This Week’s Guest: David Wolpe
Much of the Jewish institutional world was not exactly healthy before the coronavirus crisis—and where we will all be when it’s over is hard to say.
That’s true everywhere, but it’s especially acute in some of the largest and most ubiquitous Jewish institutions in the United States, like the Union for Reform Judaism, which just laid off 20% of its employees.
Some have suggested, as a strategy to keep alive these movements—and the synagogues, seminaries, and schools they support—that the non-Orthodox denominations in America merge together, or at least share resources and facilities.
And that possibility invites a serious question: if the denominations could even conceivably educate their religious leaders together, and bring their congregants into shared space in order to worship together, then are they really that distinct?
To examine that question, and others like it, Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver is joined by David Wolpe, a Mosaic contributor and one of the leading Conservative rabbis in the country.
Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble, as well as “Ulterior” by Swan Production.
Background
For more on the Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, which appears roughly every Thursday, check out its inaugural post here.
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More about: Conservative Judaism, David Wolpe, Reform Judaism, Religion & Holidays