A comment made by Lion of Zion in which he asked about vibrancy and the flourishing of communities outside of Brooklyn elicited a question as to how Lion defined these terms. One word he used was "stability." Having just that little bit of free time to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes--research--lead me to the following site.
http://www.ajlegacy.org/
I admit to being fascinated.The founder and executive Vice President of the group is one R' Yaakov Horowitz, the Bostoner Rebbi's grandson. The following is the why behind the formation of the organization: "All members of the American Jewish historical community acknowledge that the important story of the American traditional Jewish experience has never been told. For over 350 years, American traditional Jewish individuals and communities have had an indelible impact on the fabric of American industry, culture and society.The American Jewish Legacy (AJL) is a national effort to preserve and document the unique, rich history of traditional Jewish congregations, individuals, and communities in the United States from Colonial times to the present. Working with noted academicians, public and private archives, regional and national historic organizations across the country and abroad, the AJL has initiated projects and activities which seek to save this important historical resource and to gather archival information which is in imminent danger of being lost."
You might enjoy just looking at some of the offerings on the site. The newsletters offer some pretty fascinating views of American Jewish history. The Jews in America have a 354 year history here. Many of those Jewish communities that we think of as so new and so very out of townish have long and stable histories in their home towns. Just for example, the Jewish community in Seattle dates back to 1888, hardly a newcomer on the Jewish scene.
Anyway, I thought that some of you might find the site worth a visit. And some of the material on it raises some interesting questions vis a vis Lion's "stability" requirement for a flourishing community.
5 comments:
r. horowitz is a sweet and sincere man and his AJL performs an important service. the story of traditional life in america needs to be better documented. in fact, in the last paragraph of my most recent post about a romantic siddur i make the point that people underestimate the numbers of "frum" immigrants in the middle of the 19th c.:
http://agmk.blogspot.com/2008/06/romantic-siddur.html#links
i then elaborate at length on this in response to reader ZB's inquiry (1:03 am).
that being said, i'm not really sure what your point is that there were some jews in seatle in 1888.
longevity does not mean stability.
Lion,
Longevity and stability are closely related. One element of stability is the ability to endure, and one measure of endurance is longevity. It's not enough to provide all the services we believe necessary for stability of a community. The test is whether or not those services and that community can withstand the challenges that might face it over time. Many of the out of town communities have endured since the 1800s precisely because the elements of stability were present. Their longevity speaks to solid underpinnings that have allowed them to weather any number of assaults.
"flourishing"
"vibrant"
"stability"
"choice"
Describe it in whichever terms you want, by what measure do you find these things lacking outside of New York?
profk - "Many of the out of town communities have endured since the 1800s precisely because the elements of stability were present."
1800's???? That's nothing! My grandmothers family lived in and near Koln (Cologne) from the 1100's, for probably close to 800 years! Sometimes controlled by Germany and sometimes by France, but they lived in that region for all those years.
Of course nothing compares to Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalaim for stability and longevity. More than 3000 years and counting!!!
Mark
"flourishing"
"vibrant"
"stability"
"choice"
Describe it in whichever terms you want, by what measure do you find these things lacking outside of New York?
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...and while we're at it, please tell me why you are so sure that these already exist in great abundance in New York.
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