Yom Kippur Morning 5765, by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Three Hundred and Fifty Years ago this month Jews arrived on the shores of what would become the United States of America. Portugal had just recaptured Brazil and expelled its Jewish settlers. Most returned to Holland or moved to Protestant-ruled colonies in the Caribbean. But a group of twenty-three Jewish refugees, including women and children, arrived in New Amsterdam hoping to settle and build a new home for themselves.

They were not the first Jews on these shores. Back in 1585, a Jew named Joachim Gaunse served as the metallurgist and mining engineer for the ill-fated English colony on Roanoke Island. Afterwards a small number of other Jews, mostly merchants bent on trade, made brief stops at American ports.

Upon the arrival of the 23 men, women and children from Brazil in 1654, two men of the group were immediately thrown in jail as security for money owed for the group’s passage. The rest of the group paid off the fare by auctioning their goods that they had brought with them.

The territory of New Amsterdam was not a hospitable place. Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor immediately sent off a request to expel the “members of this deceitful race—such blasphemers of the name of Christ.” Governor Stuyvesant recognized that if the Jews were allowed to settle in his colony then they would be “unable to deny residence to Lutherans and Papists” as he stated in his letters.

Such was the beginning of Jewish life in these United States. This small group of Jews who argued and pleaded for their religious liberty to Stuyvesant’s superiors at the Dutch West Indies Trading Company and ultimately gained the right to settle here helped to change the very face of America. These 23 Jews, according to Dr. Karla Goldman, historian in residence at the Jewish Women’s Archive, “helped to establish the very principles of American pluralism and religious freedom”

Our nation’s first president, George Washington's declaration in 1790 to the Newport Hebrew Congregation that this nation gives "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance," gave our Jewish community an early assurance of America's suitability as safe haven.

The history of Jews in America is a rich one. The waves of immigration to this country from these first Sephardic- Dutch Jews, to the German –Jewish immigrants of the early 1800’s to the Eastern Europeans of the late 19th and early 20th century brought a diversity to America and built a sense of Jewish communal strength and pride.

The Central European Jews who were German speaking and came in the early 1800’s in addition to settling in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, also made their way to Cincinnati, Albany, Cleveland, Louisville, Minneapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco, and dozens of small towns across the United States. During this period there was an almost hundred-fold increase in America's Jewish population from some 3,000 in 1820 to as many as 300,000 in 1880.

Between 1881 and 1924, the great wave of Eastern European Jews began. Over two-and- one-half million East European Jews came from their native lands because of persecution and the lack of economic opportunity during this time. Many of those who arrived as part of this huge influx settled in cities like New York and Chicago, and Boston where they clustered in districts close to downtowns, joined the working class, spoke Yiddish, and built strong networks of cultural, spiritual, voluntary, and social organizations. This period of immigration came to an end with the passage of restrictive laws in 1921 and 1924. Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe to the United States never again reached the levels that it did before 1920.

Jews have long been woven into the life of our nation. From Haym Solomon who financed the Continental Army during the American Revolution and actually made an appeal for funds for it during the High Holy Days at Shearith Israel Congregation, the first congregation in New York to Judah Benjamin the first Jewish Senator, to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, to Emma Lazarus’ whose poem “The New Colossus” Is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty—“Give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to be free…” to Congresswoman Bella Abzug, to our own Senators Boxer and Feinstein, to the great song writer of “God Bless America and “White Christmas” Irving Berlin, as well as authors Cynthia Ozick, and Phillip Roth, baseball players like Hank Greenberg, Sandy Koufax and Shawn Greene. Jews are a part of America as America is a part of us. Of course the list could go on and on.

America has secured our freedom to worship, to be distinctive, to succeed financially and educationally, to climb beyond quotas and restrictive covenants to every neighborhood and university and profession. America has been good for the Jew and yes the Jew has been good for America.

Other ethnic communities have modeled themselves upon our communal institutions and how we embrace our traditions on the one hand and America on the other. Even today non-Jews imitate our rituals and ceremonies, with kosher foods selling in huge numbers way beyond the number of us that keep kosher because of the perceived benefit of cleanliness and holiness. And the Wall Street Journal recently reported that some non-Jewish children are begging their parents for Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations as a coming of age party and to mark the entrance into teenage hood. Non-Jews study our mystical tradition, the Kabbalah and even take Jewish names as their own. Who knew Madonna is really Estherle…. Once Jews in America pretended to be non-Jews—now non-Jews pretend to be Jews!

As good as America has been for Jews in many ways and as good as Jews have been for America, there is still a problem. On this Yom Kippur morning, as we observe this 350th anniversary of Jews in America, we the Jewish community in America should take pause to examine ourselves. Just as we look to examine our individual actions and transgressions, we the Jewish people, and in particular, Jewish Americans should do so because something is amiss in our communal life. Something is missing for the Jew in America.

While there are more Jewish organizations than ever before, even more synagogues than ever before, we are a diminished and diminishing people. There are less Jews in America. Once our grandparents and great –grandparents were immigrants to America. We are now natives and immigrants to Judaism.

If we really look at the data from the most recent National Jewish population survey we find that 44 percent of Jews do not align with any movement. They are unaffiliated.

At present the Jewish population of the United States totals, 5.2 million people estimated at 4.1 million adults and 1 million children in households and 100,000 Jews in institutional settings, like hospitals and homes for the aged and prisons. This translates concretely that Jews resides in 2.9 million households with a total of 6.7 million people both Jews and non-Jews. In other words intermarriage is significant.

Of that population – only 40% of American Jewish households belong to synagogue.

Combine the lack of connection of Jews to Jewish community with low fertility rates brought on by late marriage age combined with the increase in interfaith marriage, and we must analyze the data and look to see what kind of future if any is left for Judaism in America at all.

Is there a Jewish American future? Is there relevance in Judaism, enough to make Jews stop and think about how their actions and their personal decisions affect the Jewish people globally? All too often Jews talk a great line but their actions do not back up their statements.

In the Population Survey while 67% of Jews hold or attend a Pesach seder and 72% of us light Chanukah candles… only 27% attend Jewish religious services monthly or more. While 52 % say they regard being Jewish as very important most do little measurably to demonstrate this feeling.

While 55 % will read a book with Jewish content, most Jewish adults will not give philanthropically to Jewish causes. In fact 67% of Jews in America give tzedakah to non-Jewish causes—while only 41% give to Jewish causes and this percentage drops even lower as you examine younger population pools so that in the under 35 years group-the giving to Jewish causes drops even further.

The combination of these factors should give each of us pause for reflection on this Yom Kippur. Can Judaism in America continue to exist, given these alarming statistics? If younger Jews don’t give to Jewish institutions and as our aging population dies off, who will support the synagogue? The Jewish centers? Hillels and Federations? If Jews would rather give to the opera, symphony, cancer unit, hospitals and animal organizations than to American Jewish Committee, Israel organizations and Hadassah who will care for the Jewish poor and the immigrants? If Jews vote with their feet by not attending services, nor belonging to any Jewish institution why bother to have a synagogue at all? If parents don’t send their children to religious school, how will the next generation be prepared to take their place among the Jewish people?

Famous architects and designers design our homes, but few of us have ever seen the stars through the roof of a sukkah. We and our children attend the best universities, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and SC but when it comes to the history and teachings of our people, in the secret places of our souls, we know that our children and we are illiterate.

Does Judaism not have something to offer? And most importantly, if Judaism does have some eternal truths and precious teachings for living in the world and bringing the Divine into ones life, why then do Jews fall away from our community and what can we do about it? These are important questions that each Jew must ask and must personally answer.

These questions and our answers are important. It has to matter… to you and to me… It has to matter to our future here in America—the Jewish future—our future.

Our own synagogue is uniquely poised to help you answer yes, for the future, yes, to Judaism in America. Our own synagogue that we have created these last 13 years together has programs to teach Judaism, to welcome those who are intermarried and to create a safe space for those families. This is a place to raise your Jewish children with a Jewish expression of diversity, inclusion and acceptance. . This is a place to celebrate Jewish holy days, a place to observe the rituals and rites of our people. Does it take some effort? Yes, it does—nothing comes easy—and if you do nothing—then I can guarantee the outcome—nothing—no Jewish life in America. So instead…

Let this year be the year you help Judaism to thrive in America and in your own life. TAKE A CLASS—sign up for our beginning Hebrew, study Bible with me once a month—that’s not too taxing a demand. Relearn what the Jewish holidays mean and how to celebrate them in a contemporary setting with Student Rabbi Fleekop. Send your kids to Sunday school, even if it means you have to get up on Sunday morning and drive them. –or bring your youngest children—15 months-3 years to our new Parent and Me program beginning on Saturdays in October. Attend one of our lectures or our Film series— this October we are showing “The Chosen” based on Chaim Potok’s novel of the same name. We have an outstanding Jewish Adult Education program to help you keep your Jewish self-alive and vital. Resolve on this Yom Kippur day to make a new Jewish beginning for yourself and your family. This is the year. This is the time. This is the synagogue that can help you and welcome you and together we can make a difference for your soul and in the process make a difference for the Jewish future.

Our weekly worship experience- Shabbat can do more than stem the tide against falling affiliation numbers. Shabbat can uplift your spirit and renew your soul. Each Friday night and often-on Shabbat morning we provide a sacred space to wind down from the week and to begin the renewal process. Observe Shabbat at home, light some candles say a bracha—get in touch with your inner Jewish self and let that Jewish self-soar this year. Call friends and family together to observe a holiday –come to Israel with me in February and explore your history and walk in the footsteps of our ancestors. Make those footsteps your steps to a deeper connection to Jewish community.

Let us not let this 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America be for naught. Let us resolve—that our prayer for this Day of Atonement—will be that we atone for the sin of omission of our Jewish life. Let us resolve that our teshuvah will be in the learning and in the doing and in the connection to Jewish community in the coming year. Let us not be the ones who future generations point to and say –they let it go by the wayside. Instead this High Holy Days and this 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America can be a new beginning—a beginning of renaissance for you and for our Jewish community.

In our ark are three Torah scrolls. Soon to be four. On October 24, a Sunday at noon—our temple will dedicate a new Torah scroll that we have been working on for the last two years. Many of you wrote your own Hebrew letter in that new scroll with the help of our sofer, our scribe. And some of you will still have that opportunity. This is what gives me hope.

Our community will soon fulfill the 613th mitzvah—in the Torah—the mitzvah that each person should write a Torah scroll in his or her lifetime. The Torah symbolizes our history, our traditions, our ethics, and our values. And I think we can safely say it symbolizes not just our past—but our future as well.

Deuteronomy Rabbah teaches. A community is too heavy for anyone to carry alone (1:10). I cannot save the Jewish American future, and alone you cannot save the Jewish American future by yourself but together our descendants will rejoice in a rich Jewish life here in our country if we join together this year as one community dedicated to learning and celebrating Jewish life together.

On this Yom Kippur let the Torah’s enduring message of God’s love and presence among the Jewish people continue to be the message we seek as we commit together to celebrate, observe, study and learn, connect and rejoice in our Jewish life here in America. Ken Yehi Ratzon.

Posted by Lee at September 28, 2004 01:08 PM