Unmasked

In a piece at Tablet on “How COVID-19 Is Changing American Judaism,” Orthodox Jewish former presidential aide (and former Mishpacha columnist) Tevi Troy writes about the pandemic’s effects on both Orthodox and non-Orthodox communities and institutions. One development he takes note of is “the COVID-related rise of DIY Judaism. Anything that can be done on the individual level is preferred, even if it was once done at the synagogue.”

He quotes the vice president of sales at a popular Judaica website as saying that people have had to “do their own ritual observances because they’re not able to go to the shuls,” reporting, for example, an increase in the number of customers who bought a shofar or succah. This, Troy writes, suggests “that many Jews are doing for themselves what they once counted on synagogues to do for them.”

The possibility that personal mitzvah performance might be replacing the Judaism-by-proxy that often prevails in the heterodox Jewish movements would seem to be only a good thing. Fulfilling mitzvos, at least if done properly, can stir the neshamah to come closer to authentic Yiddishkeit. And anything that serves to diminish the hold that heterodox clergy have on our Jewish brothers and sisters in their custody is clearly a positive.

Tevi Troy also writes that “COVID-19 has also seemingly exacerbated inter- and intra-denominational splits over politics, as non-Orthodox synagogues have become increasingly comfortable overtly incorporating politics into services.” This, he says, “risks further alienating Orthodox Jews from their movement.”