"It's a Free Country"
Reporting from an AZM Or L'Dor / PresenTense Salon
Alan Sufrin makes a point about American Jews' transition to the suburbs
Jews settled in colonial America due to its economic, rather than religious, opportunities; nevertheless, given a critical mass of Jews and the onset of the High Holidays, synagogues would appear. Eagerly they took the spirit of the American Revolution to heart, adopting American standards by penning synagogue constitutions beginning “We the members of K. K. Shearith Israel.” In the absence of a single rabbi, the application of democracy to religion meant that each person practiced Judaism however he or she pleased. Once rabbis finally arrived on the scene in the 1840s, they had to contend with congregants who felt entitled to fire them if dissatisfied with their religious judgment.
Two hundred years later, Jews arrived on a new frontier: the suburbs. While not religious in practice, they found themselves shunned from Christian country clubs, and consequently set out to establish their own social groups. Then, in an earnest process of self-discovery, they remembered that their children would need a good Jewish education, and thus the most suitable establishment for them might actually be a synagogue. Unselfconsciously exercising the quintessentially American principles of democracy, capitalism and competition in a free market, they lined up rabbis from all three movements – Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform – interviewed each about what that version of Judaism had to offer, debated the options, and made a decision by majority vote.
The values and freedoms of America have certainly influenced American Jewish priorities and perspectives. Furthermore, the fact that Jews have thrived in America serves as proof that the American model granting freedom of religion works, giving Jews in other places over the last two centuries hope that one day they, too, will be awarded such freedoms. In turn, Jews have influenced American society. Hordes of Eastern European immigrants arriving in the second half of the 19th century played a role in industrialization and the formation of labor unions, for instance. But surely there is a limit on the extent to which a minority can make a societal impact. Could this be the rationale behind Zionism, the movement for a Jewish nation that will fulfill the potential of the Jewish people?
But that’s a salon topic for another day.
