Word: jewes
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Extinction in a Station Wagon. As an Orthodox Jew, Author Wouk (who now lives in the Virgin Islands during the winter) is not overly sympathetic to the "improvisations" of Reform or Conservative Judaism, and he finds Orthodoxy hale and hearty despite the stringencies of its demands in the world of the barbecue pit and the P.T.A. There has been, he admits, "a well-known cascading-from orthodox to Conservative, and from Conservative to Reform groups. But Reform does not swell as it might, because of attrition into disinterest and loss of identity. Nor, curiously, does orthodoxy seem to diminish...
...should not stop at potentially dangerous ideas," stated Rabbi Maurice L. Zigmond, Director of Harvard Hillel. "We must study all the facts, for learning is basic, and learning gives the possibility of choice." Is it too optimistic to believe that such open inquiry will lead the Jew closer to Judaism? Zigmond says that he is not worried about Jews merely flirting with commitment "because there will be commitment at some time or another...
Rabbi Gold sees the student in a quandry, suffering from two basic deficiencies: first, he has no fundamental understanding of himself as a Jew; and second, he has no exposure to varieties of thought. "The Jewish student begins to see his Judaism through Christian glasses. This is deplorable, since it distorts his understanding of himself as a Jew. One has to know who he is as a Jew before being exposed to the Christian views...
Another attitude the Jewish student may have toward Christian or agnostic ideas he meets for the first time in his reading or his philosophy course was noted by Harry A. Wolfson, Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy, Emeritus. "Because the Jew doesn't have the background, he is made curious. It is the impact of novelty...There is some disadvantage, but I look at it like taking a new course. The Jewish fellow has to learn something new, but he came to college to learn something...
Hostility to the Jewish scholar has receded in recent years, Harry Wolfson noted. "If a Jew writes a good book, he can get it published as easily as a non-Jew. I don't believe that there is an analogy between scholarship and social and economic life," he stated. Jewish scholarship has been characterized in modern times by the broad way it deals with its subject, Wolfson said. In nineteenth century scholarship Jews had the most liberal and most universal approach; no Jewish philosopher or student of philosophy ever dealt with his subject1