Dear Editor,
In your November 9, 2023 edition, we read on page 20 that, 100 years ago, the editor of the Israelite noted that a Yiddish organization of New York, aspiring to offer a training school for the Yiddish theatre, had the “impudence” to call itself the “Jewish” Theatre Society, as if there was anything even remotely disrespectful about that name.
It’s not at all clear what was sticking in the craw of the editor, but he just had to take one more potshot at this impudent group, and so he wrote, with all the authority vested in an editor of a Jewish newspaper in Cincinnati, “It is to be hoped that the ‘Jewish’ Theatre Society will have a short life and a sad one.” A nastier and uglier sentiment you cannot easily find. Imagine wishing the worst upon a bunch of fellow Jews in New York who simply want to open a training studio for dramatic arts. Was it that bad back then, between the Yiddishists and the Reform?
Then, we move our attention to “125 Years Ago” and there we read that England is very conservative, indeed so conservative as to give the Pope a run for his conservative money, and that England is “tenaciously conservative,” so you know that can’t be good, and, as they say in Yiddish circles, “azoy vi es Christels zich, s’Yiddelt zich” (the way things go in Christian circles, so do the Jews mimic that).
The editor then argues that “They cannot comprehend the American spirit of progress. The representative men who in late years came to us from England, Prof. Shachter, Joseph Jacob, and now Israel Zangwill, unable to think as well do, preach retrogression. Americans invariably reply to them: Gentlemen, you are a century behind time; we can afford to wait for you till you catch up to us. You will surely come.” A bit triumphalist, but perhaps understandable, considering the financial and social success of the Reform community in the U.S. in 1898.
But turn your attention to page 3 in the same issue, and there we read that the Board of Directors of the flagship seminary of the Reform movement, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (“HUC-JIR”), founded by Rabbi Dr. Isaac Mayer Wise in Cincinnati, will be ending the doctoral and master’s degree programs in Jewish Studies based here. This, on top of the explosively controversial decision last year to discontinue rabbinical seminary studies here.
And why? HUC-JIR President Andrew Rehfeld explained that it was due to “‘financial constraints’ and enrollment.” It seems that the school wants to bolster its New York and Los Angeles campuses and is willing to shutter the original Cincinnati campus, despite all its rich history, tradition and deep connection to the local Jewish community. Enrolling all of 13 students in the local graduate programs wasn’t encouraging the Board, either.
An unscientific count of 2023 graduates of all four (Jerusalem grants degrees, too) campuses, including all rabbinical and graduate degrees, comes out to about 100 graduates.
Contrast that with Beth Midrash Govoha (“BMG”) in Lakewood, NJ, an Orthodox yeshiva established by Rabbi Aaron Kotler in the early 1940’s. It started small, as most yeshivot do. At a family wedding held in Lakewood this past May, I asked my brother in law, Norm, a Reform Jew, if he’d like to guess the enrollment numbers of the school.
“Five hundred,” he guessed.
“Higher, much higher,” I responded.
Its current enrollment of college age and graduate school students is 6,000 – 8,000. That’s not a typo. Norm was stunned.
“And add the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem to that,” I said. That’s another 10,000 men. Not a typo, either. Between just two yeshivot, 18,000 young men are studying Torah full time. Some will become rabbis, some will pursue other avenues, but those 18,000 are joined by thousands of other men studying in yeshivot in the USA, Canada, England, France, Russia, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Mexico and Israel. There are no enrollment issues in Lakewood, with its multiple kollelim for married men, at least 12 boys high schools, many girls schools, the Lakewood Cheder School for boys with 250 children per grade, and many other elementary schools.
Orthodoxy calls out to all our fellow Jews: if you’re looking for authenticity and vibrancy in your religion, you can find it with us. Gentlemen, you are a century behind time; we can afford to wait for you till you catch up to us. You will surely come.
Paul Plotsker
Cincinnati, OH