Monday, 25 July 2016

The "Missing" Link‏

From RRW

Just some rambling musings..

There are many movements today in judaism
O C R
Open Orthodox
Recon
Secularist
You name it

One very powerful group that is nowadays  dead or almost dead is "the Non-Observant Orthodox"

In my parents generation they were common.
They were members of Ortho shuls, many sent their kids to Jewish day schools. They often had Kosher Homes and lit candles Friday Nights. 

Like Theodore Bikel, they didn't always go to shul, but when they did, it was to an Orthodox shul.

They were not interested in Secular Judaism, nor C nor R. They were Traditional in Outlook, and they supported many Jewish causes, EG OU, YU,  Torah Umesorah or Mizrachi, etc.

Many of their kids went to NCSY, etc. Their kids were primed for Kiruv.  

We have almost completely lost that demographic. 

I believe the Eidot Mizrach communities still might have them. They seemed more immune to C and R and secularism and more prone to being Orthodox without necessarily being 100% observant.   

‎I believe their absence is missed because they were like buffers between the Obsercant and the other streams.

1 comment:

Mighty Garnel Ironheart said...

The Reformatives killed that. In the alte heim, either you observed the rules or you didn't. Even if you did that didn't mean you believed in them but observed them to identify as a Jew.
Then the Reformatives came along and said it's okay to eat pork, it's okay to drink non-Jewish wine, it's okay to daven mixed and people took them up on it.