Reform Reflections: Reform's 'tude' problems

In June, an article about Reform Judaism was published in Commentary Magazine. Those interested in Prof. Jack Wertheimer's analysis in all its glory would do well to locate the original. I'll give you the short version - he suggests that Reform Judaism is a failure.

As a Reform insider, I'm here to tell you that Prof. Wertheimer is right. The more you know about a religious denomination, the more reason you should have to be concerned about its omissions and disasters, about the gulf between what it avers and what it achieves. Reform is a failure, and I hope it continues to be so in the future.

I want to outline some of our major problems, and then I want to tell you why I'm happy to stick around and grapple with these failures, rather than go off in search of a whole set of new ones. I also want to suggest that most of the traditional claims against Reform Judaism are misguided or mean. If you're looking for the real failures and challenges of our movement, you might consider sticking with an insider for the real scoop. The picture of air-headed ignoramuses misleading the masses is a fake, and if that picture titillates you, you may need help. The real story is a little more complex. So here goes:

Reform Judaism is more right than it is true. By claiming that we are right, I don't mean to say that there is any empirical way of assessing this, or that other streams of Judaism are wrong. As a pluralist, I don't believe there has to be only one way of being right, which by some extraordinary coincidence happens to be my own. Instead, my suggestion is that many of the key claims of Reform Judaism are plausible - that change has always been a major characteristic of Judaism; that like all civilizations Jewish culture lives within history and is molded by it; that eternal moral values are at the heart of the Jewish enterprise.

To be true, Reform Judaism has to demonstrate passion and fervor (not easy for moderates); we need to have a Judaism not only capable of attracting the uncommitted but of thrilling our children and grandchildren.

Not every cause capable of evoking passionate commitment is worthy. Often the most benighted and retrograde agendas evoke the most unswerving loyalty. I would not trade in our honest hesitation for fervent error. But I am aware that only being right is not enough - we must be true. In this sense, you might say that Reform Judaism has an attitude problem.

We also have a platitude problem. We often make lofty claims which bear too little reality to what takes place on the ground. It can never be enough to declare that we are partners with God in the work of creation, as we often do. If we are not to be decried as sleeping partners, if we are to keep up our end of the partnership - we have to do stuff.

Furthermore, Reform Judaism suffers from an aptitude problem. Too many products of our educational frameworks are stuck in first gear, constantly in 'Intro to Judaism' mode. As a consequence, the Jewish vocabulary of many of our adherents is often too basic to allow the kind of creativity we crave.

As is often pointed out, another major challenge is our latitude problem. It often appears as though anything goes, that there are no standards. We don't have a structure for handing down rulings and fixing standards. All we have is women and men trying their best to work out ways of being Jewish in the twenty-first century. Does this mean struggling with the lines and demarcations of Jewish practice and Jewish status, with disagreements and mistakes? You betcha.

Despite significant innovations in liturgy, our worship is highly problematic. Often our folks are too 'knowing' to be able to let go and allow the cadences of prayer to find their rhythm. Although things are changing rapidly in our synagogues, you still might argue that we have a gratitude problem.

Here are just some of our problems, including authenticity, intensity, literacy, policy, consistency and spirituality. Why, if things are so bad, do I and so many others continue to identify with the project of Liberal Judaism in one or other of its manifestations? According to some of our critics, we are well-heeled cynics, making pots of money by packaging Judaism Lite and appealing to the lowest common denominators. Or we are self-haters, seeking to embalm Jewish history and bury Jewish peoplehood. Or we are insidious hellenizers, legitimate targets for self-appointed heirs to the Biblical Pinchas.

If those explanations work for you, there's nothing I could write to change your mind. For the rest of my readers, I want to offer three reasons why Reform is my kind of failure. First, look around at all the magnificent things we are doing, often on the frontiers of contemporary Jewish life. Look at the outreach, the social action, the congregational and institutional vigor. Look at Jews finding ways to express themselves as Jews when others have cast them aside or cast aspersions upon them. A colleague and friend just sent me his position on weddings involving a non-Jewish partner. I disagree with him profoundly, but I respect the integrity, learning and love which informs his viewpoint. I am happy and even a little proud to be on his team.

Second: I would rather operate in a liberal setting than hold the liberal line in a more conservative setting. Some of my best friends have gone the other route, and I am not sure that a great ideological divide stands between us. In the end all denominations and movements are vehicles for doing some good in the world, and the thought that this is some kind of math problem with one right answer is, to use a moderate and inclusive word, stupid.

Lastly, we should embrace our failures. That's what religions and civilizations always do. God is free of failure, but here's the thing - we are not God, and we should never pretend we have exclusive rights to God's will. We fail, and the more honest we are about our failures, the better chance we have of addressing our problems. So Reform in the coming generation will need to work on its attitude, its tendency to platitude, its need for greater aptitude, its latitude, its capacity for gratitude. But as it does so, it should not believe that somewhere there is a default option, a Genuine Judaism which has got everything right. That Judaism, those Judaisms, are always in the making.

A few months ago I came across a wonderful short story by the Israeli author Maya Arad. The main character is inspired by a sentence quoted to him by his father as he embarks on a career as a translator. The sentence comes from Samuel Beckett's Worstward Ho!, and it's a worthy slogan for the Reform attempt to overcome its manifold problems and provide a meaningful and vigorous translation of Judaism for contemporary Jews in search of a new vocabulary:

Ever tried.
Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.