What is Modern Orthodox?
According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, "The Modern Orthodox Movement is committed to halacha (Jewish law) and to keeping mitzvot (commandments), as they have been interpreted for generations by Torah scholars in loyalty to Jewish tradition and historical and legal precedent. Modern Orthodox Jews maintain a lifestyle that reflects the possibility to combine a Torah-based life together with a modern approach, such as respect for secular academic studies, both in the United States and in Israel."
“The Modern Orthodox Movement.” The Jewish Agency, 17 July 2017, https://archive.jewishagency.org/he/israel-your-community/partnership2gether/religious-streams/modern-orthodox-movement.
Books
Exclusion and Hierarchy by Publication Date: 2005-06-09Following the Jewish Enlightenment, many eighteenth-century Jews chose not to observe the religious laws and customs that had earlier marked them as culturally different from their Christian peers. As the Jewish population became increasingly assimilated, an ultraorthodox movement also emerged, creating a discrete identity for a group within the Jewish community that opted not to move toward the mainstream but instead to embrace the traditional laws. By tracing the evolution of the approach of the Orthodox to their nonpracticing brethren, Adam S. Ferziger sheds new light on the emergence of Orthodoxy as a specific movement within modern Jewish society.
Expanding the Palace of Torah by Publication Date: 2021-07-30Expanding the Palace of Torah offers a broad philosophical overview of the challenges the women's revolution poses to Orthodox Judaism, as well as Orthodox Judaism's response to those challenges.
Modern Orthodoxy in American Judaism by Publication Date: 2016-03-01This work presents the issues of Modern Orthodox Judaism in America, from the decades of the twenties to the sixties, by looking at the activities of one of its leaders, Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung, pulpit rabbi, community leader and writer, whose career spanned over sixty years, beginning in the 1920s.
Rupture and Reconstruction by Publication Date: 2021-12-01The essay that forms the core of this book is an attempt to understand the developments that have occurred in Orthodox Jewry in America in the last seventy years, and to analyze their implications. The prime change is what is often described as 'the swing to the right', a marked increase in ritual stringency, a rupture in patterns ofbehaviour that has had major consequences not only for Jewish society but also for the nature of Jewish spirituality.
Helpful Links
- Harvard Divinity BulletinThe Delicate Power of Modern Orthodox Judaism-What will the future hold for this decentralized but tight-knit community?
- Pew Research CenterA Portrait of American Orthodox Jews- A Further Analysis of the 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews