Four Competing Visions of a Meaningful Jewish Life

When my great-grandmother (z”l) was a teenager growing up in a Ger Chasidic family in Poland in the years leading up to World War II, she watched many young Jews leave the religious lives of their parents. They were drawn to competing ideological movements: Communism, the Bund, Zionism or dreamed of leaving Europe altogether for North America, South America, or Israel. Organized youth movements competed for the minds, loyalties, and futures of an entire generation.

Today, I see something very similar among my peers from Modern Orthodox day schools.

Modern Orthodox education often succeeds in teaching ideals, but not necessarily where those ideals will lead. Students are encouraged to think critically, pursue meaning, and live lives of purpose. Some emerge more committed to Zionism than their parents, others more religious, and still others more progressive. They want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

Looking around my own graduating class, four broad identities emerge that describe the different directions my peers have taken: the Zionist, the Progressive, the Yeshivish, and the Modern Orthodox Professional.

These are, of course, caricatures. Most people fall somewhere between them. But each represents a distinct answer to the same question:

What does it mean to live a meaningful Jewish life today?

Location: Herzliya, Israel

Role Model: Camp counselor, IDF soldier

Highest values: Jewish........

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