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April 13, 2001/Nisan 20, 5761, Vol. 53, No.28
Group to focus on social justice to strengthen Jewish identity
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - According to a popular joke, a group of American Jewish tourists in Israel ask their tour guide, "How do you say tikkun olam in Hebrew?"
Tikkun olam is a Hebrew term meaning Jewish obligation to repair the world.
The joke's humor lay in the fact that many American Jews are more literate in social activism than in Hebrew.
According to a new study, however, most American Jews not only don't know it's Hebrew, but aren't even familiar with the term tikkun olam.
And with only 31 percent reporting that Israel is personally very meaningful to their Jewish identity, chances are they won't be asking Israeli tour guides much of anything.
The findings were two pieces of a recent study measuring American Jewish attitudes toward "social justice," a somewhat vague term that can fit a variety of causes, depending on the speaker's politics.
The study's major finding - that American Jews remain strongly supportive of predominantly liberal social justice causes - is being used to promote the new organization that commissioned it.
Amos: The National Jewish Partnership for Social Justice was officially launched last week. It aims to place social justice higher on the Jewish communal agenda and to provide training and other support for Jewish groups that want to address social justice issues.
Amos' founding comes as a number of people tout social justice and community service as a means of engaging unaffiliated young Jews:
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A new organization in its planning stages, Partnership for Service, seeks to increase community service rates among young Jews while teaching what Jewish tradition has to say about volunteering.
Through a project called Tzedek Hillel, several campus Hillels are focusing on volunteer efforts, including spring break programs in which students do things like build houses for the poor.
Several Jewish organizations are discussing the possibility of joining forces for a Jewish Peace Corps in which recent college grads would commit to a year or two of service, combined with Jewish learning.
The new study, based on phone interviews with 1,002 U.S. Jews, indicates strong Jewish support for social justice. But it also reveals a fundamental paradox that likely will affect Amos and similar efforts.
The overwhelming majority of American Jews say social activism is important to their identity as Jews, and they feel proud that Jewish organizations do social justice work.
Nonetheless, 74 percent don't care whether their own social activism falls under Jewish or secular auspices.
"If you don't perceive your community as sponsoring social justice activities, you're not going to say you prefer to do them with other Jews," said Leonard Fein, the founder of Mazon, a Jewish hunger-relief organization and one of Amos' architects.
Not everyone interprets the survey as a clarion call for more social justice activities.
"When I see these surveys that show that for many Jews," the "meaning of Jewish identity is social justice, I worry, because among otherthings that doesn't tell you why you shouldn't marry a Unitarian," said Elliott Abrams, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank in Washington. "I don't know that spending more energy on those activities is an effective strategy for Jewish continuity in America."
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