Comments on: A Secular Congregation

By: Ittay

Ittay — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:15:17 +0000

Ayeka now has it’s own website:
http://www.ayeka.org.au/

Our next session will be facilitated by Rebecca Forgasz on the topic of “Jewish Expression” at her home ground – The Melbourne Jewish Museum – were she is the director.

The session will ask the question – what makes something “Jewish” expression, and what do people mean when they say they are influenced by their Judaism. We will discuss this through the works of Jewish and non-Jewish artists, musicians, writers and actors.

Rebecca Forgasz – “Jewish Expression?”
7:00 (be on time) – 28/10/10
Jewish Museum of Melbourne
26 Alma Rd, St Kilda VIC 3182
$10 – nibbles/tea provided

By: Chaim

Chaim — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:18:59 +0000

I think that is all admirable. I guess I got stuck on the phrase “Ultimately we are looking to create our own congregation”.. With the hundreds of small congregations being formed to cater to only specific ideologies, it removes the concept of dialogue, consolidation and moderation within other groups and the community at large leaving further division and isolation.

By: ittay

ittay — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:24:09 +0000

Shalom Chaim,
Whilst I agree with you that “Barriers and division are still walls between people and do nothing to promote unity within the Jewish community” I don’t see the aim of ayeka as being to promote division.
Many young Jews find the mainstream shules in Melbourne uninspiring, unengaging or not relevant to what they understand Judaism should be in the 21st century. The barriers to their full participation in Jewish life have been present for a long time.

Ayeka does not to aspire to replace any existing congregations or demean the good work their rabbis do with their congregants. What it does aim to do is provide a forum to read the texts and explore the ideas of our tradition in a critical manner that will hopefully allow folks to engage more seriously as Jews in the modern world. For some, this may be through prayer or tzedakah, whilst for others it may involve social or political activism.
For an excellent article on the relevancy of secular Judaism read:
http://www.csjo.org/pages/essays/essaysoyouwanttobe.htm

By: Chaim

Chaim — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:18:27 +0000

I really am not sure what is new here and that is does not exist already. it seems you are just giving it a new title and trying to build another structure within Judaism as if we need more barriers, divisiveness and definitions.

Why can we all just be Jews exploring our identity? There is one concept of not having the need to make excuses like our parents but rather acknowledging and accepting the consequences of those decisions in a positive and constructive way and another to pretend we are not making conscious decisions to reject our heritage by just creating a personal “Oprah” book club.

You should have the self awareness and confidence to walk into any existing synagogue - progressive or orthodox or any other existing Jewish non religious institution and learn from them while bonding to them as Jews despite vast differences in beliefs or practice. Believe me the study groups are a great idea as is the self exploration and personal reinterpretation of texts but making a specific new “congregation” in order to fill some void within your identity as a Jew seems to me no different to what your parents did albeit in a structural and reinforcing way.

Barriers and division whether positive or negative are still walls between people and do nothing to promote unity within the Jewish community. Integration, tolerance and acceptance of diversity on the other hand builds bridges and buttresses personal identity.

p.s. that interpretation of Ayeka has a source. Don’t think it is new. See Shneur Zalman of Liadi and others.

By: Shulzi

Shulzi — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:43:31 +0000

Larry: I’m not criticising a secular perspective towards texts in itself, and in fact believe its healthy discourse for such things to occur. However, one can study any philosiphical text holistically and attribute it to their identity and state of mind. My concern is to what rituals arise from this and other initiatives to bolster secular judaism.
Liraz: The first line that you have stated in response to what I have said indicates a complete misinterpretation of what I am trying to say. To clarify, reading religious texts whether it is the Tanach, Talmud, New Testament or Koran, in my eyes can be done by anyone if they so choose. However, if you choose to do so in order to enhance your own identity (and in this case being a secular jew, not a traditional or religious jew), I personally cannot see where this leads to besides simply being a study of a ‘historical text’ that allows you to understand your roots and nothing more. Secularism is the denial of the authority of religion, and if at the same time you choose to participate in say participating in Seder, how you would remove the religious element and still maintain its essence of that is beyond my comprehension. Even with Shabbat dinner, simply having dinner on friday night without kiddush and challah has significantly less substance. Furthermore, to only take the lessons of Judaism without the religion, inherently inserting a humanist slant on it all (correct me if I’m wrong), also blurs the lines as to why such values are Jewish in themselves. Family, hospitality, charity and so on are common values shared by any well meaning person today, whether they are Jewish or not.

By: Liraz

Liraz — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:53:42 +0000

Shultzi im glad you brought up the point of roots and in general the “authority” to have a Jewish Identity not based on God or any kind of religious doctrine. The opinion that a person, let alone a Secular Jew, cannot study or discuss a traditional text without first accepting a baseline of religiosity seems absurd. I think that if a lot of Melbourne Jews took a hard look at why they have Shabbat dinner every Friday or hold a Pesach Seder or two every year they would come to realise it has a whole lot less to do with a belief system and a lot more to do with Traditions and Jewish Culture. Secular Judaism is not trying to destroy tradition and culture, it embraces it and exists because of it. A practising Secular Jew asks of themselves the questions “Why am I Jewish” – “What influence does my Judaism have on my life” and “What does my Jewish traditions and culture teach me and what are their implications on my outlook of the world”. And what have I found personally? That there are many Jewish lessons to be learnt which are both valuable and worthy of a Jewish identity and which are not in any way based on God.
And of course I stand with Ittay in his sentiments of the Secular contributions to the modern state of Israel and Zionism as an ideology. Herzl never wore a kippah and for that matter neither did Ben Gurion or any of the original leadership – their claims for a state were based on self-determination, security the concept of a “20th Century Jew” and what do you know Secularism.
But of course we recognise that the roots of Jews throughout history longing for Israel and Jerusalem are the biblical promises from God. We also recognise (its pretty obvious) that God appears in the large majority of Jewish learning and history. We don’t shy away from this fact and neither do we ignore it. We purposefully confront it and treat it with the utmost respect. What defines a Secular Jew though is the fact that we don’t have God as the base of our identity but rather the lessons of Judaism.
Also Philip: I am Lou’s grandson and hopefully if Ayeka can gain momentum we will have a barmitzvah class for your son in the coming years similar to the one Larry talks of.

By: larry Stillman

larry Stillman — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:06:13 +0000

Identity can transform, religions of all sorts can transform, so what is the problem of referring to traditional texts if people are secular? They are part of our heritage. Kaplan at least recognised the transformation that was occuring in modernity, though to a large degree, he remained with tradition.

By: Shulzi

Shulzi — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:02:53 +0000

My point is not about what the products are now; it’s what they stem from. If you deny such roots (the fact Hebrew is the language of the Tanach, and that zionism is extracted from the religious commandment to settle in Israel) then you’re created a limited history and thus limited identity upon which will not have the same strength and/or sustainability than an identity. Especially since today’s world is a globalised one, this means that such identifiers like language and nationality are easily transferable.

By: Ittay

Ittay — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:47:23 +0000

Shulzi,
you write that “nearly every aspect of Judaism stems back to something religious, whether desired or not” However, two of the three examples you give are direct products of creative secular reinterpretations of jewish texts and ideas. The first being zionism, which was in its inception a purely secular nationalist movement premised on the idea of creating a socialist state for the jews in direct opposition to the view of the talmud in masechet ketubot 110b (see “three oaths”). The second innovation was the creation of modern Hebrew, which according to Dr Gilad Zuckerman is a hybrid language with little resemblance to its biblical cousin.
Who knows what the next innovation of secular Judaism may be?

By: Shulzi

Shulzi — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:05:38 +0000

I’m somewhat skeptical about this initiative; while I applaud efforts to delve into Jewish education whatever its form, this holistic approach does not seem to lead towards a ‘secular jewish’ identity. Why do I suggest this? The reason is that merely approaching texts, with the main texts being religious in nature, indicates to me that there is still a subconsciously religious intention at the basis of this learning, whether or not explicitly intentional. To be honest, I feel the idea of ‘secular judaism’ being something that should gain greater credibility simply due to people not feeling comfortable with their position in society (while understandable) appears to be somewhat futile – nearly every aspect of Judaism stems back to something religious, whether desired or not; whether it’s zionism, learning hebrew, or (quite obviously) the pesach seder. If one is to truly attempt to legitimise secular judaism as a lifestyle, one needs to differentiate such a lifestyle dramatically from even traditional judaism yet at the same time remain fundamentally jewish (whatever that is).