Posts from the ‘General’ Category

Moishe Bane

Unintended Consequences of Compelling Strategies

American Torah Jewry is a small and emerging community, still in the relatively early stages of its development. Nevertheless, the community has expanded significantly over the past several decades, and can be compared to a start-up business entering its second stage of growth. Business ventures that fail to adjust their internal culture and focus as they mature risk faltering, since early-stage attitudes and skills may be ill-suited to their subsequent stages of development, and may even be detrimental to their success.

An expanding business must not only repeatedly reevaluate its strategies and culture, it must also consistently reexamine the skills and expertise both of its leadership and of its leadership infrastructure in order to ensure that they continue to evolve alongside its needs. Similarly, the American Torah community’s impressive explosion mandates a deliberate and critical review of its incumbent strategies, infrastructure and culture.

No doubt, the recognition of the unassailable wisdom and eternal values of the great Torah leaders who sculpted much of the community’s success will influence a conclusion that much of the community’s current approaches and strategies are as appropriate today as they were when first implemented. Nonetheless, the dramatically changing and increasingly intrusive societal influences now confronting the community, and the significant alterations in the composition and nature of the community itself, compel a study of the community’s current approaches. Such a review may indeed reveal that the very wisdom and value systems that mandated certain approaches many decades ago dictate different strategies and approaches today. Undertaking a fulsome reassessment does not imply communal or leadership deficiencies – it is the natural follow-up to their enormous success.

If concerns regarding the community’s future would need to be reduced to a single source, it would not be any one of the myriad challenges that demand attention. Rather, the single source of concern would be the absence of any review and reassessment of communal strategies, approaches and infrastructures. Further exploration and discussion is needed regarding how the suggested review should be conducted and by whom, as well as how resulting conclusions might be considered. But a review exercise would surely improve the focus of communal efforts and priorities, and would likely elevate weakening community respect for communal leadership.

The spectrum of issues worthy of review and consideration is extremely broad. For illustrative purposes, set forth below are three representative topics, one in the area of family dynamics, one in the sphere of communal attitudes, and the third addressing basic infrastructure.

The Decline of Fatherhood

In recent years, increased communal recognition and attention has been paid to the numerous sociological, psychological and emotional challenges we face. Each challenge requires the community’s sophisticated consideration of strategies that will be informed by the unique values and attitudes of Torah Judaism, and each challenge warrants specific attention. Underlying many of these problems, however, may be certain general communal characteristics or behaviors that play a role in instigating, or that frustrate the remediation of, many of the challenges. One such underlying communal characteristic is the waning of fatherhood as a dominant familial and religious function.

While Western culture has witnessed the fragmentation of the nuclear family, and has generally suffered a decline in parental involvement and influence, the Torah community has historically maintained an exceptional focus on parenting responsibilities. Both halachic imperatives and sociological needs mandate that parents play an intimate role in the educational and emotional development of their children. Mothers, in fact, continue to provide that critical role, notwithstanding the increasingly imposing demands upon them, as many women serve as the family’s second (and occasionally primary) breadwinner.

While mothers wage their valiant battle to retain their magnificent and essential role, fathers, by contrast, often substantially cede their paternal role and influence shortly after their child enters high school. Each weeknight, offices and batei medrash are filled with Torah observant fathers, struggling to fulfill either the duties borne of large families in an economically demanding world, or their personal obligations of limud haTorah. Consequentially, fathers are frequently absent from the weekday dinner table, and leave to others, if to anyone, the roles of assisting with children’s homework and chatting with them about their day. A father’s choices among competing demands reflect practical priorities, but also religious value judgments. Perhaps the increasingly challenging and intrusive environment confronting today’s children mandates a reconsideration of how we allocate our limited time.

There is another factor that may be influencing many fathers to refrain from investing in an intense, focused and time-consuming relationship with their children: the expectation that educational institutions and rebbeim will satisfy that function. Rebbeim and Roshei Yeshiva are not only expected to educate children, they are also expected to inculcate in them Torah values and pristine middos. Rebbeim and Roshei Yeshiva are expected to learn the character, skills and interests of each child, and thereby to direct their respective academic and career strategies and help fashion their lifestyle. Most significantly, rebbeim and Roshei Yeshiva are counted on to instill in each child the self-confidence and emotional security that paternal love and attention are intended to provide.

These expectations, however, are today wholly unrealistic, as Roshei Yeshiva and rebbeim cannot possibly play these numerous paternal functions. Each educator is responsible for many students, and is also laden with myriad attendant responsibilities and distractions. It is humanly impossible for them to focus adequately on each student in so many regards. In fact, with so many pupils under their charge, the classical role of educating each child is daunting in and of itself. Only a parent can possibly learn and address a child’s nuanced educational, emotional and hashkafic needs, and only a parent can be expected to expend the requisite time, attention and nurturing necessary to enable their child to blossom and endure life’s challenges.

While demands on fathers’ time is often extensive and distracting, if not consuming, such demands may not be the sole source of the current attitude of many fathers within the community. The ceding of their paternal obligations to the rebbe may also reflect the lessons that they learned themselves while still bochrim in yeshiva. In many cases, they were taught that the rebbe, not the father, is meant to be a child’s primary source of inspiration and influence. They absorbed the deliberate and apparently quite effective message that even the unique love and devotion, and even intelligence, their father may offer fail to compensate for his being, simply, a baal habos.

Many would argue that in earlier years such lessons were appropriate, or even critical, since parents were then less committed, if they were at all, to Torah observance and study, or they were reared during the war era without their own parental models. These lessons result, however, in many fathers currently viewing their children’s rebbeim as the appropriate bearers of paternal responsibilities. And even those who do not deliberately cede their fatherly role to others find their parental efforts stymied, since they were never taught how fatherhood is a primary dimension of their personal avodas Hashem.

An assessment must be conducted in order to consider whether a reorientation of the role of fatherhood should be encouraged, and to what degree Roshei Yeshiva and rebbeim should continue to assert parent-like influence. Factors to be considered include whether and to what extent fathers will in fact assume a more intensive and effective parental role if encouraged to do so and the capacity of rebbeim and Roshei Yeshiva to be responsible for essential functions beyond educating – particularly in light of the increasingly high rebbe/talmid ratio.

Equally important will be a consideration of the variables of contemporary American society, and the intrusive influences and psychological challenges confronting today’s children. These alone may mandate a reconsideration of the degree of attention and the amount of time that are practically necessary for a parent to provide their children with the requisite emotional and psychological support as well as the appropriate hashkafic values. Such reallocations would necessarily come at the expense of competing functions, such as personal Torah scholarship. These are the very tensions that deem such study and review so necessary.

The Consequences of Isolationism

During the decades before and immediately after WWII, the select few deeply-observant Jews in America strategically engaged in isolationism from secular and non-traditional Jewish influences. Not only did the community distance itself from the secular world, denigrating gentile wisdom and culture, the community also successfully erected social and attitudinal barriers, separating the frum community from less- or non-observant Jewish individuals and institutions. Organizational barriers were imposed between the Torah community’s mosdos and other Jewish institutions, and interaction among the leaders of the respective communities was discouraged. Similarly, except in the case of Chabad and a few others, the allocation of resources to educating or reaching out to the less observant was preempted by the dire need to allocate the frum community’s meager resources to the building of Torah education and to establishing a basic community infrastructure.

Simultaneously, and perhaps reflecting the personality developed by an isolationist strategy, the Torah Jew’s individual mode of avodas Hashem also was very self-focused. The student seeking religious growth was instructed that introspective self-development and “Torah L’shmah” were the supreme achievements, trumping chesed, middos, and even teaching Torah to others.

Some Torah leaders viewed this attitude as an interim deviation, necessary to elevating a vulnerable Torah community to an unprecedented expansion of Torah study. Many other leading Torah thinkers advocated, by contrast, that this approach to avodas HaShem is actually eternally appropriate. At this juncture, however, the implications of continuing these self-focused communal and personal strategies are worthy of reevaluation, and attention should be paid to the impact these strategies have had on both the broader Jewish community and on the frum community itself.

As a result of these strategies, the general American Jewish community has paid a stiff price in being deprived of access to Torah education and Torah values, and the frum community has paid a price in having developed a communal personality that is self-absorbed and dismissive. Notwithstanding these costs, an examination may well conclude that the benefits of the current approaches outweigh their negative consequences. But the passage of time and the plethora of changes that have evolved since the community first imposed these strategies mandate consideration of whether the application of the very same values and considerations influencing the original strategy would still compel the identical decisions today.

Communal Infrastructure

In addition to reevaluating the community’s behavioral and attitudinal norms and strategies, there is a desperate need for review of the community’s leadership infrastructure. Despite the community’s significant growth and increased complexity, the past few decades have seen minimal change to the basic communal infrastructure. National organizations have failed to capture the imagination and affinity of today’s generation and have idled in form and agenda as their influence and creativity significantly wane.

Attendant with the expansion of the population and its affluence, local educational and service organizations have blossomed – but without coordination or objective consideration of communal priorities or implications. At the forefront of communal failures has been the virtual absence of even the effort to engage in deliberate, long-term planning, except in extremely select, localized instances. Despite the increased sophistication and affluence of the Torah community, communal decisions are made incidentally and with virtually no accumulation of data or infrastructure expertise. At the same time, the community confronts increasingly complex and serious social and educational challenges – challenges which are expected to grow.

Similarly, the community fails to engage, or even encourage, efforts at evaluating community priorities or eliminating duplication and inefficiency. Institutional transparency and economic and programmatic accountability remain elusive, as even active and influential philanthropists decline to impose such basic expectations on the beneficiaries of their largess. Similar to a local candy store that has evolved into a national, retail chain, the community desperately needs a significant systems upgrade.

The community’s cultural personality likely plays a debilitating role in frustrating the maturation of a sophisticated communal infrastructure. Contemporary leaders of yeshivas and mosdos tend to be internally focused, consumed with the funding and operation of their own respective institutions and projects. Lay leaders are no different. The community’s affluence has allowed for impressive increases in philanthropy and an unprecedented cadre of affluent, Torah-educated baal habatim. But, the community’s internally-focused personality results in a failure to inculcate community members with a passion for, and commitment to, global communal responsibility, beyond each person’s own institutional affiliation. An almost express discouragement of lay leadership creativity and independent thought further discourages talented baal habatim from assuming roles in communal activism, leaving many of even the most committed philanthropists with the attitude that gift giving is their sole appropriate role.

The community will, I’YH, undoubtedly continue to grow and flourish. The challenge of upgrading the communal infrastructure is not one of survival, but rather is a concern of efficiency and effectiveness. However, it is also a challenge to the community’s collective, self-focused personality and value system. If not to increase efficiency and effectiveness, perhaps a revamping of the communal infrastructure is needed as an expression of aspiration for a more lofty, communal personality.

Moishe Bane is a partner at Ropes & Gray, LLP and is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Orthodox Union.

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel

A Community at Risk

First, a word of warm welcome to Klal Perspectives. Torah Jewry is blessed with a wide array of wonderful periodicals, but there remains a need for a forum where serious people can discuss the challenges facing our communities, our families and ourselves in today’s complicated world. Klal Perspectives aspires to be such a forum. The stellar lineup of scholars, thinkers and doers who stand behind this undertaking bodes well for its success. Hatzlacha rabba!

I recently heard Rabbi Chaim Kohn, shlit”a, a noted talmid chacham who serves as  Rav of the Gerrer Shtiebel in Flatbush, offer what for me was a novel interpretation – but, upon reflection, now strikes me as simple pshat – of Chazal‘s dictum “Eizehu hachacham? Haroeh es hanolad.” This is typically understood as equating wisdom with clairvoyance – the ability to foretell the future. But if that were so, says Rav Kohn, the phrase should be “es hayulad” or “es asher yivaled” – that which will be born. Why use the phrase “hanolad,” which implies something that has already been born? Further, why attribute the ability to foretell the future to the chacham, the wise man; isn’t that capacity more properly assigned to the navi, the prophet?

Indeed, explains Rav Kohn, wisdom (chochma) lies not with the ability to see things that are as yet unborn, hayulad or asher yivaled, but rather with the ability to see that which has already been born, hanolad  – that which may not have been here yesterday but is here today. The world changes with each new thing that is born; a chacham is one who recognizes what is new and appreciates what has changed, and adjusts his life and plans accordingly.

We are not prophets, so it is not possible to foretell what new challenges, as yet unborn, await our Torah community in the decades ahead. But it is possible to utilize whatever measure of collective chochma we may possess to better identify and understand the challenges facing us already today, and to develop plans and programs to deal with those challenges now so that they will not, chas v’shalom, overwhelm us in the years to come.

The challenge of “kids at risk” has been etched into our communal consciousness for at least the better part of two decades.  In more recent years, we have become aware of a different category: “adults at risk.”  There are obvious differences between the two groups, but there is also a bottom line commonality amongst them, a tzad ha’shaveh that in my view stands as the Torah community’s single greatest challenge as we face a frighteningly uncertain future: the undeniable fact that increasing numbers from across the spectrum of Orthodoxy – Chasidish, Yeshivish, Modern, Ashkenazi, Sefardi, young, not so young – feel no meaningful connection to Hashem, to His Torah, or even to His People.

Whether that absence of connection is reflected in the outright abandonment of shmiras ha’mitzvos, or in spiritually destructive conduct, or even in outward observance coupled with internal indifference, the bottom line is that Torah Jewry is hemorrhaging at an alarming rate.

Yes, there is more Torah being learned today by more people than ever before, the large majority of  yeshiva graduates are a source of great pride to the Jewish people,  various social ills that plague society around us are less prevalent in our corner of the world – ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu! Yet signs of danger abound. We are losing far too many precious neshomos already today, with legitimate cause for concern that we may face even greater losses, chas v’shalom, in the years to come.

Boruch Hashem, there are numerous programs – wonderful programs – designed to work with the various at-risk populations. These programs have made a real difference in the lives of thousands. We are at a moment in history now, however, when many of these programs are being pared down or even closed down for lack of funding. Government grants in these times of austere budgets are extremely difficult to come by. Uncle Sam is no longer the benevolent benefactor he once was. Nor, for that matter, are some of the generous ba’alei tzedaka giving today at the levels they gave yesterday. The still sluggish economy has impacted private sector giving tremendously. While Klal Yisroel continues to shine brightly in its commitment to philanthropy even in the most trying economic times, there are so many urgent causes that command our collective tzedaka attention that individual programs inevitably go hurting – including those that deal with at-risk populations.

But entirely apart from the challenge of finding ways to ensure the fiscal viability of these vital programs, we need to recognize an even bigger challenge in addressing the at-risk problem: gaining a better understanding of the problem. We have concentrated our communal efforts primarily on post-facto interventions to help those who have strayed, or have exhibited signs of potential stray. Where we are still sorely lacking is a clear understanding of why so many of our young (and not so young) are straying. If we were to gain a more sophisticated understanding of why this is happening, it would help us immeasurably in taking preventative measures to address root causes and not just symptoms.

What are the greatest risk factors that lead to adolescent at-risk behavior? Family dysfunction? Abuse or molestation?  Exposure to harmful technological influences? Bad experiences in school? Learning disabilities?  Lack of self-esteem? Poverty? Excessive materialism? Disillusion with what is perceived as adult hypocrisy? Lack of focus on the foundations of our emunah?

Similarly, what are the greatest risk factors that lead so many of our young adults to lose their sense of connection to the Torah way of life? Economic pressures? Temptations of the work environment? Marital strife? Failure to be koveya itim l’Torah? Being koveya itim, but not using precious learning time meaningfully? Lack of ongoing connection with a rabbinic authority figure?

Of course, chances are that all of these factors – and surely others as well – contribute to our growing attrition rate.  But without knowing more precisely the extent to which they do, it is difficult to devise a coherent communal response to the overall problem. If our goal is to intelligently attack the problem at its core, and to devise effective strategies of prevention and early intervention, perhaps the first order of business ought to be some solid empirical research.

I am not a social scientist. I wouldn’t know how or where to begin studying the subject. But surely there is a large enough pool of teens and adults who have strayed, of parents and teachers who have lived through their children’s and students’ experiences, of yeshivos and day schools with different curricula and different approaches to chinuch ha’bonim, of professionals and dedicated volunteers who have worked with at-risk populations, all of whose collective insight and experience can shed real light on the risk factors that most urgently require attention. The data base, one senses, is there – but we need to gather it together and study it properly.

Our Torah community has no shortage of organizations that do great things. Some, like the organization I am privileged to serve as executive vice president, even have a broad mandate to represent Klal Yisroel as a collective whole, and to help address the full range of diverse challenges facing the community. However, there is no organization today that has the resources or expertise to engage in the type of comprehensive empirical study necessary to correctly understand the root causes of the problem we face and to identify appropriate, preventative remedies. We do not as yet have an organizational “think tank” whose sole responsibility is research and policy development. The time has come.

The information and knowledge we need to ensure that we and our children and our grandchildren will, be”H, retain a meaningful connection with Hashem has already been nolad; it’s there for us to gather, study and act upon. Let’s get to work.

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel is the Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America.

Rabbi Heshie Billet

Where We Are and Where We Are Headed

Chazal tell us that Yiftach in his time was like Shmuel in his time. At first glance there can be no comparison between the two. Shmuel was a holy man, a Levi, and a great prophet who is compared to Moshe and Aharon. Yiftach, on the other hand, came from an apparently lower class family and was undisciplined. What both have in common is that they were Judges in their respective times and leaders of the Jewish people.

Our rabbis recognize that different eras present challenges unique to their times. Sometimes we draw on Yiftach skills and sometimes on Shmuel skills, and sometimes on what is available at the time. Our community must address the problems of our times and the problems that the future will present. For example, the community has adopted mental health services as a legitimate means to solve certain problems, something almost unheard of fifty years ago.

There are so many known and not-yet-known things that the community, its lay leaders, and rabbis will have to confront and face in the coming decades. It has always been hard for a theologically conservative world to engage progressive modernity. But we live in the real world, and engage we must. How far we will go is an unknown. What we do know is that we cannot compromise eternal values. The question is: how close are we prepared to come to learn and confront problems with modern tools and new perspectives? Proximity can bring incredible solutions. But proximity is fraught with risk. Is the reward worth the risks involved?

The Jewish community must make a close inspection of itself and try to examine potential issues and possible solutions. This essay presents a few examples of the challenges we will face going forward in the coming years and decades

There are many in all sections of the Orthodox community who have been blessed with affluence. Chazal observed that the more we have, the more we have to worry about. Those who are not wealthy have different financial concerns.

Our assets impact on many aspects of our lives, but not on all. I will comment on some universal issues related to affluence, as well as issues associated with the broader community. I speak as a YU ordained rabbi of a large “modern Orthodox” congregation. I also list the points that I make in no particular order of priority.

Honesty

At times, affluence leads some astray into the domain of greed. Chazal say, “he who has one hundred, wants two hundred.” Sometimes that desire for more leads some to use illegal means to achieve their goals. Although most Torah observant Jews are honest, too large a minority fall prey to the temptation to cheat friends, associates, or the government. Sometimes it is Orthodox institutions that perpetrate these crimes. Ethical conduct must be a priority for individuals and for religious institutions. Our community, schools, and rabbis must make a more determined effort to inspire Orthodox Jews with honest values. Institutions should be discriminating in whom they honor and whose money they accept.

Jewish Education

The financial gap between those who are wealthy and those who are needy has become apparent in the tuition crises facing schools and their parent bodies. Our parents demand the best in Jewish education. Many cannot afford to pay for it. This matter divides into several areas of concern:

1. In the modern Orthodox community, there are too many who cannot afford to pay tuition. Too many are removing their children from religious day schools and high schools. Some advocate Jewish charter schools and some public schools. The schools are under tremendous pressure to retain high standards with quality teachers. But they are not collecting enough tuitions and other monies to pay for these.

2. The inability of schools to pay a living wage for good rabbeim and morot discourages talented people from going into Jewish education as a profession. In some circles, parents who seek marriage partners for their children do not see Jewish educators as good candidates for sons and daughters-in-law, and also for mechutanim (parents of sons- or daughters-in-law), since they fear they will have to single-handedly subsidize the income of the young couple over the course of many years.

3. The growing multitude of young people in kollel today means that we need to think ahead to the day when they will need to support themselves and their families. Even those whose parents or in-laws have the means to support them today cannot expect such support for their children. More of those in kollel will need to be encouraged to pursue careers. If present post-high school secular institutions are considered bad environments, then we should be creating kosher ones to service our community in the same manner that Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s daughter did in Israel. Other positive responses in Israel have been Nachal Charaidi and Shachar Chadash, two programs which incorporate members of the Chareidi community into the army in combat, intelligence, and technology units. They all contribute to society, learn a trade, and will earn a living once their army service ends. In the USA, we will have to be creative to achieve similar ends.

Cell Phones and Technology

Another outgrowth of socio-economic reality is the cell phone. I am not referring to adult use of cell phones. Clearly that is a legitimate mode of communication today. But what about children being provided with cell phones? At what age should a child be provided with a mobile phone? When is it legitimate for a parent to say that a child must be able to communicate constantly with parents? I imagine that the recent Leiby Kletzky tragedy will motivate more parents to give their young children phones.

It is not unusual for fourth and fifth graders to have a mobile phone. Texting between kids in and out of school is a major problem for educators. Children are at times immature and their messages to peers are cruel and painful. Lashon hara is easily spread via the phone’s features. In addition, texting on Shabbos is a new phenomenon amongst a minority in our community. Furthermore, the modern cell phone is connected to the internet which, despite all of the rabbinic declarations, cannot be hermetically sealed and censored from many users.

We have the whole world, including the worst of the world, in our hands via technology. Internet, iPads, iPods, and similar devices are very attractive gadgets.  How will the next generation of children grow up when you add facebook and twitter and who knows what else to other challenges technology will bring to our children’s fingertips?

Internet and Rabbinic Leadership

The history of the Jewish people includes disputes between rabbis and laity. At the same time, rabbis have always been seen as important links in the chain of tradition and their views and authority have been generally respected. The growth of internet use has brought new tensions to the lay/rabbinic relationship. Internet allows for easy access to news and opinion. It is not uncommon to see sharp disagreement with rabbis, even gedolim. It is very easy to do this on the internet because it is not stated to the rabbi’s face and it can be anonymous. This has led to deterioration in the authority of rabbis in the Orthodox community. On occasion, the dissatisfaction with the rabbis is legitimate. Rabbis must make every effort to be judicious in their declarations. It could be that the age of the kol koreh is coming to an end. It could also be that our major lay organizations have to create new channels of communication between rabbonim and the hamon am using the very tools that threaten rabbinic authority.

Shtiebelization

The proliferation of small minyanim in the homes of wealthy people might satisfy the davening and culinary needs of those who attend those minyanim. But these places do not share with mainstream established synagogues in supporting broader communal needs. We need a greater sense of communal obligation. It is long overdue to create old fashioned kehillot in America.

As a synagogue rabbi, I might be over sensitive about this issue. Shul membership is costly. But shuls are generally prepared to accommodate people based on what they can afford. It would be wonderful if more families would join community synagogues. Torah educated people would have a great impact on the less learned lay population. Minyanim within the shul could be created to satisfy the specific spiritual needs of different groups of people. The achdus, the unity, that can emerge from this is worth a try.

Drinking

Doctors tell me that never before has there been as great a problem with weekend alcoholics. They are the products of Orthodox shuls of all different hashkafic backgrounds. The more affluent we are, the more liquor we can afford, and the more expensive liquor we purchase. It is bad for people’s health to overindulge and it is terrible for young people to see it and learn from it. The response to this problem must come from the rabbinic and lay leadership of the Jewish community.

Tznius

There is a whole new genre of female Orthodox models and attractive clothing designed to meet the tznius lengths required by halacha. One only needs to search online to find this information. Shaitlach today are more attractive than ever. The more affluent the family, the more expensive and attractive the wig. The best wigs are made out of human hair.  Louboutin shoes and other expensive designer clothes are a reality of affluence. This is a feature of wealth, not religious hashkafa. In my experience this prevails across the board amongst many families in the broader Orthodox community. Educating our men and women to understand that tznius is a lifestyle and not measured purely in inches is vital.

The Times, They Are A-Changing

In my view, rabbinic leaders need some professional training as well. They are living in the most rapidly changing times in history. They need to be trained in modern counseling skills. If they are going to advise married couples with domestic problems, they should either be trained professionally or trained to know their limits. Rabbis must understand domestic violence, sexual abuse, and illnesses like drugs, alcohol, and gambling better than they do now. Rabbinic pronouncements about mesirah, turning perpetrators in to the government for sexual abuse crimes, domestic violence crimes and white collar crimes as well must be revised in the USA where all are equal before the law.

The ability of existing communal organizations to address some of these issues very much depends on their malleability. Are they open to change? Are they prepared to use modern survey and research methods? Are they prepared to be self critical? Can they exchange preconceived operational notions for new methodology? Will the rabbinic and lay leadership of existing communal organizations license change? Orthodox Jews are often resistant to change. When it comes to eternal values and objective Jewish law, they have no choice. But within the framework of the normative halachic system, there are differing opinions on specific issues. Certainly, when it comes to using methods outside of the system which assist and enhance the success of our commitment to perpetuating our values in a more effective way, there should be a lot of flexibility.

There is much more to be said about the future, independent of the socio-economic realities. There is a need for the lay and rabbinic community to change some long held assumptions in order for them to effectively retain roles of leadership and authority. Certainly, there will be differing views on the points I raise and points raised by others. It is not too late for the discussion to begin with mutual respect and resolve to bring a better tomorrow.

Rabbi Heshie Billet is the Rabbi of the Young Israel of Woodmere.