Yeshiva's Demise, Edah's Rise, and the Emerging Progressive Orthodox Balance

American Orthodox Judaism's progressive wing, it seems to me, has stagnated for some time. An unhealthy satisfaction with the status quo and a pervasive sense of apathy vis-à-vis communal philosophical direction afflict many of its adherents. Matters of faith are not the subject of spirited public discourse but of obfuscation and revisionist rabbinic legislation. Intellectual autonomy in the pursuit of theological meaning has receded leaving halakhic chieftains the unchallenged reins. I am witness to the coming of age of another brood of modern Orthodox careerist automatons who will lead spiritually uninspired lives characterized by little more than an obscene quest to reach the suburbs.

Perhaps most importantly, Yeshiva University has finally succumbed, bifurcating into essentially distinct yeshiva and university units that are, at best, tenuously connected. A glance at the modern Orthodox Jewish panorama reveals significant concerns. It is true that Orthodox ranks have remained numerically steady over the past decade, but only by resorting to a neo-shtetl suburban pizza shop culture. This model hardly bespeaks the forward-thinking dynamism that makes a merger between religion and contemporary sensibilities a legitimate possibility for thinking people; a possibility which Yeshiva University once sought to foster.

Perhaps Rabbi Saul J. Berman shared some of these thoughts as he ascended to the podium to deliver the most important oration of his life.

As Rabbi Berman squinted at the prodigious Grand Hyatt assemblage from behind his bulky glasses, he was at once a diplomat advancing a simple message of communal accord and a visionary expositing a sophisticated institutional modus vivendi for progressive Orthodox Judaism. Rabbi Berman's opening keynote address to the first international Edah Conference on February 13 compellingly introduced a number of the principles that will guide the function of his modern Orthodox organization. The most significant propositions, to my mind, included a passionate disavowal of factious vitriol in Jewish public discourse, a bid for intellectual integrity in Jewish theological discussion, noting that a diversity of acceptable views exist in the halakhic system, emphasizing the importance of education as a counterbalance to exploitation at the hands of halakhic manipulators, and encouragement for the development of a more meaningful role for women in halakhic sacramental life.

Many of these, of course, are not novel ideas. Some have been treated rather extensively in the Torah U'Maddah literature of this very institution. Yeshiva University, however, has forfeited the mission its founders envisioned for it by abdicating its role as the organizational bulwark of progressive Orthodoxy. While the University is, arguably, at its zenith in many respects - record enrollment, endowments cresting the $800 million mark, first tier position in national ranking publication, most accomplished collection of magidei shiurim in the United States - it serves a different communal function than it did two decades ago. Yeshiva is no longer the vanguard of liberal Orthodoxy, the staging ground for broad-minded traditionalism, but a cowering schizophrenic giant with its institutional head in the sand.

As Yeshiva's identity crisis sent it reeling off the stage of relevance, an obvious leadership vacuum emerged. Those who believed a model of Orthodoxy that integrates tradition with modernity to be attractive no longer had a central body that advocated their views in a meaningful way.

Edah, it seems to me, is an attempt to address the aforementioned leadership vacuum by unifying the progressive Orthodox community under the banner of an entity that will state more affirmatively what Yeshiva today only noncommittally explores in its scholarship. Under the direction of Rabbi Berman, an uncommonly eloquent exponent of integrationist Orthodoxy who possesses respected rabbinic credentials, Edah hopes to answer Yeshiva's silence and Agudath Israel's jihad of fanatical revisionism with a textually coherent approach to revitalizing modern Orthodoxy.

Yeshiva University President Norman Lamm, Julius Berman, and other Yeshiva aligned notables have withheld their support for Edah since, they insist, it is an institutional redundancy. Edah is Yeshiva they seem to mean. In a way, they are correct. A substantial plurality of Edah Conference presenters were products of Yeshiva education. These presenters' arguments frequently dovetailed the Torah U'Maddah notions synthesized at Yeshiva. It is not the case, however, that Yeshiva vigorously propagates the ideals of liberal Orthodoxy as once it did. It is the case that Edah at present overtly seeks to fulfill this abandoned function. Thus, I am not persuaded of the accuracy of Lamm's and Julius Berman's thesis. Edah seems to play a distinct role that Yeshiva is no longer willing to. If Yeshiva wishes to be King, it must defend its values against the barbarous incursions of the halakhic despots who seek the demise of liberal Orthodoxy.

These observations, of course, lead to the realization that the institutional landscape of contemporary progressive Orthodoxy is undergoing a transition that will likely reveal a new balance. Yeshiva may very well remain an organ of moderate Orthodox research and scholarship, but, barring its spontaneous generation of a spine, it will not soon be the recognized communal leader it once was. Edah may very well step forward to serve as an activist functionary devoted to the sort of enlightened innovation that I believe halakha and the forward march of history demand.

Perhaps this modified arrangement is functionally unproblematic. Perhaps it is best if Yeshiva withdraws to pursue its ambitions as a university rather than thrusting itself into the partisan melee that will determine the course of contemporary Jewish civilization. This would seem to me, however, a less than poetic anti-climax for American Orthodoxy's most notable institutional success. Must Yeshiva sideline itself from meaningful participation in the debate over the direction of modern Judaism precisely when progressive Orthodoxy is beset by such pressing peril? So it seems. Alas, things change. As Yeshiva rides off into the benighted sunset, an era concludes. I mourn the loss.

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