Four prominent Orthodox rabbinic leaders and deans of rabbinic seminaries described the return of large numbers of Jews to intensive Torah study and authentic Jewish values part of “a worldwide Teshuva movement” at the opening session last Thursday of the 56th national convention of Agudath Israel of America.
In an overview of the new trend, Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld, dean of Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, N.Y., indicated that the Ba’al Teshuva, referring to a Jew returning to religion, was now a worldwide phenomenon. He said that efforts to reach out to young people alienated from their heritage, by several Orthodox leaders and groups were now bearing fruit.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Horowitz, Bostoner Rebbi head of the New England Hasidic Center, commented, “Our present-day returnees are not arising from a climate of unrest; the decade of social protest is long past. They are not driven by adolescent rebellion; indeed, their return often harbingers their parents’ interest. They are not impulsive; their return is marked by a yearning to learn; one of the greatest renewals American Jewry has ever known. Our returnees come to us with open eyes. In Judaism they find compassion and consistency.” Their return, he added, “should be an experience unblemished by either missionary gimmickry or arrogant aloofness.”
Rabbi Shmuel Akiva Shlesinger, chief rabbi of Strasbourg, France, said that France has become a center of the Teshuva movement in Europe. Noting that this trend of returning to roots is particularly among the university trained, he said, “The Ba’al Teshuva of today in Europe becomes involved with Torah as part of an ongoing expedition to discover meaning in life. It is a movement that has only taken hold in the past ten years. While it is very much intellectually stimulated, if nurtured properly, it could prove to be the beginning of a mass return to Orthodox Judaism.”
Rabbi Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi, dean of Yeshiva Atereth Israel in Jerusalem, who deals with Israeli “returnees,” declared that the new Teshuva phenomenon is unique from similar smaller trends in the past because “today the attraction that holds is the intensive Torah study experience as it is conducted in the traditional yeshiva. Enthusiasm for this deep involvement in study–rather than for the general Jewish experience or for experimentation with bizarre lifestyles–has given rise to a number of special yeshivos for Ba’alei Teshuva.”
He said Israel in particular has witnessed the mushrooming of many such institutions, which have gained international notoriety for attracting some prominent Israeli entertainment stars who have radically changed their way of life by joining these yeshivos.
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