Returning to Peoplehood

But already in the Classical Reform temple of my childhood, there was a hankering for some of the emotional energy of religion that the age of rationalism and Classical Reform had locked in the closet. It was the kind of emotional energy that ritual and ceremony could provide, with a touch of the mystical, the warmth of a traditional observance, and the very sound of the Hebrew word.

In the 1930s, the chill winds of anti-Semitism were in the air with the menacing preachments of Father Coughlin, the storm clouds over Germany, and the consequent doubts, even among some Classical Reformers, about the virtues of society's mainstream. At the time American was absorbing a massive influx of Eastern European Jews. Many of their children had joined Reform congregations, bringing a strong sense of Jewish tradition and peoplehood, of belonging to a people not only with a moral, religious mission but also with a unique culture and ethnic solidarity.

All these forces began to alter Reform Jewish Identity. It was no longer anathema to speak of a return to Zion. The two rabbis of my home congregation were avowed Zionist, and even some congregants had become Zionist supporters.

Then came the watershed events of our lifetime. The wrath of the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel shook the soul of the Jewish community. The key word become ``survival.'' Israel must survive. Judaism in America must survive; otherwise we would grant Hitler a posthumous victory, desecrate the memory of the victims, and disgrace our mission to be a ``light to the nations.''

This was the second stage of Reform Judaism in America, a stage marked by survival, ethnicity, and Jewish peoplehood. Reform Judaism did not abandon the tenets of Jewish ethics, but the balance was shifting. The Jewish moral message had become a given, not an active pursuit. A new banner had emerged --- ``Never Again!''