Toward Jewish Religious Unity: A Symposium IRVING GREENBERG

MORDECAI M. KAPLAN

JAKOB J. PETUCHOWSKI

SEYMOUR SIEGEL

Last winter, JUDAISM, in conjunction with its anmrnl meeting of the Board of Editors, invited IRVING GREENBERG, MORDECAI M. KAl'LAN, JAKOB J· PETUCHOWSKI, • and SEYMOUR SIEGEL to present papers and participate in a symposium on the theme: "Jewish Religious Unity: Is It Possible1" The discussion, held before an invited audience, was chaired by STEiVEN s. SCUWARZSCHILD, editor of JUDAISM ancl associate professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. What follows is a transcript of the proceedings. IRVING C!lEENllERG is associate professor of history at Yeshiva Univer~ s~ty and rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center in New York ' City. MORDECAI M. KAl'l.AN, one of the most respected religious ·teachers in American Jewry, is the founder of the Rcconstructionist movement and the author of Judaism as a Civilization, The Future. of the American Jew, and many other works. He i~ · currently teaching at the UniVersity of ,,;: Judaism in Los Angeles, ,the West ·Coast branch of the Jewish Theologi· cal Seminary of America. JAKOB J· PETUcnowsKt, professor of rabbinics at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, has written widely in the field of Jewish theology. His most recent book is Ever Since SinaiA Modern View of Torah. SEYMOUR SIEGEL, an officer of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, is assistant professor of Talmud , at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

STEVEN S. SCHW ARZSCHILD THE THEME OF OUR SYMPOSIUM IS SOMEWHAT DIFFICULT TO DEFINE. MY

own-:-awkward-working Litle, arrived at after much deliberation, was finally formuJated as: "What Are the Foundatioi1s for the · Future Religious Unity of the People of Israel?" Let me explain what I mean. All of us are, in one way or another, and to one degree or another, committed to the people of Israel and to the faith of the people of Israel. All of us feel a ve1·y strong commitment of love and of obligation to both. Out of this commitment to the people and to the faith of Israel • Professor Pecuchowski was unable to attend the meeting owing to inclement weather .conditions at the lime. Bis paper was read for him by EUGENE n. liOl\OWlTZ, profc~;or of education and lecturer on Jewish religious thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, who also conducts our "Cuncnt Theological Literature" department.

I 32 : Judaism -leaving the definition of these terms, for the time being, as flexibl~ as possible-arises for all of us, in many different ways, a very strong desire to advance the unity of the people of Israel in and outside of the State of Israel. This is so for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being that we hope in tha~ way better to be able to perform our tasks in history and before the Holy One, blessed be He. To put it simply, I think that the theme of our discussion this afternoon is...:.ata echad v'shimcha echad, ttmi ke'a.mi:ha yi~racl goi cchad ba'arr.tz-"Thou art One and Thy name is One, and ,irhc>}s like unto Thy people Israel, a singular people on earth." .. . ' Now, obviously, the unity of the people of Israel is, at the present moment, not a factual reality. Nor is ·it a reality theologically, religiously, organizationally, politically, geographically, and in any number of other ways. It is a goal. (I ought to emphasize perhaps, at this e