Theory

A rabbi of mine once had an interesting theory, of which I've elaborated upon over the past few years, as to why Jews, especially those from the East coast/New York area move away from Judaism.

I was having a conversation with my friend Shmuel, and I told him about how I had read The Vanishing American Jew written by Alan Dershowitz.  In it, Mr. Dershowitz talked about a woman he had encountered.  This woman was Jewish by birth, and had grown up in a very typical, conservative Jewish American home.  When she began dating as a teenager, she had no interest in dating any Jewish guys, and eventually married a Catholic man.  Neither her nor her children have any connection whatsoever to Judaism.  When asked why, she answered "To me, growing up, Judaism was nothing more than an old man saying no."

My rabbi, Shmuel recounted to me, said that the essence of Judaism is very soft and tender.  After the Holocaust, the survivors who came here set the tone for a hardened and embittered Judaism.  I believe it started happening even before the Holocaust, with the advent of all the pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe starting at the turn of the last century.

Anyway, the theory is that many of today's Jews who came from this hardened and embittered Jewish environment are still looking for that soft, sweet core that they know in their hearts is there.  And they go looking for it in ashrams, Eastern religions, New Ageism, and (I believe) even in things like Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism --  which all on the surface, appear to have that soft, sweet, tender inner base.

Shabbat Shalom