15
It was in these heady days of immigration that so many of
our key Jewish organizations, congregations, and institu-
tions of education, this one included, came into exis-
tence. Immigration led to an ambitious age of creation
–
new synagogues abounded, as did Jewish organizations
that worked for the education, welfare, and protection
of both new arrivals and longtime citizens. Over the
years, peddlers’ pushcarts turned into corner groceries,
then to department stores, and with diligence and hard
work our progenitors began to thrive in America. Even
with such success, powerful forces kept American Jews
close together. Universities, neighborhoods, occupations,
business and civic organizations, and country clubs often
constructed their admission procedures to ensure that
Jews were excluded. In the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, these re-
strictions ensured that Jews remained quite close togeth-
er, and Jewish neighborhoods thrived. Such proximity
allowed for Jewish community to develop and it offered
much in the way of centripetal force to retain Jews inside
their communal orbit.
Over time, department stores gave way, in many cases,
to law offices and medical practices, Wall Street and
Hollywood, university positions and corner offices.
With the waves of suburbanization that overtook Amer-
ica in the 1950s and 60s, as new institutions were built,
we began to see, for the first time, a broader sense of
acceptance into surrounding society. With these shifts
came our second phase, that of integration into the
broader American context.
It was a time of mixed feelings, as universalist optimism
and deep uncertainty coexisted. On the one hand, the
unspeakable tragedy of the Holocaust produced a decided
mistrust of Western society, one which we hear echoed
in the recent alarming rise in European anti-Semitic
violence. On the other hand, the founding of the State
of Israel and our expanded access to American society of-
fered a new sense of strength and renewed hope. Reform
Judaism focused its efforts squarely on our tradition’s
universalist tendencies. Our all-encompassing commit-
ments to righteousness led us to march in Selma, to stand
in solidarity with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
to help create the Civil Rights Act, and to invest our time
and talent in many other worthy acts of social justice.
Just as we worked for justice for others, so too did we toil
to ensure that Jews had full access to the same rights as
other Americans.
As this integration continued, those centripetal forces
that had kept us together began to weaken, and centrif-
ugal forces came into play. American Jews were now free
to branch out, living wherever they chose, taking up any
profession, joining different political parties, participating
in almost any club, rising to positions of prominence in
a broad array of cultural, educational, government, and
business organizations, and making choices in marriage
and religious practice as they pleased. With this shift, the
pull toward the center of the Jewish community changed
“
We are the most distracted generation
in history, and studies prove that a
preponderance of choices leads both
to more confusion and to more
superficial engagement.”
The Inaugural blessing was
bestowed upon Rabbi Panken
by (from left) his sister Rabbi
Melinda Panken, his sister-in-
law Rabbi Sarah Messinger,
and his brother-in-law
Rabbi Jeffrey Eisenstat.