HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ 1/HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ.iso/anarchy/essays/schoolsucks/jewus01.txt

Text File | 1996-04-27 | 10.7 KB | 160 lines

       Judaism's Transformation to Modernization
       in Relation to America

       The Jewish way of life has been affected in a tremendous way by the
       people of the United States of America. By the time of the signing
       of the Declaration of Independence, there were only 2500 Jews in
       America. For forty years beginning in 1840, 250,000 Jews
       (primarily from Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia) entered this
       country. Anti-Semitism and economic woes in Eastern Europe went
       from bad to worse after the pogroms of 1881-1882. Almost three
       million Eastern European Jews left between 1881 and 1914, two
       million (85%) of which decided to come to America, where they
       thought "the streets were paved with gold." They were wrong.
       Because of this intercontinental migration, the social
       characterization of Jews in America changed drastically. Before
       the move, the largest group in the early eighteenth century were
       the Sephardic Jews. They lived in the coastal cities as merchants,
       artisans, and shippers. The Jews who predominately spoke German
       came to America over 100 years later, and quickly spread out over
       the land. Starting as peddlers, they moved up to business
       positions in the south, midwest, and on the west coast. New York
       City had 85,000 Jews by 1880, most of which had German roots. At
       this time in American history, the government accepted many people
       from many different backgrounds to allow for a diverse population;
       this act of opening our borders probably is the origin of the
       descriptive phrase "the melting pot of the world."
       These German Jews rapidly assimilated themselves and their faith.
       Reform Judaism arrived here after the Civil War due to the advent
       of European Reform rabbis. Jewish seminaries, associations, and
       institutions, such as Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College, New
       York's Jewish Theological Seminary, the Union of American Hebrew
       Congregations (UAHC), and the Central Conference of American
       Rabbis, were founded in the 1880s.
       America was experimenting with industry on a huge scale at the
       time the Eastern European Jews that arrived. Their social history
       combined with the American Industrial Age produced an extremely
       diverse and distinct American Jewry by the end of the
       intercontinental migration, which coincided with the start of the
       Great World War (World War I). Almost two out of every three new
       immigrants called the big northeast municipalities (such as the
       Lower East Side of New York) their new home. They would take any
       job available to support the family, and they worked in many
       different jobs which were as physically demanding as they were
       diverse. The garment district in New York today was made from the
       meticulousness, the sweat, and the determination of the Jews. Low
       pay, long hours, and disgusting working conditions characterized
       the average working day. Labor unions fought for these workers'
       rights and eventually won. There are stories of men in the Lower
       East Side of New York who started to sell rags from a cart, and
       slowly moved up the ladder in time to run a small clothing shop.
       Like other Jews in America at this time, they sacrificed the
       Sabbath to work during it, but it was for the good and the support
       of his family.
       The 1890s saw the birth of many Jewish-oriented charities were
       organized to raising funds for medical and social services, such
       as Jewish hospitals and Jewish homes for the aged. The American
       Jewish Committee was formed in 1906 to attempt to influence the
       American government to aid persecuted Jewish communities overseas.
       B'nai B'rith, a Jewish fraternal society, was set up in 1843 by
       German Jews in America; in 1913 it instituted the Anti-Defamation
       League to combat anti-Semitism. Today the ADL combats not just
       anti-Semitism, but also racism and other discriminants.
       Furthermore, The B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation has put together
       Hillel Houses at major college campus throughout the country to
       ensure that Jewish college students get an adequate religious
       experience.
       Anti-Semitism in America did not become widespread until the turn
       of the century. Anti-Semitism follows Jews around; it is not part
       of a community unless Jews live with them in that community and
       the gentiles don't want them there. Jews were informally
       ostracized from clubs and resorts, and were denied entrance to
       colleges and other institutes of higher learning. Moreover, it was
       a common practice to not employ Jews in particular professions and
       basic industries. Between World War I and World War II the United
       States placed limits on the number of Jews allowed in per year.
       Zionism, the movement formed by Jews to get themselves to a land
       that they can call their own, had a definite impact on American
       Jewry during Zionism's times of development and execution.
       American Zionism was affected by German and East European Jews
       coming to America.. Although the small membership of the American
       Zionist movement was almost completely East European at first,
       many of its leaders came from the older German group. By 1915,
       Zionism began to attract prominent American-born figures, such as
       Louis D. Brandeis, who is most famous as being the first Jew to
       serve on the Supreme Court. Brandeis and his associates added a
       distinctly American note into Zionism, rejecting the belief that
       the diaspora was a form of exile, and also that Zionism tried to
       address the dangerous problem of dual loyalty for patriotic Jewish
       Americans. For Brandeis, American and Zionist ideals reinforced
       each other.
       The occurrences of intermarriage (a Jew marrying a gentile) was
       not only extremely rare in the first generation of American Jews,
       it was also unheard of and rarely talked about. Today, love
       commonly crosses the borders of religion; intermarriages are
       common. Although divorce is allowed by the Jewish religion, it
       also happened once in a blue moon in those times. In America
       today, every other marriage ends in a divorce.
       The parents tried to push their children for them to have a better
       life (i.e., material wealth), a better job, and a better education
       than they themselves did. The primary reason for this is so the
       parents would know that their children could adequately support
       them in old age. Today, "the curve has changed." This happens on a
       much lower rate, and the chances that it happens again (on the
       same scale the first generation of American Jews) is slim; today's
       economy is but one reason of many why this will happen. Back then,
       only the husband worked and the "universal middle-class
       expectation" of the wife was to stay at home and tend for the
       children. If the wife had to work -- even part time during
       seasonal times of the year -- then it shamed the family into
       thinking that the husband was not a good provider. Today it is not
       uncommon for both parents to work, and usually neither parent is
       ashamed that both work to (simply) support the family; usually
       they are both employed such that the family can enjoy a higher
       standard of living. Furthermore, the advent of women's liberation
       has made it possible for more women to go out into the work force.
       Keeping Kosher is yet another issue that has changed over the
       generations of American Jews. My mother and father, both Jews,
       grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and my mother's family always kept
       kosher. Today, as a Jew, I have never kept kosher in my life, with
       the exception of certain holidays, and when my rabbi was watching
       me.
       Finally, the last issue which is a part of the Jewish-American
       generation gap is the Yiddish language. Parents spoke Yiddish
       often, but not to the children. They only spoke it to each other
       if they did not want the kids to understand what they were talking
       about (i.e., marriage problems). However, because the parents did
       not choose to have their kids learn Yiddish, they may have
       contributed to the generation gap. Today, Yiddish is dying
       rapidly. Yiddish theater in New York is but one of a few remaining
       areas in America that still speak the language. Today, as a Jew, I
       have never heard a Yiddish sentence -- only a few words here and
       there, like "schlemiel" and "zoftig" -- and even then I am still
       unsure of their true meaning in the times when it was spoken
       freely. Scholars have predicted the extinction of the language by
       2040 AD, or 5800 on the Jewish calendar.
       America has also been an influence on new kinds of Judaism.
       Mordecai Kaplan founded the Jewish Reconstructionist movement in
       America in the early 1900s. In 1917 he led a shul which
       incorporated a broad realm of cultural and recreational
       activities. Five years later, he formed the Society of the
       Advancement of Judaism, which believed that worship was only one
       of many issues a congregation should address. His book Judaism as
       a Civilization called for a "reconstruction" of Jewish life. The
       Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation (now the Federation of
       Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot) issued new liturgical
       texts in the 1940s and 1950s, and it opened the Reconstructionist
       Rabbinic College in Philadelphia in 1968. It is an evolving and
       organic kind of Judaism, which is constantly adapting itself to the
       needs of the community and the society it serves.
       Judaism today, largely because of the American hustle-and-bustle
       contemporary lifestyle, is just a religion instead of a way of
       life. We are now in a period of time where many options are
       presented on how to be Jewish -- going to shul, observing the
       holidays, sending your children to learn about the Jewish ways of
       life, belonging to temples and Jewish organizations (i.e.,
       Havurah, an attempt to revive Judaism in small social groups) --
       instead of what was only one way to be Jewish. No central idea
       holds it together. There's really no one common way to be Jewish
       anymore.