Every place has its own style – B’ha’a lot’cha
The journeys of the Israelites occupy much of the sidra.
“At the command of the Lord the Children of Israel journeyed, and at the command of the Lord they encamped”. It seems important for the Torah to tell us that the journeys were at the command of the Lord”.
Is it that our migrations as a people were somehow always part of a Divine scheme?
Menasseh ben Israel, who brought about the return of Jews to England in 1656, believed Jews had to be in every part of the globe, otherwise the ingathering from the four corners of the earth could not take place. Mashi’ach could not come until there were Jews in England!
Each place to which Jews migrated enriched the personality of our people and made its kaleidoscope more colourful. Each place created its own style of Judaism, generally reflecting the ethos of the environment.
The Sephardim of southern Europe were urbane, with a Judaism based on philosophy and system. The Ashkenazim of northern Europe were passionate and preferred the Talmud to philosophy. The Litvaks were rationalists; the Polacks were emotional and mystical. German Jews stressed decorum and synthesis with western culture; Anglo-Jewry believed in the gentlemanly avoidance of extremes.
Because Jewish Australia is so multicultural, our sheer diversity complicates the task of identifying a distinctive Australian contribution to Judaism. The cynics state that until recently there was no Australian contribution to Judaism at all and we were too lack-lustre to warrant any pride in our Jewishness. But they ignore the individuals and families who never weakened in their determination for the cause of Judaism despite everything.
Yet the question remains – is there, today at least, an Australian style of Judaism?
Like fellow Australians of all backgrounds, the Australian Jew has tended to be an inconsistent mixture of laid-back reluctance to become too passionate about very much at all, and at the same time a fierce loyalty to traditional standards.
Judaism in Australia is relaxed and determined at one and the same time. Some cannot get worked up about Jewish learning, observance, commitment and continuity. But overall, we have a higher level of involvement in communal life than in the vastly larger Jewish communities of the United States; a higher Aliyah rate, larger numbers in Jewish schools, and greater commitment to basic observances.
Somehow our community has realised that Australia is no longer a Jewish backwater. We are the tenth largest Jewish community. What we do as Jews is no longer insignificant in the march towards the Jewish destiny. Our task is to ensure that we do not become too laid-back to fulfil our part of the Divine plan for the Judaism of the future.
