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Jewish World Review Dec. 31, 1998 / 12 Teves, 5759
FOR A VERY LONG TIME, scholars and just plain folks have thought about, argued about, pondered about whether Judaism is a religion or a nationality.
Is being Jewish being part of a faith or part of a people?
There are all kinds of repercussions based on which of those answers you choose and each both paints and leads to a very different kind of picture of what Judaism is, involves, means, is called on to do and be.
But as important a question as that is to answer and as significant as the answers may be, I think we can put it all aside at the moment, see it as basically irrelevant for our times.
For I think we have an answer about what Judaism truly is in this place at this time.
Judaism is neither religion nor nationality. It’s a corporation.
That’s right, a corporation. Indeed, the corporatization of Judaism has been sneaking up on us for years and came into full flower in 1998. This new year of 1999 promises to accelerate the trend and accentuate the corporatization of our little tribe.
Make it Yiddishkeit, Inc.
No more. Now the head lay guide is called the chairman of the board, while the head staff guy is the president. All very corporate.
Keeping with that trend, the two big umbrella organizations of American Jewish life, the Council of Jewish Federations and the United Jewish Appeal, are in the midst of, what else, a merger.
Again, very corporate and very in step with the business climate of our times with firms merging all over the place to consolidate operations.
And if some people get hurt in the process, well, we’re sorry about that but hey, that’s corporate life in the ‘90s. Reduced work force equals better bottom line.
And there’s no doubt that by merging CJF and UJA, money will be saved. After all, then there’s only a need for one head guy, not two, one headquarters, not two and on and on. Merging two entities into one definitely cuts costs.
As for at what cost, we can’t be bothered with that.
And so it is with the CJF and UJA merger which has already led to the departure of two of the finest Jewish public servants this community has ever had.
Martin Kraar and Bernie Moscowitz are two of the smartest, saviest, wisest Jewish professionals you’ll ever run across. Both have a tremendous understanding of the ways of the Jewish community, the true purpose of fund-raising and wonderful personalities just right for dealing with the ways of the Jewish community.
Kraar was the staff head of CJF, Moscowitz of UJA. But no more. Being squeezed out in the merger, both have left, both to work for Israeli universities. The universities’ gain, but a loss to the Federation world which needs all the mentshen it can get, but will likely be getting more and more corporate types, which is exactly what it doesn’t need.
Now, being good soldiers, neither Kraar nor Moscowitz will say they were pushed out, will say anything but that a new challenge came their way and they are excited about it.
As I say, they are menschen, the type of people we so much need in a Jewish organizational world that is becoming more and more corporate.
But the merger means a new way of doing business is coming. A way that is more business than Jewish organization.
If you look back at Jewish organizations 30 or 40 years ago, you see how heimish they were, how much those who worked there gave up and put up with because they so believed in what they were doing, so wanted to help the Jewish people.
There was a pervasive atmosphere of Yiddishkeit and mensthlichkeit. Were they the most efficient of places, did they raise the most money? No. But there was a feeling about them, a sense about them, a beauty about them.
That is long gone, given way to a more cut-throat way of operation, one far more efficient, one that believes in mergers and chairmen of the boards and consolidations and corporate efficiencies. Are we raising more money? You bet. The question is at what cost.
And yet we’re not stopping to ask that question. We are moving into the corporatization of Judaism with a full head of steam.
If I asked you who were the three most influential national Jewish leaders today, who more than any others are determining what is important and what is not, what to focus on and how much, who would you say?
Scary thing is that you probably don’t know. Which is understandable since it’s all happened very quietly.
But somehow three men have basically assumed control of the American Jewish agenda.
They are Edgar Bronfman, Michael Steinhardt and Leslie Wexner.
And what do these three men have in common?
They are all, you guessed it, business types. Jewish leaders not schooled, as it used to be in the old days, in the ways of the Jewish community or Jewish teaching and tradition, not men who have worked their way up the organizational ladder or risen to the top by dint of their Jewish knowledge, but men who have excelled in, whose entire world has been that of business.
Business. Bronfman is the head of Seagram’s, the giant distiller of alcoholic beverages. Steinhardt ran one of the most successful hedge funds on Wall Street. Wexner is the top guy at The Limited, the huge chain of clothing stores.
Each is a very, very wealthy man. Each is incredibly successful in the world of business and finance.
And all three are now, to an amazing extent, determining the future of Jewish life in this country.
I am not exaggerating. Bronfman will have by far the loudest voice in determining the purposes for which the $1.25 billion we will be getting from the Swiss banks will be used for. He has positioned himself to be the one calling the tune as to who gets that money and what they should do with it. He is, after all, the one who put the Swiss issue at the top of the Jewish agenda.
Steinhardt wants to strengthen secularism within Judaism. He believes the key is to build Jewish day schools around the country and send kids on trips to Israel for free for 10 days. Wexner’s pet cause is training the next generation of Jewish leaders with the values he most cherishes.
What’s scary is that while these guys definitely have their hearts in the right place and definitely are putting their money where their mouths are and are definitely wanting to do good – and you have to give them credit for that – you also have to wonder if the corporate way of doing things is what Judaism needs right now.
These guys are used to being in charge, not being questioned, having things done their way. The corporate way. They have full confidence in their wisdom and point to their business success as proof that confidence is well placed.
And, indeed, if we were looking for someone to run our business, we’d be glad to have them. But to run Judaism? And yet, rumors are rampant that the three will play key roles, and perhaps assume the top lay positions of this new merged UJA/CJF entity. Giving them even more say about Jewish life.
One small taste of what that means can be seen in a speech recently given by Bronfman in which he called for the rewriting of synagogue services.
That’s right, the rewriting of synagogue services, something we used to leave in the hands of rabbis, scholars, tradition.
But not Bronfman. No, good corporate chief that he is, he said synagogue services are "long, boring and repetitive to the young Jews of today."
And so, they must be changed, just as his company introduced spritzers when it became clear young people weren’t going in for the hard stuff.
And, he warned, "Our synagogues and temples don't belong to the rabbis."
After all, how many shares of Judaism do they control?
There you have it. A glimpse into what the future holds.
Which means as the small shareholders, we better keep an eye on things before our billionaire Abraham, Isaac and Jacob produce a Judaism that may be more efficent, but is one that is neither religion nor nation, but
11/19/98: My kind of folks
Judaism, Inc.
By Joseph Aaron
As I say, the trend has been visible for years. Take the Federation world where the head lay leader used to be called the president and the head staff guy was called the executive director. Both terms signaling that this was a Jewish organization.
JWR contributor Joseph Aaron is Editor of
The Chicago Jewish News
