Joe Lieberman's orthodoxy & ours
THE LAS* WORD JOE LIEBERMAM'S ORTHODOXY & OURS Maurice Timothy Reidy When...
...As Merkin some instructive similarities...
...The term "liberal" Catholic Soon after finishing my story, I read dox institution which, in the words of its has become disreputable in many cirCommonweal's editorial on Pius IX (Au- first president, Bertrand Revel, was de- cles, just as-Freedman reports-has gust 11) and it occurred to me that Mod- signed for two purposes: Torah Umaddah: the term "Modern Orthodox" in many ern Orthodoxy has much in common "Torah and worldly studies...
...OK, not quite stay loyal to God and his country re- been dwarfed by a more conservative ground zero...
...As Freedman chron- the Hartford Courant...
...Think of Tim- modernity versus the one who made it a out, Hirsch was a theologian and leader othy Healy, S.J., the late president of the part of his legacy...
...I was in a suburban bu- minds me of Archbishop John Ireland, strain of Judaism known as the haredi...
...But we can take sowho "admired Schiller almost as much New York Public Library...
...Their goal, in the words of And, because I was supposed to know was compatible with the Catholic tradi- the sociologist Samuel Heilman, was to something about religion, I was asked to tion...
...THE LAS* WORD JOE LIEBERMAM'S ORTHODOXY & OURS Maurice Timothy Reidy When news of Joe Lieber- both God and Germany...
...My assignment: a brief Q distinctly American notion of religious the day, to assert that change need not and A on Lieberman's religion...
...liberty into the Catholic tradition during occur when all around you has undeniAnd so I cobbled together a story on Vatican II...
...I called friends The similarities between the two move- That's a familiar battle cry...
...Lieberman has given them a "reason to recent article in the New Yorker, the Mod- Soloveitchik made me think of the Je- kvell...
...Despite the influence of the tween the groups (politically, for ex- the personification of its precepts arrived haredi, the Modem Orthodox movement ample, they occupy different positions in America" in the person of Joseph Dov has seen a bit of a renaissance with the within their own traditions), there are Soloveitchik, a scholar who specialized nomination of Lieberman...
...Conservwith Jewish spouses, e-mailed a few of ments don't end there...
...While there Furthermore, Freedman writes that: doxy seem to be currently facing two difare obviously substantial differences be- "Four years after Yeshiva's founding, ferent fates...
...with liberal Catholicism-at least as de- modified, that could be the slogan of any These similarities notwithstanding, fined here last November 19 (see "Crisis Catholic university...
...lace in the fact that liberal religion is back as Maimonides, cautiously embracing My examples are, of course, drawn in the discussion, thanks in no small part modernity while insisting on the obliga- from the left end of the Catholic wading to my senator...
...I'm also reminded of John Court- "maintain tradition when all about you contribute to the myriad of stories being ney Murray, the theologian who, of others do not, to define a world of sacred written about our famously religious course, finally helped to incorporate the order when the profane is the order of junior senator...
...Modern Orthodoxy...
...who argued that American democracy after the war...
...D tion to observe Jewish law...
...According to a Talmud...
...There were-and arc Catholics she continues, "Torah im Derech Eretz- hostile to modernity...
...Slightly Jewish circles...
...ably changed...
...His credo," pool...
...Liberal Catholics, meanwhile, are em Orthodox movement was founded in suits I knew who complemented their rig- scratching their heads over the recent the 1850s in Frankfurt, Germany by Rabbi orous theological training with a degree in coupling (via beatification) of Pius IX Samson Raphael Hirsch...
...in Plato and Aristotle in addition to the put it in the now obligatory Yiddish, Allow me to elaborate...
...versity in 1928-a classic Modem Ortho- connection...
...liberal Catholicism and Modern Orthoof Liberal Catholicism...
...But in this too, lib- Maurice Timothy Reidy, former ComTorah Judaism in harmony with secular eral Catholicism shares something with monweal editorial assistant, is a reporter for culture-was a bow in the direction of Modem Orthodoxy...
...Jew: ative Catholics are preaching against a my old professors, and chatted with a cou- The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry culture of death, declaring that we have ple of rabbis from my old neighborhood...
...icles in his book, in recent years the Modman's nomination came Sound familiar...
...reau of the major newspaper of the vice- that nineteenth-century American prelate Many haredi immigrated to this country presidential candidate's home state...
...As Daphne computer science or German literature or and John XXIII: the pope who resisted Merkin, the author of the piece, points any other "worldly study...
...In his Jew vs...
...Commonweal 3 1 October 20, 2000...
...Simon & Schuster), Samuel G. Freedman learned all there is to learn from moderThe final result was not ground-breaking, writes about the founding of Yeshiva Uni- nity and now is the time to sever the but I hope somewhat illuminating...
...Hirsch's struggle to ern Orthodox movement which flourdown last summer, I was at "cautiously embrace modernity" and ished with leaders like Soloveitchik has ground zero...
Vol. 127 • October 2000 • No. 18
