Ok, I'll take a stab at this. First off I'm not sure I can compare the problems with Judaism to issues that other religions may be having other than I've been told attendance is down across the board. Millenialls tend to be the punching bag lately in that they don't like membership. Perhaps there's truth there, but I've gotta think the problems are much deeper under the surface and maybe they're the first group to have the courage to say institutional religion is bullshit. Mind you I'm not saying they're rejecting religion, but just the way it's being presented to them.
Now back to Judaism, there's a lot of anxiety amongst some that there's mass assimilation and intermarriage and those are the biggest problems Judaism has to face. I'm calling bullshit on this. I think Judaism, specifically in America is simply in transition. Jews from Eastern Europe (Ashkenazic) are experiencing a totally different life since immigrating to the US. Those who left Europe before WWII dealt with extreme anti-semitism, pogroms and had to rely upon the temple community for survival. They moved to the US not just for religious freedom, but to have better lives. Obviously the Holocaust is the single greatest tragedy the Jews have faced in our generation and led the majority of Jews left to immigrate to the US, the newly created state of Israel or disperse around the diaspora. So as a people we've been on the move the last 100 years.
What does this mean? Well in the US our people are finally at a point where they don't need the temple anymore for survival. Jews can now have any job, join non-Jewish country clubs, date or marry non-Jews, be admitted to practically any school. This is fantastic as we've been accepted into the fabric of America. It took some time, but clearly progress was made. The downside is the non-orthodox who no longer feel they need to be part of the Jewish community to meet all their needs. For example you can look at Maslow's pyramid of needs and say the Jews in America have now met the most basic of needs such as food and shelter, moved onto Security needs such as personal, emotional and health, and most recently obtained a need for social belonging. These needs weren't always guaranteed when living in Europe and certainly not during WWII. The next need on the pyramid is that of self-esteem. I suppose some of that may come from how well our people have done in business, medicine, science and across all academics as well as influence in politics and entertainment. You could call this power, but on a personal level its recognition which affects ones self-esteem.
This is where I'll pause when it comes to Maslow's hierarchy of needs because the next one is self-actualization which is where I think Jews are struggling (and perhaps non-Jews as well).
So, let me move back to the Holocaust and attempt to tie some of these pieces together. I think post Holocaust non-orthodox Jews have being dealing with G-d issues. For example the most obvious is, if we are G-d's chosen people why would he let this happen to us?" It seems like a legitimate question. Did G-d turn his back on us or is there something deeper at play?
For those that attend synagogue, and I belong to two different congregations, this is what I can tell you about how we worship. We gather, we say lots of traditional prayers (some in Hebrew, some English, some both), we in a sense bend the knee to G-d, thank him for his creations, read from the Torah (the biblical story), celebrate life-cycle events, remember the dead, sing songs (this varies depending upon the level of tradition) and afterwards usually gather for drinks and food. I'm sure I left out much but I want to give you an idea of what happens at temple. What doesn't occur is the questioning of G-d's power. I don't feel our Jewish institutions have adequately addressed this question. We ask Jews to come to services, bend the knee and recite many prayers in Hebrew that most people have no idea what they're saying. I have a problem with this. The other issue I have with synagogues and the Rabbi's is I feel they do a poor job of making religion relevant to people's daily lives. Because of something we call "Jewish Guilt", many Jews join temples merely becuase their parents and grandparents tell them they should and it's important for the surival of our people. To me this is just modern tribalism. What we have now is a lot of bad faith, we have people supporting things that aren't even working for them becasue they're so freaked out that Judaism won't last unless they belong to the temple, marry another Jew or say prayers they no longer even believe. We're so obsessed with preservation, we've stopped trusting our own experience at synagogue which really isn't all that good.
One of my favorite Rabbi's and thinkers, Irwin Kula, says "Religion is a technology of human flourishing." So I ask the question is religion helping us flourish? Are our lives measurably better because we're Jews and attending synagogue. When 90% of members don't even like attending services I would say no. I would say half the members have one foot in and one foot out. As Jewish guilt loosens it's grip you will continue to see members leave the synagogue. So I sit on the board of my conservative synagoue and I can tell you the conversations are usually about how do we attract more members. Our finances are so bad right now we can barely afford the building. I know we're not alone here either. So the conversation usually turns to either we need to raise dues or get more members. It's my opinion we need radical change and innovate and reimagine Jewish practice. Whatever we're doing inside the synagogue simply isn't working.
Do I have the answers? Hell no, but I'm no longer going to sit and pretend that preserving all traditions is the way to go. Some need to be left behind as we find new ways to practice our religion and flourish as Jews.
I'm sorry for rambling on, but this isn't easy stuff we're talking about but I'll leave you with the following. I'm not convinced to be a modern Jew you even have to believe in G-d. In fact I highly doubt G-d (if you believe in him) is sitting upstairs thinking my number one goal is for everyone to worship me and bend the knee) . I think G-d is hidden but present and his number one goal is for us to preserve and perfect the world he's given us. That includes taking care of all the creatures and the earth. You don't even have to believe in G-d to share these same goals.
On a personal level I feel my job is to help plant these seeds of change, not for the preservation of Judaism but to help people live better more flourishing lives.
