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Re-anchoring Universalism to Particularism: The Potential Contribution of Orthodoxy to the Pursuit of

Dyonna Ginsburg

there is a growing perception that certain circles within the North American Orthodox Jewish community have become more outwardly focused over the past five years, expressing an increased interest in humanitarian aid and social justice alongside ritual observance. Oftcited examples include the 300 yeshiva University students at the 2006 Save darfur rally in Washington, d.C.; recent service-learning trips 3

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to Honduras, Nicaragua, and thailand jointly sponsored by yeshiva Universitys Center for the Jewish Future and the American Jewish World Service; the establishment of yeshiva Universitys Social Justice Club; the creation of a semester-long course on congregation-based community organizing for rabbinical students at yeshivat Chovevei torah; the founding of Uri Ltzedek, an Orthodox organization with the sole purpose of creating a more just world, in 2007; the launch of the Peulat Sachir: Ethical Labor initiative by a group of Orthodox rabbis in Los Angeles in 2008; and the unprecedented decision by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance to include a social justice track in its March 2010 conference. Highlighting these and other examples, one journalist has concluded that there is a resurgence of interest and participation in social justice activism in the Orthodox world1 and another described a sea change of thinking in the Orthodox communityan increasing focus on causes impacting the wider society.2 is this perception of a new emphasis within Orthodoxy on social justice, humanitarian aid, and engagement with the non-Jewish world accurate? How significant are the changes in thinking, discourse, and behavior on these matters? What role does North American Orthodox Jewry have to play in the larger Jewish communitys pursuit of justice? An exploration of these basic questions, each one of which could (and arguably should) be the focus of its own full-length article, forms the crux of this paper. Ultimately, this paper argues that the North American Orthodox Jewish community has a unique contribution to make to the endeavors of edek and tikkun olam. before we proceed, it is important to note that this paper is written from my vantage point as a practitioner in the field, born and raised in the United States, yet having made aliyah eight years ago and spent my entire professional career in israel. As executive director of bemaaglei tzedek, an award-winning israeli social justice nonprofit organization with strong roots in the Religious Zionist community,3 i have had the privilege of witnessing and harnessing the tremendous power of the israeli Orthodox community to spearhead social change in israel, and of shepherding social justice ventures in the North American Jewish community. it should come as no surprise, then, that

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this paper assumes a tone that is sometimes academic and detached, while at other times personal and engaged. this reflects my own position as an outsider-insider, attempting to understand, analyze, and comment upon trends in the North American Jewish community, a community both foreign and intimately familiar.

ORTHODOXY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: IS THERE NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN?
At first blush, it might be argued that nothing has changed. A cursory look at Jewish sources indicates that Jewish traditionfrom the prophecies of Amos and isaiah to the talmudic rulings of Masekhet Sanhedrin and Masekhet Bava Batrais replete with discussions about creating a just social order. the torah, along with classical Jewish sources throughout the ages, enjoins us to care for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger and devotes significant time to exploring the bounds of individual, communal, and societal responsibility toward workers, the elderly, the sick, and the poor. it might further be said that portrayals of Orthodox Judaism as solely ritual-focused ignore the fundamental and time-honored connection between mitzvot bein adam la-makom (commandments governing behavior between man and God) and mitzvot bein adam le-aveiro (commandments governing behavior between man and his fellow men). Even the very distinction between mitzvot bein adam la-makom and mitzvot bein adam le-aveiro is problematic, as famously demonstrated by the following verses in which isaiah rebukes the Jewish People for failing to comprehend that ethics underlie ritual: is such the fast that i desire, a day for men to starve their bodies? is it bowing the head like a bulrush and lying in sackcloth and ashes? do you call that a fast, a day when the Lord is favorable? No, this is the fast that i desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness and untie the cords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break off every yoke. it is to share your bread with the hungry and take the wretched poor into your home.4

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in addition, it might be claimed that, just as it is unfair to separate ethics and ritual in Judaism, it is also problematic to depict contemporary North American Orthodox Jews of all stripes as caring about the observance of kashrut, Shabbat, eniut, and the like, to the exclusion of helping people in need. Over the past couple of decades, Orthodox Jews have exhibited disproportionately high levels of volunteerism and charitable giving as compared to other segments of North American Jewry.5 Moreover, the Orthodox Jewish community has developed elaborate social service mechanisms and institutions to meet the needs of people in distress, from gemachs and shul committees to largescale nonprofits. Some of these institutions, such as Chai Lifeline and Camp HASC, emerged out of the Orthodox community, but have subsequently come to meet the needs of the full spectrum of the Jewish, and sometimes even non-Jewish, world. Chabad has also developed its own sophisticated infrastructures to provide a wide variety of services, such as drug rehabilitation, disaster relief, and support for people with disabilities, to individuals regardless of race, religion, or nationality.6 Even the assumption that the Orthodox community has focused on volunteerism, charitable giving, and institution-building, rather than entering the fields of advocacy, lobbying, public policy, and coalition-building, is unfounded. in 1988, Agudath israel of America opened an office in Washington, d.C., and, under the leadership of Rabbi Abba Cohen, has advanced many different causes (e.g., religious rights in hospitals, the armed services, and prisons; need-based scholarships for higher education; equitable participation of nonpublic school students in special education; educational expense tax credits; anti-pornography laws) through a combination of grassroots politics, close relations with the White House and Congress, and cooperation with the non-Jewish community.7 Similarly, the Orthodox Unions institute for Public Affairs (iPA), headed by Mr. Nathan diament, has adopted positions on a wide variety of public policy issues, such as right to life, school vouchers, public prayer in schools, assisted suicide, and capital punishment.8 if Judaism has always promoted a concern for the weak and downtrodden, if contemporary Orthodox Jews exhibit high levels of volunteerism, philanthropy, and social service institution-building,

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if Orthodox leaders have publicly advocated on behalf of issues with profound social import for the past twenty years, then what is all the recent fuss about? is the press, fueled by leading Jewish social justice activists, labeling something as revolutionary to create a false impression that the Jewish community has succeeded in mobilizing sectors of the population previously unengaged in the pursuit of justice? What makes initiatives such as Uri Ltzedek, which is singularly dedicated to social justice, cutting-edge in the North American Orthodox Jewish community?

ORTHODOXY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: THERE IS SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
Something new is happening. true, it is not the centrality of social justice in Jewish tradition. Nor is it the commitment of Orthodox Jews to help people in need or even the willingness of Orthodox leaders to lobby on behalf of social causes. All these things existed before. What is new is a combination of the type of issues addressed, the goals sought, and the way issues are tackled. Until recently, issues of social import, which attracted the support and attention of the Orthodox community, were primarily those with a conservative, right-of-center bent, such as right to life, vouchers, and school prayer. issues linked to liberal, left-of-center politics, such as healthcare, welfare, prison reform, public housing, urban planning, illiteracy, and labor unions, were not high on the Orthodox agenda. Part of what differentiates yeshiva Universitys Social Justice Club, yeshivat Chovevei torahs community-organizing course, and Uri Ltzedeks full range of activities from earlier advocacy and political activities, such as those undertaken by Agudath israel and the iPA, is their focus on causes associated with the political left. in addition, the new initiatives emphasize a variety of global issues unrelated to israel and the Middle East (e.g., health crises in the developing world, fair trade, sweatshops, blood diamonds, human slavery, genocide), further distinguishing them from previous Orthodox initiatives, which focused either on domestic issues or on international issues insofar as they pertained to israel or the Jewish community.

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Alongside the different types of issues addressed are different goals. Motivated exclusively by a desire to safeguard its own community, Agudath israel uses parochial terms to describe its purpose: to protect the rights and advance the interests of observant Jews and their growing network of educational and religious institutions; and to offer a uniquely Orthodox Jewish perspective on contemporary issues of public concern.9 Particularistic goals similarly underlie the work of the Orthodox Unions iPA. Although the iPA embraces more universal language than Agudath israel, using the term tikkun olam to express its mission, stating, the iPA works to bring the unique perspective of Jewish law and tradition to bear upon the widest range of public policy issues confronting American society at large, thus seeking to fulfill our mission to work for the betterment of the worldtikkun olamfor all of humankind, it nevertheless declares that its primary objective is to protect Jewish interests and freedoms.10 these mission statements are in contrast to that of an organization like Uri Ltzedek, which addresses issues that do not directly affect the Jewish community and whose raison dtre is to create a more just world.11 it is worth noting that yeshivat Chovevei torah, the birthplace of Uri Ltzedek, affirms the shared divine image (tzelem Elokim) of all people, our responsibility to improve the world, and our capacity to be enriched by it in its own statement of core values.12 it is not only the issues and goals that are new, however, but the method used to address the issues. to understand this crucial point, we must first make a brief digression and define four terms, which are often used interchangeably and indiscriminately by others, but will be used separately and consistently throughout the rest of this paper: esed, edekah, edek, and tikkun olam. these definitions are not meant to be fully accurate in a pure etymological sense; rather, they are intended to provide practical labels for distinguishing between discrete concepts. While admittedly, in the classical sources, these terms contain a range of definitional possibilities, for our purposes they mean the following: (1) esedindividual acts of loving-kindness, (2) edekahindividual and/or communal acts of philanthropy, (3) edekthe pursuit of justice through systemic and structural reform, and (4) tikkun olamour moral responsibility as Jews to the non-

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Jewish world.13 esed, edekah, and edek describe three different means at our disposal to help people in need, whether they are Jews or non-Jews. if we encounter a hungry person, whether or not he is Jewish, we can either choose to feed him (an act of esed), give him money to buy food (edekah), or ask why he is hungry in the first place and lobby for governmental reform so that fewer people go hungry in the future (edek). Tikkun olam, in contrast, refers not to a particular means at our disposal, but to a specific target population; namely, the non-Jewish world. Tikkun olam expresses our moral responsibility to non-Jews, regardless of whether we choose to use esed, edekah, or edek as our modus operandi. initiatives like Uri Ltzedek and yeshiva Universitys Social Justice Club are innovative in that they attempt to shift the focus from esed- and edekah-centered approaches, which typify most of the volunteerism and social service institution-building prevalent in the Orthodox community, to a edek-centered approach.14 esed demands that if two individuals, one wheelchair-bound and one able-bodied, approach a building that is not handicap accessible, the latter should lift the former, so that he can get inside. While fully acknowledging that the act of lifting a wheelchair-bound person is both sacred and necessary, edek maintains that citizens must work together to ensure that buildings are handicap accessible from the outset, so that individuals with disabilities do not need to rely on the kindness of others to enter the building. esed and edekah demand that we deliver food packages to the hungry; edek insists that we ensure that the working poor earn a livable wage, so that they can provide for their own families with dignity, as opposed to relying on others to put bread on the table. it is important to note that a edek-centered approach is not new to Jewish tradition. As Rabbi yaakov Ariel, chief rabbi of Ramat Gan and one of the leaders of the Religious Zionist movement in israel, wrote, in Jewish tradition, we find two approachesthe communal system, which collected taxes from individuals and thereby ensured that poor people were taken care of in a systemic way, and simultaneously the individual

Dyonna Ginsburg obligation to Torat esed, which demands that every Jew aid the weak, visit the sick, comfort the mourner, provide for the bride, rejoice with the groom, lift the heart of the widow, and help the orphan. . . . [today] the voice of torah is not heard enough when it comes to Tzedek. it is inaccurate to say that the torah doesnt have a voice in these matters. it most certainly does.15

Consciously or not, edek-centered initiatives, which use edek-centered discourse, draw our attention to the inversely proportional relationship that sometimes exists between an abundance of esed/edekah and an absence of edek. People often assume it is coincidental that the Orthodox community, which excels in esed and edekah, refrains from the pursuit of edek. Perhaps, however, it is precisely because the Orthodox community is able to rest on its laurels of doing good that it allows itself to desist from engaging in deep-seated, structural reform. When an Orthodox businessman refutes the claim that his workers are being denied their legally mandated wages by declaring that, every anukkah, he refurbishes the entire apartment of an employee, he is using esed/edekah as a smokescreen to obscure his unjust treatment of workers, at least on a rhetorical, if not on a real, level. When the Orthodox rabbi of an israeli school, which is accused of refusing to accept Ethiopian Jewish students into its first-grade classes in blatant rejection of an israeli Ministry of Education mandate, defends his schools policy by citing the fact that the parent body recently raised funds to buy shoes for a poverty-stricken Ethiopian, he is using esed/ edekah as an excuse for the schools inequitable treatment of minority populations.16 the danger of using esed and edekah as excuses is not that we fool others, but that we deceive ourselves. Outsiders are generally not duped by smokescreens; sooner or later they are able to discern peoples true intentions. We are the ones who fall into the trap of deluding ourselves, thinking that we have already fulfilled our obligations of creating a just society when we have only just begun. in this vein, edek-centered initiatives provide a wake-up call to the Orthodox community, insisting that we capitalize upon our successes

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of feeding the hungry and treating the sick to take the next logical steps and advocate for systemic reform in welfare and healthcare services. Whether one focuses on the new social justice issues being addressed, goals being articulated, or the novel way some in the Orthodox community are choosing to tackle issues, it is clear that something different and consequential has been happening in certain segments of the Orthodox community in the past few years. Undoubtedly, there is still a long way to go, and the aforementioned initiatives range widely in terms of their scope, effectiveness, and impact. but those who point out changes are not guilty of mere hype or unwarranted self-congratulatory behavior. they are picking up on developments, real and significant.17

THE MODERN ORTHODOX COMMUNITY IN NORTH AMERICA: FROM STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL TO SELF-CONFIDENT LEADERSHIP
What historical and sociological factors brought about these changes? What caused a community, which had heretofore adopted and advocated for largely conservative and particularistic causes, to produce young people committed to progressive and global issues? What led a community, which excels in acts of compassion and philanthropy, to produce individuals unsatisfied with stopgap measures to help those in need? For much of the twentieth century, people believed that the American Orthodox community was on the wane. describing prevailing opinions in the Jewish community in the early to midtwentieth century, sociologists Samuel Heilman and Steven Cohen declared, Orthodoxy was perceived as being at best a residual category, a vestige of another era, and unsuited to contemporary culture. . . . it was commonly assumed that the poor, foreign, aging, Orthodox segment of American Jewry would concomitantly shrink in size and significance. As late as 1977, there were predictions that the number of Orthodox Jews is bound to decline in the coming decades.18 these doomsday forecasts, however, were proven wrong. An influx of Orthodox Jewish immigrants in the aftermath of the

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Holocaust significantly bolstered the numbers of Orthodox Jews and provided the manpower for the renaissance that was to manifest itself almost a quarter of a century later. by the end of the twentieth century, the North American Orthodox community was no longer struggling to survive. its members had grown affluent, achieved professional and academic success, and built vibrant communities and institutions. A sense of self-confidence emerged, paving the way for what some have called the Haredization of American Orthodox Jewry, that is, American Orthodox Jewry became more punctilious in ritual observance and turned inward, in the sense of decreasing cooperation with the Conservative and Reform branches of American Judaism. 19 At the same time that the Orthodox community started becoming more religiously conservative and insular, the rest of North American Jewry championed more universal and progressive values. Although universalism was a key part of the Enlightenment in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, it was in the 1970s and 1980s that the secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements in North America began to highlight the role of tikkun olam and edek in Jewish life. in 1970, United Synagogue youth, the national youth organization of the Conservative Movement, was among the first organizations to re-appropriate the term tikkun olam, changing the name of its social action programs from building Spiritual bridges to tikkun Olam. Several years later, the New Jewish Agenda, an organization devoted to promoting progressive religious and social values, adopted the slogan tikkun Olam to express its mission. Most significantly, Tikkun, a politically left-leaning magazine, was founded in 1986, popularizing the use of the term tikkun olam within Jewish and non-Jewish politically liberal circles.20 Considering this thumbnail history, it is hard to isolate the reason why previous generations of Orthodox Jews failed to pursue a tikkun olam and edek agenda characterized by universalistic goals and liberal politics. Was it our long history of oppression and persecution in Europe that made the North American Orthodox Jewish community, with its disproportionate number of Holocaust survivors,21 deeply suspicious of non-Jews? did the Orthodox communitys struggle for survival in early to mid-twentieth century America leave behind

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vestiges of a siege mentality in which the world is divided into Jews versus non-Jews, Orthodox versus non-Orthodox? Was the religious turn to the right in the 1970s and 1980s accompanied by a similar shift in political attitudes? did Orthodox Jews newfound economic independence make the community bolder in its isolation from the surrounding world? did the Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements adoption of tikkun olam as their trademark push the Orthodox even further away from social justice work for fear of association with non-Orthodox streams of Judaism? Most probably, it was a convergence of some or all of these factors that prevented earlier generations from pursuing tikkun olam and edek, as expressed in their most recent incarnations. Some contemporary Orthodox Jewsincluding people in their teens and twenties who grew up in freedom and relative affluence and are unscathed by anti-Semitismcontinue to view the relationship between Jews and non-Jews as a zero-sum game, in which Jacob rises only when Esau falls, and vice versa. Likewise, they perceive nonOrthodox Jews as the other, rather than as partners in the mission to make the world a better place. Lamenting this reality, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the british Commonwealth, declared: the Orthodox community is very much concerned with the particularism but gave up on universalism. . . . Phrases like light unto the nations, or the Jewish mission, or ethical universalism, all those things became code words for assimilation, reform, and the whole concept of Tikkun Olam became suspect. What a tragedy that is today.22 Alongside these people, however, are rising numbers of Orthodox Jews whose self-confidence leads them not to retreat from but to engage with the wider world; whose real-life experiences in secular colleges and the workforce teach them that non-Jews and non-Orthodox Jews are fellow travelers on this planet; who look to torah and halakhah not as an invitation to insularity but as a mandate for inclusion. increasingly comfortable in their own skin, these Orthodox Jews are

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willing to step out of an exclusive identity to heal the suffering of others. they viscerally understand that, while the torahs original injunction to pursue social justice is closely linked to our experience as an oppressed minority in Egypt, the current reality of Jewish sovereignty in israel, coupled with the existence of a free and advantaged Jewish minority in North America, demands of us a radically different sense of responsibility than in the past. What unique contribution can this growing segment of Orthodox Jews, having reached these conclusions, make to the field of social justice in the larger Jewish community? How can we best harness their power?

RE-ANCHORING UNIVERSALISM TO PARTICULARISM: THE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION OF ORTHODOXY TO THE PURSUIT OF TIKKUN OLAM
The Particularism of Text Many Jews view tikkun olam as an excellent way to reach out to the unaffiliated. As Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service, wrote: Working in various settings to help repair and improve the world offers entry and reentry points for Jews who find meaning in these activities and who can, through this work, develop a new appreciation of Judaism.23 Honing this argument, Professor Gerald Cromer, a researcher for the Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and Strengthening Jewish Vitality at bar-ilan University, concluded: For those members of the [Jewish] community who are deterred by what they feel to be an overemphasis on ritual observance and/or tribal identity, repairing the world provides a more attractive way of connecting to their Jewish heritage.24 the flip side of this argument, however, is the growing sense that tikkun olam has emerged as an alternative, rather than as a complementary, form of Jewish identity, which does away with traditional ritual and nationalist forms of Jewish expression. the case can be made that tikkun olamboth the phrase and the practice has become devoid of Jewish meaning and bears loose connection to its roots. And, it is not only Orthodox Jews who feel this way.

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Criticizing the modern usage of tikkun olam as a superficial, catch-all category, Arnold Jacob Wolf, Reform rabbi and longtime champion of progressive politics, wrote: All this begins, i believe, with distorting tikkun olam. A teaching about compromise, sharpening, trimming and humanizing rabbinic law, a mystical doctrine about putting Gods world back together again, this strange and half-understood notion becomes a huge umbrella under which our petty moral concerns and political panaceas can come in out of the rain.25 Arguing that tikkun olam has lost its moorings and that it serves instead as a guise for liberal politics, israeli journalist Hillel Halkin sarcastically claimed: there appears to be nothing wrong with this world that Judaism does not command us to fix, and nothing needing fixing about which it does not have something to say. . . . Health care, labor unions, public school education, feminism, abortion rights, gay marriage, globalization, U.S. foreign policy, darfur: on everything Judaism has a positionand, wondrously, this position just happens to coincide with that of the American liberal Left.26 Halkin pushed this point further, saying that, like a surrogate mother who can be hired to bear any child one wishes, Jewish tradition has been made to conform to the a priori beliefs and value systems of progressive, Jewish activistsbeliefs and value systems which are often absent from or clash with classical Jewish sources.27 it is precisely in this regard that the Orthodox community has a special role to play. instead of shying away from a field that has sometimes co-opted Jewish texts in a self-serving manner, the Orthodox community can assume the role of adding depth and authenticity to the Jewish social justice world. Possessing disproportionately high levels of Jewish literacy as compared to the rest of North American

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Jewry, the Orthodox community can and should take the vanguard position in expanding and enriching Jewish social justice discourse by re-analyzing oft-quoted sources, unearthing lesser-known sources with contemporary social justice relevance, and demanding that practical halakhah, and not just theoretical torah study, keep up with the times by applying traditional halakhic concepts vis--vis esed, edekah, and edek to modern reality. What, for example, is the halakhic understanding of you shall surely not ignore,28 the poor of your city take precedence,29 and it is forbidden to aid a thief (even indirectly)30 in an era of globalization characterized by complex consumer-producer relations, in which the clothing we wear and food we eat were produced by sweatshops and slave labor in far-off countries, and the Worldwide Web enables us to see the suffering of people thousands of miles away? As Rabbi dr. yehudah Mirsky wrote in tikkun Olam: basic Questions and Policy directions: Central features of todays world, such as the extraordinary power and reach of modern states, economies and transnational entities; an increasingly networked, global community, facilitated in many ways by the internet; and, at a deeper level, the conviction, central to all modern politics and certainly to much humanitarianism, that societies are man-made entities which can be remade by the proper application of knowledge and skillall these pose major, though not insurmountable, challenges to the inheritors and interpreters of Jewish text and traditions. indeed Jewish law and philosophy have over the centuries regularly proven themselves to be deeply responsive to changing circumstances and new ideasbut here as elsewhere it is easy to read the tradition sloppily or worse; it is more demanding to read and interpret it meaningfully and with care.31 the Orthodox community should not be afraid to engage in meaningful conversations that draw attention to previously whitewashed points

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of friction between Jewish tradition and contemporary social justice discourse, between particularism and universalism. Such conversations may run the risk of alienating some Jewish social justice activists who prefer to view Judaism and progressive politics as one and the same agenda. but they maintain our integrityboth as Jews and as lovers of humanityand ensure that we grapple with contemporary issues in a serious way. The Particularism of Territory Along with anchoring tikkun olam to its particularistic, text-based foundations, the Orthodox community has a special role to play in reminding the rest of North American Jewry that the primary Jewish responsibility to pursue edek and tikkun olam is tied to a particular plot of land. the original biblical injunction to pursue justice is territorially based; it is intricately connected to Jewish sovereignty in the Land of israel: Justice, justice you shall pursue so that you may live and inherit the land.32 israel, as a Jewish polity, is charged with the responsibility of being a model society that implements the values of edek and tikkun olam on a scale impossible for individuals or isolated communities to achieve. Following the destruction of the Second temple, Jews lost this large-scale mechanism for social change and were compelled to settle for implementing edek and tikkun olam in a limited way on foreign soil. According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, it should come as no surprise that, given the loss of Jewish sovereignty in israel, edek and tikkun olam have not featured more prominently in halakhic writings: For two thousand years, we were dispersed, scattered, exiled, we were powerless, we were what Max Weber called the pariah people. Who in the world would think of learning from us? We were the wandering Jew, Old israel, displaced, superseded, we were the people rejected by G-d. thats what the nations thought. Who thought of learning from us? thus, Tikkun Olam, which could not be implemented as a Jewish value, squeezed under the door in some attenuated way.33

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it was only with the founding of the State of israel more than sixty years ago that the Jewish People once again had the engines of statecraftan army, legislature, judiciary, diplomatic corps, and so onto implement the Jewish ideals of edek and tikkun olam, both as a laboratory for social justice within its own borders and as a catalyst for social change on the international arena. We need look no further than the recent, overwhelmingly positive, international media attention attracted by the idF field hospital in earthquake-devastated Haiti to understand the tremendous potential the State of israel has to be the vanguard for tikkun olam on the world stage. North American Jewish social justice activists attempt to answer the overarching question: What is the responsibility of the Jewish minority to marginal populations within the larger society? israeli social justice activists, in contrast, attempt to answer the questions: What is the responsibility of a Jewish majority to minority populationsboth Jewish and non-Jewishliving in its midst? And, concurrently, what is the obligation of a Jewish State to fellow states around the world? the questions confronting the israeli government and social justice community are questions of epic and historic significance and should concern anyone, worldwide, who cares seriously about Judaism and social justice. Some North American Jewish social justice organizations and activists, however, have turned a blind eye to israel and its potential to serve as a forerunner in the fight for justice. Although North American Jewish social justice organizations and their israeli counterparts share many things in common (values, causes, target populations, professional staff, and donors), information-sharing and collaboration between such organizations has been sporadic at best. this lack of contact stems not only from the high demands of organizational life, which make it difficult to forge and maintain transatlantic networks, but also from a reluctance on the part of some North American Jewish social justice organizations and activists to be associated with israel, conflicted about israels role in the Middle East and afraid of possible political fallout among constituents. Perceiving israel as the antithesis of just, some in the North American Jewish social justice community go so far as to refuse to work with israel on social causes

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unrelated to the israel-Palestinian conflict. this attitude is not only detrimental to israel and its seven and a half million citizens (Jews and non-Jews alike), who could benefit greatly from cooperation with North American Jewish social justice organizations, but to the pursuit of edek and tikkun olam in the world at large, which could gain much from coordination between the two largest and most well endowed Jewish communities in the world. Genuine dialogue between Jewish social justice activists in North America and their israeli counterparts could go a long way in showing that israel is multifaceted and complex, israeli activists are spearheading cutting-edge social action work, and there is a lot that can be learned from one another. Here too, Orthodox Jews have a critical role to play. On a practical level, surveys have consistently demonstrated that North American Orthodox Jews attachments to israel, however they are measured, greatly exceed those among other denominations. they travel to israel, study in israel, have first-order relatives in israel, and move to israel in far greater numbers than their non-Orthodox counterparts.34 Practically, then, the Orthodox community is naturally suited to bridge the gulf between edek and tikkun olam initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic. For example, it is no coincidence that Uri Ltzedek and its tav Hayosher initiative is modeled closely after bemaaglei tzedek, an israeli organization founded in 2004 by a group of religious Jerusalemites that uses education and social action campaigns to create a more just israeli society inspired by Jewish values, and its tav Chevrati initiative, which grants certificates to israeli restaurants that treat their workers ethically and are handicap accessible.35 the founders of Uri Ltzedek have spent significant time in israel and gained first-hand exposure to bemaaglei tzedek and its work. beyond the practical advantage of frequent contact and connection with israel, North American Orthodox Jews should also have an ideological interest in positioning israel at the forefront of tikkun olam and edek. For people who view the torah as both timely and timeless, what better test case is there for Judaisms ability to develop creative ways of addressing current socioeconomic problems than the modern State of israel? When most israelis and Jews around the world consider the practical ramifications of the term Jewish State, they

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think largely of israels policies regarding public observance of Jewish holidays, public transportation on Shabbat, and army exemptions for the aredi sector. the Orthodox community in North America, along with the Religious Zionist community in israel, has an obligation to remind israel and the world that a torah-envisioned Jewish State demands a basic set of ethical norms and behavior just as much as, if not more so than, ritual observance.

ORTHODOXY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: RESTORER OF FOUNDATIONS LAID LONG AGO

A growing circle of Orthodox Jews is joining the fight for social justice, both within and outside of the Jewish community. their issues, goals, and methods may be new, but they are tapping into a source as ancient as the torah itself. And tap they must. For, if they are successful, Orthodox Judaism, the Jewish People, and the entire world will benefit from the fulfillment of our age-old responsibility to anchor the universalism of tikkun olam in the particularism of Jewish texts and territory.

NOTES
1. tamar Snyder, Social Justice: An Orthodox Cause? Jewish Week. May 18, 2008. www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c372_a12454/Special_Sections/the_New_ Activism.html Amy Klein, Orthodox students are embracing social action. JTA. November 16, 2009. http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/16/1009221/orthodox-studentsembrace-social-action See the bemaaglei tzedek website: www.mtzedek.org.il isa. 58:57. Samuel C Heilman, tzedekah: Orthodox Jews and Charitable Giving, in barry A. Kosmin and Paul Ritterband, Contemporary Jewish Philanthropy in America (Savage, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 1991). See the Chabad website for more information: http://lubavitch.com/programs. html?h=587 Agudath israel of America National Public Policy Position Paper (presented to the 106th Congress, published in conjunction with 1999 National Leadership Mission, June 29, 1999). http://www.jlaw.com/LawPolicy/OU1.html

2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

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8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

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14.

15.

16. 17.

See the iPA website for more information: http://www.ou.org/public_affairs Agudath israel of America National Public Policy Position Paper, http://www. jlaw.com/LawPolicy/OU1.html As it appears on the iPA website, http://www.ou.org/public_affairs See the Uri Ltzedek website for more information: http://www.utzedek.org/ See the yeshivat Chovevei torah website: http://www.yctorah.org/content/ view/1/49/ traditionally, the term tikkun olam assumed a variety of meanings: in the Mishnah (Gittin 4), it was a rationale for rabbinic edicts in Jewish society; in the Aleinu prayer, it was linked to the messianic age in which the entire world will serve God; in neo-kabbalistic contexts, it referred to the act of bringing God into this world. While departing from more traditional definitions, this papers use of tikkun olam as Jewish moral responsibility to the non-Jewish world is in line with the way the term has been increasingly used in common parlance over the past couple of decades. in fact, the sixth conference of the Orthodox Forum, held in March 1994, which served as a precursor for the 2010 Orthodox Forum panel on tikkun olam at which this paper was presented, employed the following working definition for tikkun olam: the thesis that Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but for the moral, spiritual, and material welfare of society at large. See david Shatz, Chaim i. Waxman, and Nathan J. diament, eds., Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law (Northvale, NJ, and London: Jason Aronson, 1997). two caveats: First, not all of yeshiva Universitys and Uri Ltzedeks social justice programs are edek-focused. Running a clothing drive in Harlem, constructing a bridge in Nicaragua, and establishing micro-financing groups to help entrepreneurs in the developing world, as they have done, are all wonderful acts of esed and edekah, not edek. Second, although Agudath israels and the iPAs lobbying efforts are motivated by particularistic concerns and promote generally right-of-center political positions, they still have a edek-focus. it is interesting, however, that Agudath israel and the iPA refrain from using the term edek, while Uri Ltzedek, as well as some college student activists in yeshiva Universitys Social Justice Club, embraces this expression. Rabbi yaakov Ariel, btzedekah tikonani: bein tzedek Ltzedekah ishit (in Righteousness Shalt thou be Established: between Collective tzedek to Personal tzedekah), January 2006. http://www.mtzedek.org.il/maamarview1.asp?id=65 the examples of the Orthodox businessman and the israeli rabbi are both based on personal encounters i have had as executive director of bemaaglei tzedek. these developments are similar to changes that have taken place in israel over the past couple of years, in which organizations like bemaaglei tzedek, Mizrach Shemesh, tevel btzedek, Kehillot tzedek, beit Morashas beit Midrash Ltzedek Chevrati, and yesodot were either started by Orthodox Jews, specifically target Orthodox Jews, or have expanded their activities to meet the needs of Orthodox Jews.

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18. Samuel C. Heilman and Steven M. Cohen, Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Modern Orthodox Jews in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). 19. Chaim Waxman, From institutional decay to Primary day: American Orthodox Jewry since World War ii, American Jewish History 91, nos. 34 (2003). 20. Lawrence Fine, tikkun: A Lurianic Motif in Contemporary Jewish thought, in From Ancient Israel to Modern Judaism: Intellect in Quest of Understanding: Essays in Honor of Marvin Fox, vol. 4, ed. Jacob Neusner et al. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989). http://www.myjewishlearning.com/practices/Ethics/Caring_For_Others/ tikkun_Olam_Repairing_the_World_/Contemporary_Jewish_thought.shtml 21. Waxman, From institutional decay to Primary day. 22. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, tikkun Olam: Orthodoxys Responsibility to Perfect G-ds World (speech delivered at the Orthodox Union West Coast Convention, december 1997/Kislev 5758). http://www.ou.org/public/Publib/tikkun.htm 23. Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World, foreword by Ruth Messinger (Woodstock, Vt: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006). 24. Gerald Cromer, tikkun Olam: Engaged Spirituality and Jewish identity (Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and Strengthening Jewish Vitality, bar-ilan University Faculty of Jewish Studies, 2007). http://www.rappaportcenter. biu.ac.il/Research/PdF/Hoveret%2015_0156.pdf 25. Arnold Jacob Wolf, Repairing tikkun OlamCurrent theological Writing. Judaism, Fall 2001. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_4_50/ ai_82469827/pg_3/ 26. Hillel Halkin, How Not to Repair the World. Commentary, JulyAugust 2008. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/how-not-to-repair-theworld-11461 27. ibid. 28. deut. 22:3. 29. See Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Mattanot Aniim 7:13. 30. See Shulan Arukh, oshen Mishpat, Hilkhot Genevah 356, and Arukh ha-Shulan: oshen Mishpat, Hilkhot Genevah. 31. yehudah Mirsky, Tikkun Olam: basic Questions and Policy directions (policy paper commissioned by Jewish People Policy Planning institute, 2008). http:// www.jpppi.org.il/JPPPi/templates/showpage.asp?dbid=1&LNGid=1&tMid =105&Fid=452&Pid=0&iid=843 32. deut. 16:20. 33. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, tikkun Olam. 34. Chaim Waxman, From institutional decay to Primary day. 35. See the bemaaglei tzedek website for more information: www.mtzedek.org.il