questions for debate

To the conservatives I ask this, you say that Judaism should not, must not, change; but is it not true that some of our greatest institutions, the Israelite Alliance Universelle among them, demand change from fellow Jews living in Africa and Western Europe.  And surely not all of these changes have been for the detriment of the people.  Those who attend their schools have a greater opportunity to learn subjects that can be of great benefit intellectually as well as monetarily.  The learning that occurs in these schools educates students about law, agriculture, business,  and the teaching of the Torah; all essential to help make a person successful.  The cost as some see it is that they demand their students learn French and adopt western forms of dress.  Should we discard the clear benefits that the Alliance offers in favor of traditional education and mannerisms?  As we, the Jewish community, move forward do we not need the lessons that such institutions provide?  Should we not take the lessons of one group of the community and apply them for the betterment of all?  To remain rooted in the past is to divide the community due to the cultural differences between Jews in different counties.  What say you to the clear benefits that the Alliance has brought along with the modernity they offer?

To the Ultra-Orthodox I ask this, you claim that we must discard the new teaching and new customs and return to following the Torah as close to possible.  But if we are to truly follow the Torah must we not abandon our homes and return to Jerusalem?  Can we truly practice our religions as God intended if as long as the temple remains in ruins?  Do you then propose that all Jews meet to retake our city from its current holders?  The practices of the past have alienated Jews from the communities they inhabit and lead to abuses.  Do you suggest that Jews return to our previous status of being hated and ostracized by the community we inhabit?  And what of those people those Jews who have embraced modernity?  Do you expect the female teachers of the Alliance Israelite Universelle to accept an inferior position to men as in the past?  What you propose is not a new path forward.  It is instead a rift that you have proposed, a void which no Jew living outside the word of the Torah may cross.  Your ideas will serve only to divide the community.  In time perhaps we might return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple which was destroyed, but even then our though we will make sacrifices on the alter once again the Jews who do so will not be the same as in Abrahams time.  They will bring their own ideas and thoughts with them and incorporate them in their practice of Torah.  Surely you do not suggest that we discard the all new ideas that have been created in the past hundreds of years, but simply revaluate them and determine which are incompatible with our original teachings.