I know that it is not nice to
kick anyone while that person is down. In fact it is not nice to kick anyone at
all at anytime. A substantial portion of the American Jewish community has
sustained great physical and monetary, psychological and social damage as a
result of the devastation wrought by hurricane Sandy. So now is perhaps an
inauspicious time for an article dealing with, what in my opinion, is the troublesome future of that community. But
I have just recently done quite a bit of study and research on the Jewish
community of Babylonia in the previous millennia and I was struck by certain
similarities to the current American Jewish community. After the eleventh
century the Babylonian Jewish community lost its preeminent place in the Jewish
world and though a Jewish community continued to function in Iraq/Babylonia
until the 1950’s it never again was the force in Jewish life that it once was
for almost one thousand years. There were many reasons, external and internal
that led to the decline of Babylonian Jewry but I have noticed three main
forces that sapped its strength and beclouded its future. The first was the
rise and spread of Karaism, a sect founded in Babylonia and that later spread
throughout the Jewish Middle East and was especially strong in Egypt and
Babylonia. The Karaites denied the divinity and efficacy of the Oral Law and
created a type of Judaism that had new rules, new mores and was a distortion of
Torah law and Jewish tradition. Karaism has long since disappeared from being a
force in Jewish life but much of American Jewry today operates under a
so-called Judaism that bears little relationship to Torah knowledge, Jewish
observances, and true values. Instead it is inundated wit sloganeering and
high-sounding phrases that bear little or no relationship to Judaism.
Intermarriage, ignorance and political faddism are the Karaism of American
Jewish society.
Secondly, Babylonian Jewry,
though possessed of great yeshivot and Torah scholars, did not adjust to the
demographic, economic and political changes that were occurring to it It did
not foresee the coming of the Christian crusaders, the decline of the spice and
silk routes, the triumph of the Ottoman Turks over the local Arabs, and the change
in the location of the fulcrum of Jewish life to Spain, France and Germany. It
was smug in its own traditional wealth and influence and did not sense that its
central position in the Jewish world was slowly eroding and fading. For many
decades American Jewry believed that Israel was dependent upon it for its
actual survival. Much of that mistaken notion was encouraged by cynical Israeli
leaders for various personal and political reasons. Today it should be clear to
all that in spite of all campaign rhetoric and hype, America generally is in
decline. There is a permanent economic and social underclass that has been
created and will not disappear. Eventually this situation will affect American
Jewry, currently so certain of its status and confident in its no longer
minority viewed position in American society. The long exile of the Jewish
people has allowed for no exceptions to Jewish particularism, which leads to
anti-Jewish attitudes and behavior. It is certainly something to ponder.
Finally, Babylonian Jewry was
riven by internal disputes between its religious and temporal leaders.
Disputes, especially disputes that touch on religious matters invariably lead
to extremist views and unacceptable behavior – all under the guise of following
the will of Heaven. There is much extremism under display in American Jewry
today. Ah, but you will counter, how about the extremism in the religious
circles in Israel. But there is a fundamental difference between Israel and
America. Here in Israel the extremism is political in nature, the quest for
patronage and budget allocations, the personal ambitions of politicians for
office and power. With all of the trappings of piety surrounding it the
contests here they are basically much more personal than ideological. The anti-Israel
groupings in Israel have waned in numbers and influence in Israel while
unfortunately they have increased in the American Jewish society. More and more
the Charedi society in Israel sees itself as part of the general apparatus of
the state and the nineteenth century battle over Zionism has ended here. It is
a moot question. Not so in American Jewish society where actual hatred of the
State of Israel exists in many sections of that society, from the intellectual
Left to the extremists in the religious world on the Right. When Babylonia saw
itself as the substitute for Jerusalem, as a safe haven for all eternity, its
decline immediately set in. It is always foolish to predict the Jewish future
so it could be that all I have written here is nonsense. I certainly hope so.
But studying about Babylonian Jewry troubles me about American Jewry.