Word: orthodox
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Native-Born Leaders. World War II marked the beginning of a change for Orthodoxy. Hitler's holocaust wiped out the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, where most of Orthodoxy's spiritual leaders lived; Orthodox communities elsewhere started to develop more of their own native-born leaders, many of whom were less inhibited by tradition-and were shaken by the fact that thousands of young Jews were abandoning the faith for less rigorous branches of Judaism, or for no faith...
...Halakic proscriptions have not been abandoned, but the accent on observance has been changed from burdensome don'ts to more appealing dos. For example, youths are no longer simply ordered to observe the Sabbath, but are reminded that by honoring it they will become more faithful Jews. Where Orthodox Jews once limited themselves to a handful of chosen professions-the jewelry or garment business, for example-they now are taking jobs that would have been unthinkable to their grandparents. There is even an Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, with more than 1,000 members...
Kosher Cola. Technology has also helped Orthodoxy adapt Halaka to modern life. Although shaving with a razor is forbidden by a Biblical injunction against cutting the skin, "shearing" is not; on that logic, Orthodox rabbis approved the use of electric shavers-and off went many beards. There have been ingenious efforts to make the dietary laws more acceptable. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has worked with major food companies to place rabbinical stamps of approval on thousands of food goods, from cola to canned beans. Many supermarkets carry such modern kosher delicacies as a "bacon" made from...
...Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. claim that their synagogues are beginning to attract thousands of Jews who had previously been indifferent to the faith- especially young, middle-class couples. An example is Los Angeles' Beth Jacob temple: 44% of the congregation is made up of young professional persons under 38 years of age. More and more Jewish parents are sending their children to Orthodox day schools-which in the U.S. have expanded from 49 elementary and high schools in 1945 to 339 today...
...insistence on ritual observance as old-fashioned and untenable. In an era of ecumenism, Orthodoxy tends to be proudly self-sufficient, uninterested in religious dialogue with Reform and Conservative Jews, much less with Christianity. Moreover, Orthodoxy has its own internal struggles; many Hasidic Jews regard their more modern Orthodox brethren as heretics and resent any effort to abandon the cultural traditions of Old Europe...