The Vanishing Non-Observant Orthodox Jew

The phrase “non-observant Orthodox” was commonplace in American Jewish circles in the mid-20th century, when it described a significant share of the Jewish population. If it has fallen into disuse, that is because, Zev Eleff writes, the type has largely vanished from the American scene:

Decades ago, . . . it was well-known that Orthodox life and Jewish law could be decoupled, no philosophical apologetics needed. This sort of sociological separation yielded a variegated Orthodox profile. . . . The non-observant Orthodox Jew emerged as an indispensable member of the Orthodox community, supporting its institutions and preempting those who would have preferred more rigid definitions for Orthodox Jews. True, the non-observant Orthodox Jew was by and large removed from Orthodox Judaism’s inner circle, but was also far from being an “outsider” in this community. . . .

Halakhah was not an all-or-nothing arrangement for this group of self-described Orthodox Jews. On the one hand, [they] made no claim that they abided by all the strictures of halakhah (although they did feel that the rabbi ought to sport an unimpeachable record). On the other hand, these laymen contended that this did not disqualify them from the ranks of the Orthodox. Certainly, they did not agree with the theological points of view of the Reform and Conservative rabbis who preached from pulpits and filled editorial columns in the Jewish press. [Yet] they did not frequent the synagogue all that often, behavior that was more closely in line with the non-Orthodox rank-and-file. But when they did make it, say, to recite kaddish or for a bar mitzvah, their choice was invariably the Orthodox variety. . . .

The more homogeneous character of the Orthodox community [that has emerged more recently] has . . . contributed to an increasing sense of rigidity. . . . Orthodox leaders have tended in the past few decades to pay more attention to what ought to count as “Orthodox” and to patrol community borders [more strictly]. The “non-observant Orthodox Jew” has been eliminated from the lexicon.

Read more at Lehrhaus

More about: American Jewish History, Orthodoxy, Religion & Holidays

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF