A Ray of Sunshine Among the Clouds

Jewish Chicago Editor, Cindy Sher

It isn’t all doom and gloom. Although it does kind of seem like it these days if you are a Jew.  I have to admit that almost all the news affecting the Jewish people has been pretty depressing since  October 7^th. I need not rehash why. Life for the Jewish people has changed on that day on a scale not seen since the Holocaust. This is not to say that the two are comparable. It is to say that we have not felt such trauma - continuing trauma -  as a people since then. 

The anti Israel sentiment on campuses all over the county is but the latest manifestation of that. If one watches the news. one might get the feeling that we are back in the 1930s Germany.  

But perception is not always reality.  The protests are taking place almost exclusively by students on campuses infested with BDS supporting academics with outsized influences on those young minds full of mush. Along with Palestinian students and infiltrators - they are the ones making all the noise.

Outside of college campuses one will not see any media focus. That’s because there is nothing to focus on there. Most Americas are not focused on a war 7000 miles away where not a single American is participating. If anything disruptive protests that have taken place have had the opposite of their intended effect. They have not been popular with the American masses at all - to say the least!

The US government fully rejects antisemitism in all ts manifestations, Full stop. Doesn’t matter which  side of the political aisle one is on. While there surely are pockets of antisemitism all over the US, they remain on the fringes of society. Except on BDS infested college campuses.

There is some more good news to report here as well. It is rather well known that 90% of non Orthodox Jews in America are assimilating out of Judaism - one way or another. (That is not of course the good news.) The good news is the 10% that are not assimilating out - are more engaged in their Judaism than I once thought. This was the impression I got after reading stories in The JUF’s Jewish Chicago Magazine. 

Shortly after the events of October 7^th, Charedi magazines reported that there was a renewed interest in Judaism by secular Jews in their heritage.  

I must admit that the skeptic in me wondered if that was just a bit of wishful thinking based on some anecdotal evidence that didn’t reflect any significant overall change. And that in any case it wouldn’t las too long But when Cindy.Sher, the heterodox editor of JUF’s Jewish Chicago Magazine said the same thing many months later and backed it up with statistics – well, I think that is significant.

The 10 percenters are not secular Jews that don’t care about Judaism. They care a lot and always have. These are  Jews who take their Judaism seriously enough to observe at least some of the Torah’s Mitzvos and recognize that the Torah is in fact our foundational document. When tragedy struck they decided to become even more serious about observance. That might be the reason why there has been an uptick in Jewish day school enrollment. (Although the perception of an increase in antisemitism maybe part of the reason for that too) But there has also been an uptick in synagogue participation and in other areas of Jewish life.. 

It appears there has been a reawakening of one’s Judaism even among some of the 90%  as well.

I don’t know what to make of all this. My hope is that it isn’t a ‘flash in the pan’ that will disappear once things calm down in the Middle East. But in the meantime, it is good to know that secular  Jewry might be taking a step back from their exit out of Judaism. 

If that is indeed the case it should give us hope for a better future for American Jews than I had recently imagined. 

Now, let us get the people being held hostage by Hamas released. And may God grant us the permanent peace for which we pray every single day