Although I think the narrator, who makes things into neat dialectics, needs a counterpart to interject that it's all really messy and a lot of people don't map neatly onto axes.
And then the narrator can respond that dialectics can be useful anyway...
Thank you, professor, for these incredibly insightful posts--I particularly appreciate your adaptation of the Scott Alexander "house party" format for this essential subject matter. :)
While I trust that you'll address in a future post, I want to ask about "why the party had to take place in Jerusalem and not, say, New York" as you've written above. As an American Jew, many of these questions are equally vital, though perhaps fall along additional or slightly different axes as the ones you've aptly identified.
Of particular interest (to me) is more the archetype of Heidi (from Judaism Straight Up) or perhaps (I'm just guessing here...) her more Zionist older brother at the Conservative synagogue on the other side of town. As you've noted here and in the book, halakha can serve the sociological function of establishing in-group boundaries and loyalty. Within the (predominantly American) liberal Jewish denominations, where halakha is of greatly diminished salience, it seems to me that particular political beliefs have become the shibboleths for in-group membership, in lieu of halakha. This might be progressive politics or activism within the Reform movement, or Zionism within the Conservative movement.
I think there are a ton of negative downstream effects here and would love to hear your thoughts on how this plays into the bigger picture for the Jewish people as a whole, especially given that Reform and Conservative Jews in the US might together make up something like a quarter of all Jews worldwide. Moreover, I think this dynamic might play into the shifting support for Israel in the US, which obviously has major follow-on effects for Israel geopolitically.
Thanks, David. Axis 3 will deal with questions of religion and state and that's where the Israel angle will become more salient. I more or less exhausted my thoughts on American Jews in Judaism Straight Up, though I concede the situation is dynamic and might bear an update.
Nice. I enjoyed the first bit.
Although I think the narrator, who makes things into neat dialectics, needs a counterpart to interject that it's all really messy and a lot of people don't map neatly onto axes.
And then the narrator can respond that dialectics can be useful anyway...
Looking forward
Incredible. Looking forward
It needs to be done, it will compliment your previous excellent ‘novella’. Looking forward and of course, יישר כוחך!
Thank you, professor, for these incredibly insightful posts--I particularly appreciate your adaptation of the Scott Alexander "house party" format for this essential subject matter. :)
While I trust that you'll address in a future post, I want to ask about "why the party had to take place in Jerusalem and not, say, New York" as you've written above. As an American Jew, many of these questions are equally vital, though perhaps fall along additional or slightly different axes as the ones you've aptly identified.
Of particular interest (to me) is more the archetype of Heidi (from Judaism Straight Up) or perhaps (I'm just guessing here...) her more Zionist older brother at the Conservative synagogue on the other side of town. As you've noted here and in the book, halakha can serve the sociological function of establishing in-group boundaries and loyalty. Within the (predominantly American) liberal Jewish denominations, where halakha is of greatly diminished salience, it seems to me that particular political beliefs have become the shibboleths for in-group membership, in lieu of halakha. This might be progressive politics or activism within the Reform movement, or Zionism within the Conservative movement.
I think there are a ton of negative downstream effects here and would love to hear your thoughts on how this plays into the bigger picture for the Jewish people as a whole, especially given that Reform and Conservative Jews in the US might together make up something like a quarter of all Jews worldwide. Moreover, I think this dynamic might play into the shifting support for Israel in the US, which obviously has major follow-on effects for Israel geopolitically.
Thank you!!
Thanks, David. Axis 3 will deal with questions of religion and state and that's where the Israel angle will become more salient. I more or less exhausted my thoughts on American Jews in Judaism Straight Up, though I concede the situation is dynamic and might bear an update.