YOSSI ARON
TU b’Shevat (Shevat 15), this Shabbat, reminds us that there is more than one new year in the Jewish calendar. In our day, Tu b’Shevat is a minor holiday, marked primarily by eating varieties of fruit associated with the Land of Israel. But for the agricultural-based society of old, it was a very significant new year.
Of course, we all experienced Rosh Hashanah 5770 four months ago, but that was not an absolute break between years. From the halachic perspective of the many agricultural Torah laws, all produce – such as tree fruit – that grew between then and now belonged to the previous year.
After all, the fruit on a tree the day after Rosh Hashanah was no different from that on the tree the day before. In an agriculturally based society, it was midwinter that marked the break between seasons. And, accordingly, a date for such a new year (somewhat like our July 1 financial new year) was fixed in the middle of that Northern Hemisphere winter season.
Which all serves as an opening for me to join the chorus of other writers who have used recent weeks to reflect on the decade ended and that to come.
For Jews are not just at the end of the so-called noughties and the beginning of the tens. That alone would bear limited relevance to those of us concerned with religious Jewish life. But this year, 5770, the Jewish calendar too began a new decade – the ’70s.
So what challenges face us in the ’70s?
Yes, we are still seeking peace in the Middle East, particularly in and around Israel. Within Israel,
differences between Right and Left, highlighted by attitudes towards the so-called peace process, are still at the fore. The recent furore over hesder yeshivot and army involvement in possible settlement evacuation is sharpening the religious divide, threatening to undo all the work of recent years to try to bring more of the religious community into the army – and Israeli mainstream – frameworks.
And on Tu b’Shevat, the Jewish National Fund reminds us all that Israeli environmental issues and water shortages are pressing challenges. But despite their significance, those are not the challenges I seek to highlight here.
Recent events have identified two key challenges facing the Australian community in the ’70s.
We have recently learnt of a financial crisis affecting the Gold Coast Hebrew CongreÂgation. Long supported by three major donors (who must only be thanked for that which they provided over the years), for various reasons some of that support has evaporated. However, the organisation appears to have been unprepared for such an eventuality, having continued to rely on those funding sources as long as they produced what was necessary.
In this regard, that congregation is not unique. The world financial situation, as well as generational change regarding control of family wealth, has meant that other organisations too have lost some traditional funding sources and need to adapt to a new situation.
That, of course, is over and above the ongoing problem regarding the ever-increasing unaffordability of school fees, a matter urgently requiring resolution Australia-wide if it is not to undo the culture of Jewish day school attendance thankfully so entrenched in our community.
A major challenge to the broad Australian-Jewish community for the ’70s is to find new ways to maintain and fund our Âexisting communal infrastructure, allowing for its maintenance and expansion, even under changed Âcircumstances.
And another challenge for the ’70s is that highlighted at the recent conference of ORA – the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia.
Reviewing the recently completed Jewish demographic survey, Professor Andrew Markus noted trends in intermarriage rates, with particular emphasis on intermarriage among older singles. It makes sense – those who leave our Jewish day schools, mixing with the same networks as in their school days through Shnat programs and university, tend to remain within Jewish frameworks after school.
If that is when they proceed to find partners, chances are high they will do so within the Jewish community. But if they are not on the way to finding their life partners as they leave that stage of their lives and move into the workplace beyond the confines of the community, the potential for intermarriage rises significantly. And in that context, the need to assist in resolving the singles problem – particularly the problem of older singles – takes on added urgency.
I have no ready solutions to proffer. And we face many other challenges in addition to those just highlighted. But it is time that these matters were broadly debated in communal forums and become part of our agenda for the coming decade.
Yossi Aron is The AJN‘s religious affairs editor.
