American Jews and Jewish organizations need remixed Judaism

By Roberta Rosenthal Kwall

Many American non-Orthodox Jews are not interested in Jewish practice and ritual. And many younger Jews have even less interest, even in moderate observance, than their parents. Left unchecked, this reality will sink the future of American Judaism.

Absent a sustained, deep connection to various elements of Jewish tradition, there will be increasingly fewer Jews to support synagogues and other important philanthropic initiatives of the American Jewish community.

We can turn this around with more focus on helping non-Orthodox Jews deepen their connection to Judaism by finding personal meaning in selected practices. Religiously liberal Jews do not necessarily respond to the idea of Divine command, but they will observe rituals they find personally meaningful. I call this “remixed” Judaism and it is of vital importance if Judaism is to remain more than just a matter of ancestry for the majority of American Jews.

These conversations need to be spearheaded by both clergy and Jewish organizations. Studies of the American Jewish community are clear that we are moving far too quickly into a world strongly divided between the deeply religious and the Jewish “nones.” This is not a world in which our current Jewish organizational structure can survive, let alone thrive.

Roberta Rosenthal Kwall

Roberta Rosenthal Kwall is a law professor at DePaul University College of Law. She is the author of “Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World” (Roman & Littlefield, 2020, updated 2022), and “The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition” (Oxford U. Press, 2015).

JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER NAPLES IS HOSTING ROBERTA LIVE ON ZOOM, WHERE SHE WILL DISCUSS HER BOOK.

When: Wednesday, June 22 at noon (ET) Where: Zoom

Register for this free program at www.jewishnaples.org. You don’t have to read the book to come to the program.

To purchase her book, “Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World,” go to https://amzn.to/2kY8gFo.