What Would Astonish a Time Traveler From Your Denomination Visiting the Year 2075?
HUMANIST
Fifty years from now, I hope that my denomination—Humanistic Judaism—will still be here. A traveler may be surprised that the very concept of Jewish denominationalism has evolved. Our major movements are increasingly converging in practices and emphases. At the same time, many Jews now reject formal labels. If these trends hold, it’s not unlikely that “denominations” as we think of them today will no longer define our Jewish communities.
This does not mean Jewish life is vanishing. It means we are moving into a post-denominational reality—one in which our communities must offer meaning and connection before labels.
I believe that Humanistic Judaism can occupy a critical space in that future. We speak to the growing number of Jews—especially in secular, science-oriented societies—who no longer believe in traditional conceptions of God but still seek Jewish belonging, values and wisdom. Our nontheistic approach must remain clear and accessible even if formal denominational structures fade.
My teacher, Rabbi Alvin Reines, imagined a “Polydox” Jewish community: a broad liberal Jewish tent where many theologies—or none at all—coexist, including nontheistic Jews and their distinct approach to reason, ethics and integrity—grounded not in divine command or covenant, but in human inquiry and responsibility. Whether as a formal denomination or not, I believe Humanistic Judaism’s essential message must remain part of the Jewish future.
Rabbi Jeffrey Falick
Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit
Farmington Hills, MI
RENEWAL
Forecasting the future is a daunting assignment, but I predict that in the next 50 years, Jewish Renewal practices and ideas will continue to contribute to the dynamism of denominations and the wider Jewish world. We are already experiencing an astonishing paradigm shift in the structure of Jewish communal life and learning. Jewish Renewal is a movement (like a wave) rather than a denomination. Our pan-denominational approach has attracted diversity and fostered collaboration necessary to inspire and be responsive to the needs and desires of 21st-century Jews.
The founders, teachers and practitioners of Jewish Renewal were not restricted by the structures of the Jewish denominations of their birth, upbringing or even ordination. Their lithe spiritual creativity and activism soared as they remained grounded in tradition, and their contributions to an evolving halachah have illuminated the pluralistic future we continue to create where diversity is always a strength.
I pray that all Jews in 2075 will know and feel free to explore the rainbow of flavors available to nourish and enhance their lived expression of Judaism. The warmth of belonging will be palpable, and Jews will not make assumptions about a person’s Jewish journey based on skin tone, last name, hair color or tattoos. Ashkenormative barriers to welcome in Jewish settings will disappear. Jewish Renewal will continue to grow sacred spaces (beyond buildings) and leaders (beyond rabbis and cantors) capable of holding human needs in Jewishly informed ways within the ever-astonishing ecosystems of 21st-century experience and beyond.
Rabbi Jessica K. Shimberg
Holding the Fringes
St. Petersburg, FL
RECONSTRUCTIONIST
Nothing in the Jewish experience is static. Surprises are a given. Reconstructionist founder Mordecai Kaplan taught this, defining Judaism as the “evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people.” His and his followers’ ideas have been widely influential over the past century, among them the first bat mitzvah; celebration of Jewish diversity; multifaith engagement; feminist liturgy; attention to the problematics of chosenness, and many more. These innovations are already successfully woven into the collective fabric of our people, no matter what the Jewish future holds.
Maybe our denominational road map could, even should, look quite different. Some astonishing changes we might imagine: shared rabbinic-cantorial-educator training across the pluralistic Jewish world, where students learn core curriculum together, while maintaining tailored tracks for students by denomination or ideology? How about shared resources for congregational support, under one wide-reaching Jewish flag, printing and using a colorful variety of prayer books? Such a future reorientation would look new, yet bear the strong imprint of all its antecedents.
Reconstructionist Judaism, for one, has always consciously evolved; a more collective future might be its natural next step, and maybe this will be true for all denominations! After all, the lines have long been blurred as we sing one another’s melodies and influence one another’s prayer books. Maybe, at least structurally, we’ll just be stronger together.
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
Congregation Adat Shalom (emeritus) Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
Bethesda, MD
REFORM
In this time when the Jewish world is experiencing seismic change because of rapid social, geopolitical, cultural and technological shifts, this question gives us an opportunity to envision a future that might sound astonishing today but to which we might direct our hopes and focus our work. In 2075, I would like to think, our visitor will find within the Jewish community spiritual anchors, sources of healing and hope, spaces for creativity and innovation in Jewish practice and places of belonging that are open and welcoming.
They will see that the Jewish people are not uniform in practice and identity—we never will be—yet our community will stand united, as we remain bound together by shared multifaceted historical and cultural narratives. Those who assume positions of leadership in the community will reflect the gender, ethnic and cultural diversity of our Jewish world and will lead with conscientious and just exercise of power.
God willing, in 2075 our visitor will see peace in the Middle East, with Jews and Palestinians each able to live in safety, with freedom and self-determination. Israel will be living up to the vision of its founders in being a democratic state that truly celebrates the pluralism of Jewish practice and identity. May it all be so.
Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Fresno, CA
CONSERVATIVE
Last issue, we looked back, which required reflection, honesty, insight. Looking forward requires prophetic skills, with which I am not equipped. But I can say—and hope—that the philosophical foundation of the movement will continue to be relevant to those most comfortable holding a nuanced, meaningful center. To be clear, I am sure there will be astonishing developments in 50 years. I just can’t predict what they will be. What I can predict is that the Conservative movement will address society’s challenges by finding a middle ground.
Conservative Judaism began as a movement committed to “conserving” Jewish tradition while allowing for change. The movement defines a center path. It offers a traditional alternative to the liberalizing forces of the Reform world and the traditional alternative to Orthodoxy. The movement has always said that it is bound by Jewish law but that the law must be adapted in order to navigate modernity. It assumes that God is the Creator of the universe, whose power called the world into being. Humanity is created in God’s image and endowed with free will.
Torah is a product of the human-divine encounter. This theology allows for a personal God while recognizing that not all of us see God as omnipotent, omnipresent or transcendent.
I hope Conservative Judaism will maintain its deep commitment to particularism while recognizing that we Jews have a responsibility to the universal. We are a particular people with a universal message. May we never lose sight of the particular that defines us and the universal that includes us.
Rabbi Amy S. Wallk
Temple Beth El
Springfield, MA
MODERN ORTHODOX
Over the past 50 years, Modern Orthodoxy lost its way and fell under the influence of leaders who, unlike their teacher Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, view the modern as a threat and often an antagonist to Orthodoxy. (One leader has labeled feminism a cardinal sin, like idolatry and murder.) But a minority of Modern Orthodoxy has emerged that wants to make room for ethical advances in upgrading women’s roles, welcoming LGBTQ people and treating their marriages and family formation with respect. This minority also opposes racism and anti-Arab attitudes and has supported efforts to seek peace and create cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Israel.
A main source of Haredi strength has been the billions of dollars of annual support they get from the Israeli government. But Israeli society has reached its limit. The economic and other special privileges are about to be rolled back, including the Haredi exemption from IDF service.
I hope, and indeed I predict, that the progressive minority of Modern Orthodoxy will become the majority 50 years from now. The progressives will serve in the IDF, risking their lives and following social practices (such as socially mixing men and women) that align with all of k’lal Yisrael. They will integrate constructive elements in modern culture (such as the humanities and arts, feminism, gay liberation, affirmation of democracy) and uphold tradition and growth. I believe that the next 50 years of actual history and interaction with reality will lead to a more life-embracing, ethically oriented Orthodoxy that can restore the tradition as a unifying force and source of compassion and moral strength to all.
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg
J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life/Hadar
Riverdale, NY
ORTHODOX
A visitor to 2075 will be astonished that the Orthodox community, which 50 years ago still did not amount to more than 10 percent of Jewry, has pretty much left other attempts at Jewish meaning behind in the dust. Consider what happened in late-19th-century Europe, when there were more flavors of Judaism and Jewish cultural association than of Baskin-Robbins ice cream—Bundism, socialism, communism, anarchism, the Russian and the Polish Haskalah (Enlightenment). In Los Angeles in the 1960s I would see signs on Fairfax Avenue advertising a Yom Kippur dinner dance sponsored by the Bund, the secular socialist Jewish labor alliance. By the 2000s, a Jewish socialist group still owned a building but would rent it out for Hispanic weddings. The themes of expression of Yiddishkeit that had the most staying power were Zionism, in its various forms, and tradition.
In post-October 7 Israel, there’s remarkable interest in and return to traditional belief and practice. Two secular MKs said recently that we’re a nation because of Torah. I believe Israel will not only be an increasingly important focus of Jewish life but 50 years from now may be the only one. But the biggest surprise will be that the Haredim, the fastest-growing group in Orthodoxy, will be part of the Israeli mainstream.
Even though at the moment it is very difficult for people to imagine, given a Haredi leadership that’s essentially shouting “Hell, no, we won’t go!” about the military draft, I predict that the combination of economics, conscience and genuine opportunity will bring more and more people from the Haredi world into fuller participation in the Jewish state. Fifty years from now, people will say, “Wow, it’s a good thing we didn’t throw them all out and send them to Greenland.”
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
Cross-Currents
Los Angeles, CA /Jerusalem
SEPHARDIC
My time traveler, whom I’ll call Atida, will visit an era where religious wars have all but been forgotten. The denizens of that future time will find it hard to believe that, in her home era, there were wars not only between religions but also amongst sects within the same religion—even within Judaism, whose motto is “Love the other as you love yourself.” They will be saddened to hear of the relatively marginal space reserved for women within some factions of Judaism in Atida’s time, as well as by the marginalization of other groups.
In 2075, people will have learned to live together, to respect each other despite differences in opinion, religion, ethnicity, etc. World population will shrink considerably in the next 50 years, world governments will pay more attention to ecology, and people will no longer suffer poverty, famine or violence. As a result, that world will not be plagued by divisions fueled by religious denomination, social and economic disparity, jealousy and wars.
The real astonishment will be experienced by these future people when they hear that in 2025, many religious leaders were more concerned with delineating and defining the boundaries of their sect, denomination or movement, rather than dedicating themselves to a true tikkun olam, a mending of the world with the goal of eliminating suffering and inequality.
Rabbi Haim Ovadia
Torah VeAhava
Potomac, MD
CHABAD
According to Jewish faith and tradition, the world is moving in the direction of fulfilling its purpose, which means a world of peace and harmony within diversity, a world with no more war or famine. As Maimonides explains, it has always been the hope that all our efforts and all our good deeds are like building blocks leading to that world. Following the agricultural, the industrial and then the information revolution, the final frontier will be a spiritual-level revolution, one that, with technology, we are right in the middle of—in the words of Isaiah, a world filled with divine knowledge as the waters fill the sea. It won’t be a world just of knowledge but of divine knowledge, a world of enlightenment, higher consciousness and awareness.
A time traveler 50 years from now will find that world exciting, even astonishing. Though the faith is there, it will be a whole other experience actually to see a world move away from violence and pain and suffering and live up to its deeper and higher purpose, one in which human beings of all backgrounds will synergize and cross-pollinate. It will be a grand cosmic symphony of every human being on this earth living up to their purpose, each of us complementing the other. That’s the world that we will see in 2075—and hopefully a lot earlier.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Meaningful Life Foundation
Brooklyn, NY