Not Only a Question for Our Time

The recently posted question question, "Should religious tradition be changed to fit contemporary American life?", provokes many different responses. The responses of museum visitors show that this question can be and is provocative. Every individual brings a lifetime of beliefs and experiences to this question. In order to accurately evaluate the question then, we must have a thorough understanding of its historical ramifications.

This question is not a new one. People of many religious traditions have struggled with this question for hundreds of years. The enduring nature of this question comes from the fact that there is no correct answer. As visitors have pointed out, there are both positive and negative aspects to fitting religious beliefs to contemporary society. What I would like to do now, is to take a step back in time to the late 18th century, to a time when the Jewish community was facing this question in a very real way. I want to step back to the time of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment.

The Haskalah was a movement within Judaism that had its roots in the general European Enlightenment and stretched from the 1770s to the 1880s. It began in Germany under the direct impact of the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who is often called the "Father of the Haskalah". The Haskalah ushered in a period of modernization of Jewish life and learning and pushed the Jews to adopt the German language. The purpose of the modernizing nature of the Haskalah was to improve the status of Jews in Germany and elsewhere. Mendelssohn believed that Haskalah would help integrate Jews into the non-Jewish communities in which they lived. This, Mendelssohn hoped, would lead to the granting of more civil rights to the Jews and also to their eventual emancipation. This modernization would involve integrating secular studies into the Jewish education curriculum, the adoption of the German language, and even a change in Jewish dress. This said, Mendelssohn was a great supporter of the Jewish faith and was often torn between the drive toward modernization and adherence to the traditional Judaism with which he grew up.

Today, visitors to the National Museum of American Jewish History and everyone who reads this blog will have a chance to weigh in on the same issues that Mendelssohn and his contemporaries struggled with many years ago. As I have said, there are both positive and negative aspects of changing religious traditions to fit contemporary life. What worked well in the late 18th and early 19th centuries may not work well today. Conversely, the modern world offers many opportunities to educate not only adherents of a particular faith, but also those who are not part of the faith. Today we have technological avenues not open to people of Mendelssohn's time.

Whether you believe religious tradition should or should not be changed to fit contemporary American life, it is important to understand the historical answers to this question and the contextualized reasons for these answers. Only then can we decide on what is best for both the members of religious communities and for the society as a whole.