an orthodox synagogue?” and after telling us that it costed zero shekels because it was government subsidized, she explained that the Reform and Conservative shuls here are purely private institutions. Though most of us knew this previously, it was so powerful to really hear this from an actively practicing Israeli Reform rabbi because it really displayed the struggle that they are going through to practice their version of the religion. Similar to what was asked of the orthodox couple, the Reform rabbi was asked about her opinion of Women of The Wall. Surprisingly, however, her answer was also very similar to that of the orthodox couple where she felt that the egalitarian section is fine and that the fight they are trying to fight is not one that is of necessity. She ended her talk by discussing that being a Reform Jew means that there is a greater emphasis on you the individual rather than a rabbi or holy scripture.

Evan Wertheim, one of our teachers, introduces Rabbi Arie Hassit.  (he has a Purim hat on)

The final speaker was a Conservative rabbi, Rabbi Arie Hassit. He was originally from NJ where through mostly internal motivation he decided to become more and more religious as he grew up. He started his discussion by giving us his explanation of pluralism by reciting the quote “Though we all heard God’s voice at Mt.Sinai, we all heard it in different ways”. He then went onto explain that he believes that the Jewish religion must constantly be evolving, which explains the existence of streams other than orthodox. From this he explained that he believes that Conservative Judaism is a movement based on the idea that although religion must change with time, Judaism should only do this based on the teachings of the Torah. Much of the rest of his speaking time was spent talking about the LGBT community.  Rabbi Arie discussed how the first thing he didafter getting ordainedas a rabbi was to marry a same-sex couple.

When asked about his opinion about the kotel plaza he explained how he believes that men and women should be equal at the wall and be free to practice their religion together, but at the same time believes that there should also be some form of an option to have a mahetiza for those that do enjoy praying that way. Interestingly enough, the rabbi was asked if he believes if he will eventually run for a government office and, though he said no, he then went into a discussion of how he believes that synagogue and state should be separate.  

Following the series of speakers, the four Jewish History classes broke off into classes to have a discussion about what they thought of the experience. It was very interesting to hear how other students interpreted the speakers’ words and which speakers they preferred over others. Every one of the speakers did an excellent job representing their stream. Based on the responses of the students after the speaker sessions, one could see that they were very engaging as well.