Rabbi Marc Angel, founder and director of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, took on the personae of the two candidates being considered to head a fictional yeshiva during a program of the Orthodox Forum of Edison/Highland Park exploring ideological tensions in Orthodoxy.
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March 17, 2009
Should a traditional Orthodox yeshiva located in New York City allow in the modern world in order to remain relevant, or preserve the traditions many say have worked for centuries?
That question was the subject of a theoretical debate and discussion on March 7 at the Orthodox Forum of Edison/Highland Park.
The event featured the mock proceedings of a “search committee,” whose members questioned the two candidates for rosh yeshiva (head of school) of the fictional Yeshivas Lita.
The goal was to air tensions in the Orthodox world, especially between “haredi” traditionalists, who insist that maintaining relative isolation from the modern world is the best way to transmit and preserve a Torah lifestyle, and Modern Orthodox Jews, who feel observance can coexist — and even thrive — in concert with the outside world.
The program was moderated by Rabbi Marc Angel, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel — the historic Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Manhattan — and author of The Search Committee, a novel about the clash of modernity and tradition. Angel previously served as president of the Rabbinic Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinic group in the world.
During the program at Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park, Angel took on the persona of the two candidates featured in his book, outlining before the large audience — or in this case the men and women of the search committee — the reasons why each believed he was the right candidate for the yeshiva.
“Rabbi Shimshon Grossman,” the son of the previous rosh yeshiva, cannot believe the committee would even consider straying from the institution’s insular, traditional Eastern European roots.
However, “Rabbi David Mercado,” a once secular Jew who “found God” while studying at the yeshiva, believes it is time for its students to take their place in the modern world despite its vices and temptations.
Members of the audience quizzed the candidates, engaging in a lively discussion on such topics as proper dress, reading sexually suggestive literature, the role of women, Jewish law, and interactions with other Jews and non-Jews.
Questioning eventually had to be cut off as the hour grew late.
‘Learn from everyone’
“It was very thought-provoking,” said program chair Barbara Kessel. “He presented very differing viewpoints on Torah study and the direction of American Jewry.”
Barbara Kessel, chair of the March 7 Orthodox Forum of Edison/Highland Park, holds up of copy of The Search Committee, the book authored by speaker Rabbi Marc Angel.
Photos by Debra Rubin
Throughout the program, the responses of the fictional candidates went to the heart of the divisions between Modern Orthodox and haredi Jews.
Angel himself founded the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals in 2007 and now serves as its full-time director. The institute fosters an appreciation of legitimate diversity within Orthodoxy through discussion of issues in Jewish law, philosophy, religious worldview, and communal policy.
Speaking as “Grossman,” who wears the traditional black hat and dress of his family’s Lithuanian shtetl ancestry, he spoke of the Torah study that had served to inspire generations of Jewish scholars to devote their lives to holiness.
“Our kedoshim lead lives of Torah study,” “Grossman” said. “Our task is to separate them from the outside world. We are interested in creating our own society where the boys stay in the beis midrash [house of study] isolated from the perverseness of the goyishe culture around us.”
He put down “Mercado” for his worldliness, for having studied at a secular university, and for his “running in jogging shorts in public” and attending federation meetings with Conservative and Reform rabbis.
And Grossman criticized Mercado’s teaching, noting, “He quotes Plato in the middle of lectures. Hillel and Rabbi Akiba aren’t good enough for him?”
Responding as Mercado, who refers to the institution by its more modern Hebrew pronunciation, “Yeshivat Lita,” Angel said he believes its name should be changed to Yeshivat America so that students would “think about the future, not the past.”
Mercado — who, he explained, is Sephardi — said that along with traditional Torah and Talmud, he believes the students should be taught science and given full access to computers.
He said he feels the yeshiva is keeping its students “blind and ignorant” and reminded the committee that as “the Rambam said, we don’t only learn from Jews, but we learn from everyone.”
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