When Modern Orthodoxy Lost Its Mission

In Part I of this series, I described four broad paths that today’s Modern Orthodox young adults are taking: the Zionist, the Progressive, the Yeshivish, and the Modern Orthodox Professional. Each offers a different answer to the same question: What does it mean to live a meaningful Jewish life?

This article addresses a different question: Why is the thoughtful, moderate center losing ground to the more mission driven alternatives?

Modern Orthodoxy has unquestionably succeeded in producing highly educated, civically engaged, and professionally successful Jews. The question is not whether the movement has succeeded. Clearly, it has.

My argument is that Modern Orthodoxy has gradually lost the compelling religious philosophy that once defined it. Young adults are choosing to leave Modern Orthodoxy in search of greater meaning. As that philosophical vision faded, the movement’s institutions: day schools, summer camps, synagogues, and communal organizations, became the primary source of identity and belonging. Over time, many of those institutions also drifted from their original mission. Instead of transmitting a distinctive religious and intellectual vision, they emphasized college admissions, professional success, and sustaining an ever more expensive upper middle class lifestyle.

In other words, Torah U’Madda gradually gave way to what I call Torah U’Parnassa: a movement defined less by a shared religious philosophy than by the economic success needed to sustain its institutions.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s philosophy of Torah U’Madda gave American Jews a framework for embracing the best of Western civilization and secular education while remaining deeply committed to halacha and Jewish tradition. In practice, it opened the door for Modern Orthodox Jews to pursue professional careers while fully participating in both the Jewish and secular worlds.

Throughout the twentieth century, many of the movement’s flagship institutions were built around the Rav’s vision. They succeeded not only in preserving the Modern Orthodox way of life but also in creating strong communal bonds that kept many Jews connected to Orthodoxy, even as their personal level of religious observance varied.

In a 2014 article for Commentary Magazine, Jay Lefkowitz coined the term “Social Orthodoxy” to describe Jews who value belonging to the Jewish community and continue practicing Jewish ritual primarily as a way of remaining part of that community. As Lefkowitz writes, “Modern Orthodox Jews are more focused on living a Jewish life than they are on theology or a rigid set of rules.”

Lefkowitz identified an important shift, but I believe the movement has changed even........

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