Eisen on Jewish Peoplehood

Arnie Eisen spoke at Beth Am On Feb 25th about American Judaism and “where we are” as part of the modern Diaspora. The first rule in the modern Jewish community in America is “Individualism”. Today we work to build our communities, they are not "a given" as in history.

To explain his position he reviewed the contrast of philosophies of Mordecai Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Kaplan represents the practical “Way of Life” position and Heschel with the “Spiritual Supernatural” approach. And while these two directives seem to be opposing they can easily live side by side in Eisen’s approach to ‘Modernity’.

In his discussion of Jewish Peoplehood he stressed that we need to bridge the gap between the secular and religious and between Israeli and American points of view. We must embrace a pluralistic point of view to move forward. Zionism must be better understood and accepted by American Jews. Israel is vital to the future of Judaism.

Due to statistical recalculations the Jewish population in the US is now 6.2 million. There are now a million more Jews than what was previously projected. Eisen sees this as an opportunity to reach out and build the Jewish Peoplehood and make Judaism stronger.

Links:
Heschel

Kaplan

Eisen - He is going to be Chancelor of JTS

Thanks to James Jeffries for the photo