There’s a new online journal out there for secular Jews; this is great news. Not that I think Secular Culture & Ideas on its own is likely to really change the landscape of modern Jewish identity in the United States. No single journal, musician, novelist
or blogger can be expected to do that. But I do think it’s an indication, one of several in the past couple of years, that Jewish bigwigs are getting a clue.
For too long Jewish organizational leaders, along with the philanthropists who fund their organizations, were under the impression that with growing intermarriage rates and shrinking identification with things Jewish among relatively young Jews, cultural outlets were a pathway to lure young Jews into greater involvement in traditional Jewish groups: synagogues, federations and the like.
But lately these Jewish bigs have started to look at culture differently. Maybe it was just hard for them to miss the success of Heeb magazine, Orthodox reggae star Matisyahu, and another secular Jewish journal, Guilt and Pleasure. But the Jews with the dollars -- the ones who give to Jewish causes, that is -- seem now to understand that the way to the young, unaffiliated Jewish heart -- and mind and pocketbook -- is through artistic and cultural exchange: Jewish music, books, movies and art. (Read more about this topic.)
And that, the new journal says, is just what Secular Culture & Ideas is doing, “taking a sharp look at secular Jewish life, culture and ideas.” Recent issues have looked into Jewish pop culture, Yiddish and the concept of “Diaspora.” Next month the journal will explore the renaissance in Yiddish language and culture (www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/SeeDickschmoozeS.html).
It is particularly encouraging that Felix Posen, a smart, thoughtful, big-time philanthropist, is behind the new journal. Jewish communal leaders have long been on the lookout for ways to get the younger generation to connect and to engage in a conversation about Jewish identity, community and meaning.
I think they’ve found one. “There are more secular Americans than ever before, and nowhere is the trend more pronounced than among Jewish Americans, nearly half of whom consider themselves secular or somewhat secular,” the journal said recently in a release. “So it may be the time to look back -- and also forward -- at the role of secularism in American-Jewish life.”
I concur. There remains debate in the organizational/philanthropic ranks as to whether or not these outlets are just a means to an end or an end in and of themselves. As young Jews continue to fall away from their Jewishness, Jewish leaders will, and should, embrace secular culture as an alternative to traditional organizational affiliation. If they don’t, well, maybe there won’t be enough Jews around in 20 or 30 years to even make launching a new journal worthwhile.
