T his is not my Purim column. But I did learn from the Jewish Week that New York Jewry has just endured another Limmud Conference an event I’ve described in the past as “part college seminar part ’60s-era Woodstockian throwback part singles mixer with Jews of any or no movement invited to peddle their sundry versions of Judaic teaching whether containing any truth or none at all.” This event annually visits Jewish communities around the world and the recent conference was New York’s 13th. So now that it’s reached that milestone can it please leave Jewish life permanently as those “bar mitzvah-ed” tend to do?
Thanks for the Jewish Week or else I’d not have known it took place. How would I? Although the article is subtitled “popular big-tent conference drew a big crowd ” I don’t believe an attendance of 750 in the largest Jewish community in the western hemisphere quite qualifies even if it did “welcome its largest-ever group of Reform Jews with a delegation of 26 members from Central Synagogue the 2 300-family Reform synagogue in midtown Manhattan.” It really says that.
The article’s headline is “Limmud Conference Tests Limits of Pluralism.” Let me spare you the need to read the entire thing to find out its test mark — it flunked. Let us count the ways:
Limmud NY president Penny Arons said “a major effort was made to be inclusive and to provide a safe space allowing for difficult topics to be discussed.” That’s why this year for the first time there were sessions like: “Facing My Insecurities: Why I Think Terrible Thoughts When I See Ultra-Orthodox Jews ” and “The Western Wall Controversy: Genuine Spiritual Quest or Contrived Distraction from American Jewry’s Religious Bankruptcy?” Just kidding.
