The Barriers to Inclusiveness

In today’s second “On the Square” article, assistant editor David Lasher reflects on the barriers to Jewish inclusiveness, and particularly on Rabbi Ben Greenberg’s proposal that unity be pursued through study of the Torah more than in shared ritual. He writes, in A Propensity for Mutual Respect , that three objections may be raised to this:

The first is that shared ritual never has been as central to interaction among denominations as Rabbi Greenberg suggests. The second is that joint Torah study raises difficulties quite as irksome as shared ritual. And the third, and perhaps most important, is that any framework for interdenominational dialogue depends on a change of attitude among all the participants.

He then lays out these objections, and looks to a unity in “the interest of the whole congregation of Israel.”