Here’s to the Secular Jew

Between the summers before 3rd grade and 7th grade, I went to Camp Ramah in Nyack, NY. Ramah is Conservative. My family was modern orthodox. Even so, for the most part, there was very little about Ramah that really shook my faith. Other than them being more lax about using the Lord’s name in vain (saying “Adonai” when not praying or reading from the Torah), and a little thing called egalitarianism, it was basically like the Judaism I was raised with.

Years later, I learned that there was more to it. In 7th grade, a rabbi told my class that we should not go to Solomon Schechter (Conservative) because they do not believe in Torah MiSinai (that is, the Torah as we have it was completely given to Moses and has not been changed). As an adult, I learned that this is only a half-truth. They believe that Moses did go up Sinai and deliver a Torah, but what we have today isn’t it. For many years, my rabbis showed casual derision toward Conservative Judaism and something else called Reform (I had no idea what they were).

In my high school, I had a classmate who was a devout Conservative Jew. He would bite his tongue whenever teachers in our school denigrated Conservatives. In fact, I would say that this man was a lot more devout than me back then. His movement, however, emphasizes those things less. While they discourage driving on Shabbos other than for shul, they know they can’t stop people from driving to McDonald’s after shul, so they pick their battles.

My current outlook on secular judaism?  Not for me. Once in a while I will engage just for shits and giggles. My wedding was done by a movement called Lab/Shul. I like them a lot. Basically, any movement that considers my wife and daughter (neither one Jewish) a second class citizen or worse is out for me.

Better a conservative than orthodox, I say. But still not for me.