Debating modern orthodoxy at Yeshiva college: The Greenberg-Lichtenstein exchange of 1966

Modern Judaism

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 113-126

  Singer, David ^a  

^a American Jewish Committee ^*

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EID: 61449522276     PISSN: 02761114     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/mj/kjj014     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. Overviews of Greenberg's religious stance are provided in Steven T. Katz, "Irving (Yitzchak) Greenberg," in Interpreters of Judaism in the Late Twentieth Century, ed. Steven T. Katz (Washington, D.C., 1993), pp. 59-89
2. David Singer, "The New Orthodox Theology," Modern Judaism, Vol 9, No 1 (February 1989), pp. 35-54
3. and Michael Oppenheim, "Irving Greenberg and a Jewish Dialectic of Hope, "Judaism (Spring 2000), pp. 189-203
4. Elements of Lichtenstein's religious position are set forth in David Singer, "For Torah and Culture," First Things, No 153 (May 2005), pp. 27-32
5. See also Alan Brill, "An Ideal Rosh Yeshiva," Edah Journal, Vol 5, No 1 (Tammuz 5765, 2005), pp. 1-18
6. Work on this article was well under way when the Greenberg-Lichtenstein exchange was suddenly resurrected in the pages of The Commentator. It began when Greenberg penned an essay that touched on the exchange in passing (Irving Greenberg, "Yeshiva in the Sixties," The Commentator [March 29, 2005], pp. 19, 26)
7. Lichtenstein reacted with an angry letter to the editor (The Commentator [April 18, 2005], p. 4) that prompted further comment by Greenberg (The Commentator [May 16, 2005], p. 4)
8. As a sidebar to this, there was a testy exchange of letters between Greenberg and Hillel Goldberg, who in 1966 was the student reporter who conducted the Commentator interview with Greenberg (The Commentator [May 16, 2005], pp. 4 - 5, 12). I have drawn on this new material at several points for purposes of analysis
9. Irving Greenberg, For the Sake of Heaven and Earth (Philadelphia, 2004), pp. 5-6
10. Some clue to Lichtenstein's stance may be gleaned from his programmatic essay of 1961 : Aharon Lichtenstein, " A Consideration of Synthesis from a Torah Point of View," The Commentator (April 27, 1961), pp. 5-6
11. Shelomoh Danzinger, "Modern Orthodoxy or Orthodox Modernism?" Jewish Observer (October 1966), pp. 3-9
12. Greenberg responded with a lengthy letter to the editor that elicited additional comment by Danzinger (Jewish Observer [December 1966], pp. 13-20)
13. Danzinger, "Modern Orthodoxy or Orthodox Modernism?" p. 5
14. Greenberg, "Yeshiva in the Sixties," p. 26
15. For Greenberg's transdenominationalism, see, in particular, Irving Greenberg, "Toward a Principled Pluralism," Perspectives (March 1986), pp. 1-12
16. Greenberg's Holocaust theology is given articulate expression in Irving Greenberg, "Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire," in Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era? (ed.), Eva Fleischner (New York, 1977), pp. 7-55
17. Irving Greenberg, "The Third Great Cycle of Jewish History," Perspectives (September 1981), pp. 1-44
18. and Irving Greenberg, "Voluntary Covenant," Perspectives (October 1982), pp. 1-36
19. Aharon Lichtenstein, "Centrist Orthodoxy: A Spiritual Accounting," in By His Light, adapted by Reuven Ziegler (Jersey City, 2003), p. 232
20. Aharon Lichtenstein, "Torah and General Culture," in Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures, (ed.), Jacob Schacter (Northvale, N. J., 1997), p. 283