The Value of Pluralism

Hello, friends.

First off, sorry for the long delay--my thesis on antisemitism in Spain under Francisco Franco was due about a week ago, so there were a few weeks of craziness and then I collapsed for a while. Secondly, I know it has been a tough week for a lot of us, dealing with the fear of the bomber loose in Boston and various other tragedies over the past few days. This encouraged a lot of people to turn to religion for comfort, including me, and reminded me to post on here.

That said, I wanted to talk more about my experience with CLIP last summer, because I noticed I usually bring it up with negative associations: how it was challenging for me emotionally, how I felt "othered" in the group, things like that. These facts still remain true. I find that people are often more critical of people who claim to practice the same broad religion. For example, when my Catholic or Protestant friends disagree with the way in which the other side of Christianity practices the religion. Or when my Jewish peers in CLIP introducing me, for the first time in my life, to the actual idea that many Jewish people would not consider me Jewish because my "blood" from my birthmother (whom I have never met) rendered me a gentile.

But honestly, despite everything, CLIP was one of the most important and formative experiences I have ever had.

For those who are unaware, CLIP stands for Collegiate Leadership Internship Program. Run through the Hillel at NYU, CLIP is a Jewish internship program in New York City that combines an internship four four days a week with Wednesday seminars on career, leadership, and Judaism. I would recommend the program for anyone interested in exploring Judaism in greater depth. (http://www.clipnyc.com/)

The program places interns in internships that are appropriate to their potential career paths, for example law offices or financial firms or non-profits. I was working for the NYU Center for Spirituality, a new multifaith initiative at the university (pretty appropriate, huh?). There were fifty-one interns from many different types of Judaism, including non-religious, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Sephardic, etc. All fifty-one of us gathered on Wednesdays to participate in seminars, activities, hear lectures from Jewish leaders, from career experts, etc. CLIP is an excellent, strong program that I loved very much.

The pluralism aspect of the summer was fascinating. "Pluralism" in a religious context implies coexistence and discussion across different systems of religious beliefs, or in the Jewish context specifically, across the different movements.

Now, prior to May 2012, my Jewish world consisted of Reform/Conservative Jews (in my town, for all intents and purposes, this meant basically the same thing growing up), and then a vague understanding of what I considered "extremist," yes maybe even "crazy," Orthodox Jews. I had never met someone who identified as an Orthodox Jew (except briefly in Italy, which did not really count). If you had asked me before last summer if anyone still lived like the Jewish people in Fiddler on the Roof, I probably would have laughed and said "No way!" That would be very wrong. There are still people who will not dance with members of the other gender, or will not drive to temple on Friday nights. People who would not consider me Jewish because my birthmother is not Jewish. I did not really believe it, though, until I had met some people like this last summer. And it turns out they are not crazy. At least, my Orthodox friends are not, and I have learned a great deal more about Orthodoxy over the past eleven months.

This points to a critical part of pluralism: meeting people who embody the "other." It was vital for me to talk about religion with very religious Jewish individuals, those who try to follow the laws of the Torah as closely as possible. We all spoke fairly candidly, so that I felt comfortable asking about gender roles in Orthodox Judaism. About homosexuality. Sex. We covered these and more topics throughout the summer, in both formal and informal settings. Many of us said that, while we appreciated some of the formal Wednesday programming, we really learned the most from one another in our informal discussions and bonding opportunities. Going on a Shabbaton (a weekend trip that includes the Jewish Sabbath from Friday-Saturday) to Pennsylvania early in the program really opened my eyes to the level of disagreement we had in the group. But by using sensitive language, we all managed to really talk about our differences in inspiring ways, rather than putting one another down for our varying beliefs.

In the same vein, I got the impression that I was able to help change some perceptions about both interfaith marriage and Reform Judaism. About how having a Catholic mother did not make me any less of a participant in my Jewish community than were my Hebrew School classmates, or how "Reform Judaism" does not just mean "lazy Jews" and that we have a defined theology just like the other movements. Meeting people different from ourselves inspired many of us to learn more about our individual movements in order to better explain them when people approached us with questions. I know I learned a lot about all of the other movements, as well, and I am very happy to have friends now all across the Jewish spectrum. If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever be friends with someone Orthodox, I do not think I could have even thought about where I would even meet someone like that. But CLIP was the place.

The experience even encouraged many of us to reconsider what we want our own faith experience to look like now and in the future. I think many people grow up in one particular tradition and follow it their whole lives, without really questioning it. Others just ignore religion and live a secular life. But then there seems to exist a large contingent of college students who explore their faith in more depth, possibly because they find themselves in a new religious environment or community. I certainly have not loved my Jewish experience down here in Williamsburg, because of the lack of a familiar Jewish community. I have attended a few services at the closest Reform synagogue, about thirty minutes away, but do not love it. But this has gotten me thinking about where I could be happy living after college (somewhere with more liberal Jews).

Even while I have not had a strong Jewish community while in college, I have researched antisemitism in Europe a great deal, and developed a really strong passion for combating religious prejudices. So how could I go forward with my faith? Is being Reform enough for me, when many Reform Jews do indeed practice the religion very little? In an ideal situation, how would I participate in Judaism going forward? Keep kosher? Observe Shabbat fully? Not eat bread for eight days during Passover? These are all things that no Reform Jews I have ever met actually do (at least not all of them, and I am pretty sure not even any of them). The theology of Reform Judaism, however, really fits for me: militantly egalitarian, my movement accepts equal participation by men and women, homosexuals are often welcome in Reform communities, interfaith families are generally accepted into the community. And yet I want more, in terms of community involvement, in terms of Judaism in my daily life. For this and other reasons, I have internally considered exploring other movements, but I am still exploring this. We shall see.

I have spoken to fellow 2012 CLIP participants, and I know that some of them have similarly struggled to find where they want their religious compass to rest. Some traditional religious folks moving towards more liberal movements, some more secular folks moving towards Orthodoxy. It seems we all got to thinking, when we saw that there are different, yet still truly beautiful, ways of practicing Judaism.

I am 100% sure I would never have had such an excellent experience of Judaism in any other setting outside of the excellent pluralistic programming in CLIP. Maybe eventually I would have made Orthodox friends by chance, or thought about the possibility of starting to observe Shabbat more strictly, if I had not been in the group. But CLIP combined informal experiences with the education necessary to make sure that we were not just experiencing these different Jewish individuals without having the requisite background to truly understand more about the theology and practices. We had rabbis from different movements come speak to us one day, for example.

One concern I have about pluralistic programs, though, is that Orthodox groups might be less supportive of communities like this, out of a fear that their young congregants might then be tempted by the more liberal movements of Judaism like mine, and then leave the community. And yet...the value of interacting with members of different Jewish movements is just so critical, I cannot emphasize how excellent it was. I learned so much from my Orthodox friends. I wish there were more programs like this, and that growing up I had been exposed to pluralism much earlier.

I will forever be grateful to both the experiences I had during CLIP, and the continuing friendships I gained last summer. I feel affection for everyone in the group, and I was over the moon when I heard that two CLIP participants from our group last summer got engaged. We really formed lasting close connections, and I look forward to the time when we finally get to have a reunion with the group soon. Pluralism can work: it is not always easy, but it really does help us all understand our own faith in more depth. Try it! And remember to keep an open mind...you never know what you might find out about the world, and yourself.

Now go out and love one another.

<3,
Allyson