Lee Diamond – We are the Dynamic Movement in Judaism
Professor Louis Finklestein
Once declares before the Student body
Of the Jewish Theological Seminary
That the Conservative movement made a tragic
Error in choosing its name.
“We are the Dynamic Movement in Judaism”
We are “where the action is” (my words)
Not buried in a past
But fully alive and struggling with the
Present . We are the Jacob who became Israel!
Where’s the action today?
What captures a Jew to be a Jew in our world.?
There are many entry points for action
For Dynamic Judaism today
Entry points that are beckoning
To the contemporary Jew
Who is searching for an open door.
These doors are not only open
They attract; they call forth; they accept;
They are full of dynamism.
These are doors that were closed in the past
But have opened in our era to us
Open and Dynamic Judaism
- A religion open to the continuum of Gender
At every station in the gender continuum from male to female there is an entry point. In our day to be stuck with the contrast of black and white I,e. men and woman is to bury our heads in the sand. The world has changed vis a vis gender. Science has come to this conclusion and dynamic Judaism must accept the continuum and grow from this reality and feed into it.
Every person has a unique gender which has much to contribute to the world and to our community. Every Jew should feel engaged by and should engage the Jewish world today.
Judaism can expand with an expansion of our view of “genderism.”
- A seeking Judaism . Rooted but Searching
How often do we dismiss those who seek ‘spirituality.” This very word frightens us. But how can Jews dismiss Spirituality? Seeking is our very nature. Shemah Yisrael demands of us to seek. Every bracha is an attempt to transform a physical moment into a spiritual moment.
Jews seek today ; Jews turn to eastern religions to feed their hungry spirit; Jews meditate; Jews turn to extreme cults even within Judaism but also without. Jew create and do not only follow.
It’s rare in our historical journey that Jews have been in search of the spiritual. How can we miss this opportunity to be dynamically responsive to this need of our our day and our people.
III . The Environmental Jew
Not what you think.
For the first time in 2,000 years the Jewish people have “their own environment.”
Israel is by its very essence Dynamic.
It’s filled with the power of growth and history.
It envelopes those who see
It opens the eyes of the blind
It sings to the hearing and plays its sounds and praises to those who need help to hear.
It changes every moment of every day
Yet it speaks the tongue if the prophets .
Israel has the power to engage
And it beckons us to engage with it.
It is the silence of Yom Kippur
It is the gas station which gives every
Customer two challot if you fill up on Friday
Israel is the power of Jewish kids in the IDF
Serving the Jewish nation
Because the want to!
This is infectious and dynamic Judaism.
Yet there are more entry points .
Our Dynamic Judaism invites all readers to engage
— not to promote a movement
But to contribute to Open doors.
