Jewish studies  praised

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

Rabbi David Ellenson showed the importance of Jewish studies programs Monday, at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center by answering where the community is and where the community is heading.

Ellenson, a professor of Jewish religious studies at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, praised these programs, one of which is offered at Cal State Long Beach.

"What we have within the last 30 years is the rise of Jewish studies on college campuses and Cal State Long Beach is part of this revolution," Ellenson said.

To understand the effects of the Jewish faith, Ellenson cites the works of Peter Berger, author and professor at Boston University.

"Berger is writing about the conditions of persons in the modern western world and the way, in which, that condition informs how religious traditions are expressed," he said.

One such condition, as defined by Berger, is the heretical imperative, where options allow for change over time, Ellenson said. The Jewish community has shown this through their intermarriage rates.

Between 1985 and 1990, there was a 52 percent intermarriage rate, a change that would never have occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, Ellenson said.

Because of this, many Jewish people would feel, what Berger calls, the homeless mind, Ellenson said. The homeless mind attempts to answer the question "What happens when we leave home?"

Ellenson simplifies the theory, by explaining why "Roots," the 1977 movie about the lifeline of Alex Haley, was so popular.

Ellenson said the movie was not popular because people were so interested in African American families working in the fields, rather, they were interested in a world where people feel harmless, where a heretical imperative dominates.

Part of what people want is a sense of roots, he said.

Ellenson said, as assimilation and acculturation move forward, many Jews are losing touch. A total of 5.5 million people said they were Jewish. However, of these people, 1.1 million did not declare a religion.

"I think that people come more for the sense of community that synagogues or [Jewish Community Centers] present to them, then they do for theological reasons themselves," Ellenson said.

There has also been a rush to enroll into Jewish day schools. While admitting that many parents just want to get away from the public school system, Ellenson said he believes there is another reason.

Many parents believe their children can better relate their place in the world by reading Jewish literature, rather than just the works of poet Ralph Warldo Emerson and author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Ellenson said he hopes to see more active Jews in the future.  He said the Jewish people relied, heavily, on tradition and life would not continue, successfully, without instilling these values.

Ellenson said he believes the success of the Jewish life span should not rely on tradition.

"So maybe we'll always be in the process of dying, but as long as we're dying and not dead, there will always be another generation," he said.