In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, it seemed that the culture wars of the 1990s would continue to divide us in the first decade of the 21st century. Lines were drawn in the sand because the issues of the day touched on the most fundamental questions of human life: When does the right to life begin and who decides? Is human sexuality hard-wired or learned? Is there a right to die? Fundamental questions are not easily given to subtle answers, and the battles did not easily allow one to occupy middle ground. Nor were we Jews untouched by our own internal battles, often waged along similar lines: Who is a Jew? Who decides who can become a Jew i.e. who controls conversion? Can there be gay rabbis? The culture wars, it seemed, showed little sign of subsiding and are with us even now.
It should come as no surprise then that it has become fashionable to deride Conservative Judaism and to bemoan its prospects. If ours is an age of extremes, the religious moderates of the Jewish people are likely to be on the defensive no less than the moderates of the American people were until recently (and perhaps still are). In a moment of Orthodox triumphalism we are told that we have failed to sufficiently adhere to Torah and what it demands of us. On the other hand, Conservatism's continued insistence on both Tradition and change seems to offer a less courageous, equivocal version of Reform Judaism's dyed-in-the-wool embrace of progressivism, itself a form orthodoxy. "Choose sides" we are told time and again. Either throw in your lot with Halakha and be "authentic" or successfully link your Judaism to a program of ever greater levels of emancipation. But whatever you do, choose and be clear about where you're holding. Like Mordecai Kaplan once quipped: "On the one hand, you have the Orthodox; on the other, Reform. On both hands, you have the Conservatives". He did not intend this as a compliment.
The success of Conservative Judaism has always mirrored the success of the political and moral center more broadly, and if the wider American culture is divisive and partisan then the Jews are going to follow suit. But if ours is an age of extremes, we need only remember the period of moderation that preceded it. At midcentury, when Liberalism constituted a big tent, American power was thought to be a force for good in the world and its form of democracy the best form of government available. True, even then Liberalism benefitted from having clear-cut and definite enemies: Fascism and Communism. But in that moment, religion was a major member of the coalition - it provided the building blocks of the good society and the best means of socializing the individual. As President Eisenhower famously put it: "Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is." The particulars of one's faith were less important than the fact that one had a faith and was churched - belonging was itself an act of belief in the American way of life. It was in this period that Conservative Judaism thrived because it best captured the American and Jewish pulse while benefiting from a public culture that successfully sidestepped issues of fundamental divisiveness. Of course, as we all know, this did not last, but this does not mean that there is not a transcendent center to be sought.
What we are experiencing today is a period of realignment, not an ever expanding series of divisions. Regardless of how history will judge President Obama's first term, it seems clear his vision is one of pragmatic idealism, one which in many ways hearkens back to America at mid-20th century, yet is cognizant of the fundamental ethnic, racial, sexual and technological changes the country has undergone since: the Common Good, he reminds us, is difficult if not impossible to achieve, but it is sacrifice and clear-eyed accounting that are required to attain it. Belong. Chip in as individuals and as members of a sacred community, however you define it, and build the society you envision. As he put it in his landmark First Inaugural, with help from 1st Corinthians, "The time has come to put away childish things". If we are truly entering an Obama age, it bodes well for the vital center of American and Jewish life. The Transcendent Good, the place where philosophy and theology meet, is the place that transcends the multifaceted and very real divisions we face. In the American idiom, we might say: E Pluribus Unum. As Jews, we might follow the Zohar and say: God, Torah, and Israel, are one.
The Conservative Judaism I'm referring to transcends the particulars of a movement and refers to a Golden Mean out there, a Conservative Judaism shel malah. It is the province of all those who refuse to occupy a universe like the one described by Yeats, whose apocalyptic vision is preceded by prophetic words: "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." To be a principled moderate is difficult, but if we truly believe ourselves to be the "best", we cannot "lack all conviction". We truly believe that Orthodox and Reform Judaisms have a certain legitimacy, but they're wrong because they are reductionist. This is what allows them to be "full of passionate intensity".
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