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Transcript of "Virtual Faculty Event with Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna ’75, MA’75"
Sarah Berkowitz: Welcome and good afternoon, good morning and good evening to the alumni, parents, Brandeis National Committee members and friends around the world who have registered for this event. I'm Sarah Berkowitz, member of the Brandeis Class of 2020. I graduated with a degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, which gave me the incredible opportunity to take three courses of Professor Sarna. Of course I would have taken more had I could. I'd also like to give a special welcome to the members of the Sachar Society who are participating in today's program aimed for Brandeis' first president Abram Sachar. The Sachar Society recognizes individuals who have named Brandeis in their will, established a charitable gift annuity, created a charitable remainder trust, or made some other form of planned gift. These friends of Brandeis recognize that planned gifts benefit many generations of Brandeisians. Before we begin the program, a logistical note. There'll be some time for Q&A at the conclusion of Professor Sarna's talk. Please use the Q&A feature at the bottom of your screen to submit your questions, we'll get to as many questions as possible. Now to introduce our speaker, Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis and director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He's also past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Professor Sarna is a double Brandeis alumnus. Having received both his BA and MA at the university in 1975, he has written, edited or co-edited more than 30 books, including Lincoln and the Jews: A History, and When General Grant Expelled the Jews. He is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History, recently published in a second edition. Winner of the Jewish Book Council's Jewish Book of the Year in 2004, it has been praised as being "the single best description of American Judaism during its 350 years on American soil." We're thrilled for him to speak today. Welcome, Professor Sarna.
Jonathan Sarna: Well, thank you and it's a joy to be here and I want to also thank everybody who is viewing. Before we get to the topic, I thought I'd spend worried about how things have been going on the campus. Actually, this week is the last week of classes on campus, and students will be going home for Thanksgiving. Then there'll be online classes for the last week. But really students, I think, are excited that we were able in a very tough atmosphere to get through the semester with incredible numbers. The so-called positivity rate is 0.06. The State of Massachusetts is 3.32, which means we're about 50 times better than the State. We've really proved on the campus that a few do all the things they tell you to do, masks and social distancing and hand washing and you also tests students twice a week, because everybody on the campus, indeed, twice a week, you can keep Covid at bay. I think there is enormous pride within the campus community that we've succeeded and we had a online classes. People like me teach those, we've had hybrid classes. We have some classes that are being conducted in person. They both been successful and a lot of learning has gone on. Now, the question really is, what do we learn from this crisis? And are there any lessons? First of all from history? And then I will turn to some of the lessons so far from COVID. But it's important to remember that American Jews are really no strangers to crisis. Back when the American Jewish community began in 1654. As Jews came to what was then called New Amsterdam, and New York. That was in response to the crisis of Portugal, had captured aggressive fake Brazil from the Dutch, that Jews were expelled. They lost everything. They had to start over completely a new, and yet then. I think over and over again in our history, we can see how the community became stronger and more dynamic in response to crises and really, that's often true in Jewish history. The great Jewish historian, Salo Baron titled one of his books, Steal by a Diversity. I think that's a hopeful lesson for our turn as well. Jewish history has, taught the Jewish community a lot about resilience and not giving up. It would take a whole Jewish history goers to prove that in full. But as Sarah kindly mentioned then, that it's so wonderful to see her here. I wrote a book on the Expulsion of Jews from Ulysses S. Grant war zone in 1862. It's easy to see that subsequently the Jewish community emerged stronger of that expulsion was the most negative official act of anti-Semitism in all of American Jewish history. Yet, as Jews rushed to Washington and got Abraham Lincoln to reverse the order. Then as they came together, subsequently in 1868, when Ulysses S. Grant ran for president. They turned a general order number 11 into an election issue the first time the Jewish issue really came in a big way and issue in American politics, what we can see is that this expulsion, which might have been the idea for American Jews, ends up paradoxically strengthening the Jewish communities confidence. It actually enhanced the stature of America's rabbis who played a big role in rushing off to Washington and, then speaking with Abraham Lincoln and interacting later with Ulysses Grant. Of course, during Grant's presidency, after he's apologized for this order, during Grant's presidency, we actually see more Jewish involvement in government than ever before. It's a wonderful example of how the community was steeled by adversity and really emerged, greatly strengthened. I think the same was true in the Great Depression that really affected the American Jewish Community more than any subsequent economic downturn. It was not just the stock market collapse. One of the major banks where Jews kept their money with your GAS titled Bank of the United States when it failed to, something like one in every ten American Jews which means, every other Jewish family lost money, and many people lost everything. They put money away for Social Security, put money away for their role day Jan, and everything disappeared, and yet even amidst the Great Depression with all the decline that took place. We see innovations and communal coming together that strengthen the community at one of the developments that affects the American Jewish Community the most, nobody much paid attention in the '30s, but what piece of the New Deal legislation legislate to five day week. That has enormous impact on the American Jewish Community, like zoom about which I'll presently. The five-day week could be an idea that had been talked about it being initiated in some places, but suddenly it's greatly intensified in the Great Depression as a cure for unemployment and overproduction and it never goes away. The Depression went away but the five-day week stay then actually became more and more normative. What that meant, was there was no longer a conflict between the Jewish day of rest and the American pattern of work, and indeed, in the post-war years we see all sorts of changes in Jewish Communal Life brought about a really because of the five-day week and the sense that nobody had to work on Saturday. It's worth remembering, there were gloom and doom predictions in the 1930s. Perhaps the greatest of the Jewish social scientists of that time, a man named Hough riots V. Engelmann wrote into prestigious American Journal of Sociology in 1935 about, how the younger generation was abandoning the synagogue and Jewish life. They were taking up socialism and communism, and he confidently predicted what he called, quote that total eclipse of the Jewish church in America. That obviously did not come to pass and in fact, we saw in his own lifetime in the 1950s, a dramatic and totally unexpected revival of Jewish life especially as Jews move out to the suburbs. That's a reminder, whenever there is a crisis a downturn, there are folks who predict gloom and doom even in 2008. Which many people will remember well, we are at gloom and doom prophecies, but he's theory suggests that we often indeed emerged stronger and that the gloom and doom prophecies are important because they encourage people can negate those prophecy to work very hard to make sure that they don't happen. Much like the prophets of all, the prophecy came true. The prophet failed, Jonah succeeded and so it is here, the prophecies of gloom and doom did not come to pass hard times in the often strengthen Jewish life. Let's move perhaps to some of what's going on around us today, and I think we'll see very much the same thing. One of the clearest impacts of the crisis has been a renewed sense of the value of Jewish Communicate. All over America we see Rabbi and Jewish professional leaders and late leaders of the Jewish Community fitted here in Boston. They'd been called heroes, and the reason is that as COVID developed, and there was a perceived vacuum in leadership at the governmental specially at the federal level. We saw the Jewish community step in. Federations that had not been in the business of helping poor Jews. In some time, suddenly gathered together and remembered what they needed to do to help the needy. In our myths, they got calls from people who had lost jobs, who were now a shut-ins in their homes, who were not even able to have contact with their family out of town and in community after community. We have seen the Jewish Community rally and meet those needs reminding people of the value of Jewish Community itself. A pass Seder and a box those Siddhartha him those Seder and a box were distributed across America. Remarkable pivoting of the community to find ways of making the higher holidays deeply meaningful even if one could not attend them in person. Many synagogues rapidly pivoted to a new online world and met the needs of congregant there, we now have data from Mark Trend Sher. One can see, I think about 80 percent of American Jews said they were very pleased, extremely pleased with the response of their Jewish institutions. Although this wasn't in the poll, it forms a stark contrast to help people think of government. One would like to imagine that the lessons about the value of being part of a Jewish Community of being a member of a synagogue, temple, some other Jewish institution that those lessons will last post COVID, that the scent, that it's really a safety net in addition to its many other benefit. Now at the most remarkable impact of the COVID crisis is really what we're doing now we're meeting on Zoom. It's hard to believe but eight months ago, most Americans, most American Jews, had very little engagement. With this technology didn't know how to use it and now of course it is the big way tests. In a way I think about it, the way we think about ready-made clothing in the crisis of the Civil War. It's widely known that the Civil War greatly intensified the use of ready-made clothing. Government used ready-made clothing for soldiers and ready-made clothing really takes off in the Civil War, many American Jews were in that business and that it's no accident that after the Civil War we see in the late 1860s early '70s seemed very opulent synagogues built by people who have made a lot of money with this new technology. But what's so striking is that although intensified by the civil war, the Civil War ended a long time ago, ready-made clothing remains a thing, remains pervasive in our society. It didn't go away. I think the same is going to be said of Zoom and related technologies, they were intensified by the crisis, spread much more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case and they will remain. Now how will they impact upon us? There's some wonderful news. For example, it solves a real problem the Jewish education heard had. As both parents work, it was difficult to take youngsters to supplementary Jewish education during the week. That's one of the reasons that supplementary Jewish education has declined. Similarly, that when many young people who wanted to go to after school activities, I can't do supplementary Jewish education if it means cutting in to soccer or volleyball. Well now those problems disappear. Nobody has to drive you, will bring the classroom into your house. If you can't participate synchronously at the same time, you'll listen asynchronously, you'll listen later at night to the class. For serious people, this allows for much more intensive, supplementary Jewish education then we have rarely seen in probably 50 years. I think that Zoom will similarly a broaden access to teachers, to religious leaders. Once upon a time you had to fly the man if you wanted to hear from them. Now it is very clear that you can Zoom the in. I am not suggesting that we will never see people fly anywhere, but I think we're going to use Zoom in new ways. I certainly speaking for myself during the pandemic, I've spoken to high school students in various parts of the country and I'm Zoomed in lots of places that I wouldn't not have previously been able to visit and lecturer at. Its one thing to say, "Sure, I'll speak for an hour it's entirely different matter to say I'll get on a plane, fly there and the like. " Similarly, some of our most exciting American Synagogues and temples are seeing that people are joining them from great distances. Central synagogue, Park Avenue Synagogue have seen all people from around the country and there are only two examples I know who have joined in joining them on Friday night and Saturday morning for other programs. Feeling that they can now be part of one of the leading synagogues. Even though in their own community, because of a very small number of Jews that was not previously accessible to them. Now, will that mean that very small synagogues and schools will be threatened? But that may indeed be the case that those kinds of on the edge of Jewish institutions will disappear. People say, "I'd rather be a virtual member of a great big institutions with very rich and dynamic programming. Then an in-person member of some thing that is much smaller. Is a concern that small congregation, small schools will be swallowed up. But it may also be that interesting collaboration's will happen. Let's meet in person once a month and the rest of the time we'll be part some thing much larger, virtually. Some Jewish schools in small communities have thought about, well, maybe we'll get our secular education in homeschooling settings or public schooling settings, and then use remote learning for Jewish education. We're going to see lots of these kinds of experiments and innovations. The boundaries of what's possible had been changed. Thanks to virtual community. I think we will look back and say that for a small scattered people, Zoom it is really a godsend, greatly strengthening virtual community. Just like Brandeis alumni can meet virtually, and I can now have the pleasure of interacting with that group in all places. I think we will see other efforts to bring people together virtually at very low cost and then supplement that with infrequent, but intensive gatherings in person. So that's the good news. There is bad news. I'm deeply concerned and many in the Jewish education field are deeply concerned at what's being lost. We had a seminar online here at Brandeis in general education. Aware there was concern that a lot of poor students from poor homes, African-American, Latino students would be illiterate. Because was they lost the spring, now they're losing in many cases, the winter. These are crucial learning times and the learning that takes place online is much less intensive and a less successful, they said, Well, some of the same concerns happen in Jewish education. As much as a tenth of the total Jewish education has been lost for this generation. If one assumes that by this month is the end for a lot of young people. Well, if supplementary school wasn't meeting, they've lost it. But it's not just school of the closing of summer camp. The inability to attend Birthright programs in Israel, the changes to Bar and bat Mitzvah celebrations, fees are going to have a ripple effect. The COVID generation may know less and will also be scared and traumatized by all that they were deprived of. That will ripple through the decades. We certainly have seen places that have successfully transform bar and bar Mitzvah and other life-cycle events. Some of those transformations will continue. I expect, for example, that the idea of streaming funerals so that those who cannot be there in person can participate virtually will become normative and there will be people who will be there in person, people who will be virtually the same in terms of participating in a wedding and other lifecycle events. Some of the very creative alternative bar and bat Mitzvah celebrations that had been less about the party and more about the activities of these young people coming of age, some of that one hopes will continue. Nevertheless, when one pokes two young people, one is impressed that there's been a tremendous loss that they've been deprived of certain milestones that they once would have enjoyed, that will have an impact. Throughout the country, there is discussion about a move away from bricks and mortar in the Jewish community. People say, look how much we've accomplished in the virtual realm without being able to come to synagogues, the Jewish community centers, to other kinds of institutions. Even within the world of the University, there's been a lot of talk. Will we still need all of those buildings? I think we are likely to see efforts at cost saving. Let's not focus so much on bricks and mortar, let's focus on the quality of the online program and invest in that place where we can gather people in person, obviously much less important and there will be people joining us from a far, even here at Brandeis, some of my own classes have had a student to zoom in from different continents. I have a student from Jerusalem and another student who is in Latin, America. The question is, well, there are benefits to being able to reach people that way. Obviously, in-person gatherings have enormous benefits. But maybe there are ways of doing both and means of saving money and I'll be extending reach. That will make use of this new Technology. One of the questions that everyone in the Jewish community is asking, is whether a trend that we had been confident about prior to COVID will actually nail be reversed. We had been witnessing for more than a decade a return to the city among younger Jews, where as previous generations have moved further and further out. Suburbia and famous concentric circles of people moving further and further out of the city. Nailed it would people in city after city who began moving back, some of this was ideologically motivated, some of it was economically motivated, some of it was motivated by a desire to go green. Why should we commute for long distance with all that, that implies, let's live in the city. Let's go back to being in walking distance or easy access to public transportation. A good example of the phenomenon is here in Boston, where a study of the Boston Jewish community showed that the fastest growing area of the community. In other words, the area of Boston where more that are growing the fastest in the previous decade was Cambridge. As young Jews moved to Cambridge, technology grew in Cambridge and so on. Well, we have seen changes since COVID.As people find themselves working from home, There's a sense, well maybe we should have a larger home with the study. As people get used to working via zoom, the question arises, I won't need to commute, I'll go in once a week and I can live out in suburbia. In addition, there is a sense. It's a little safer. The distances from one person to the next are much greater, there's more access to the open-air in some of those communities. The riot of the past year, some of the social problems in American cities gave further impetus to folks who said, you know what, the city thing is not what I thought it would be. We have seen lots of evidence, not just in the Jewish world, that with low mortgages, young people who had not thought about moving out to the suburbs suddenly have rediscovered the benefits of suburban living. If that is the case, then some of the well-laid plans about what the next generation would need and how they would be served and what their goals are will have to be rethought. At the same time, some suburban communities that worried, we're aging, young people won't be interested in living where we are. Suddenly, discover that well maybe that is being re- formed and we imagine. I want to give time for questions. So let me simply say that I think we will indeed look back and see that COVID is a turning point in the American Jewish community. In the American community and world communities as well, it is a rupture or it will be for many, a trauma especially for those who have lost loved ones and for those grappling with the after effects of having had the disease. But at the same time, there were aspects of what we have learned and discovered in COVID times that I think may turn out to greatly strengthen our Jewish community. And the years from now when we look back at 2020, I am hopeful that alongside the heartache and the descriptions of all that went wrong and all the mistakes that were made, they will also be a sense that within all, we were yet again, steel bio-diversity. So let me stop there, Sarah and I, let's see if there are comments or questions from my friends and the alumni. Seems like we've had a technical glitch. You're steeled by adversity. All right.
Sarah Berkowitz: Exactly, I'm just trying to really bring it all home. So here are a few questions that we have regarding the Covid generation. Are you suggesting that the celebration of Jewish lifecycle events virtually and conducting Jewish education virtually are now going to be the new normal even with a vaccine?
Jonathan Sarna: I think that Jewish educators have been impressed with what can be accomplished virtually. I personally expect that we will see hybrid. Meaning, let's get together in person once a week, say, and we'll meet virtually at other times during the week. My guess is that this will become normative. I don't expect that in a few years, they'll ever be snow days anymore. People won't even know what they are. Oh, you mean, Zoom days when instead of going to school, we Zoom in and in the same way, I think Jewish education will be a mixture. By the way, youngsters who were sick, I think, can participate in class via Zoom in ways that were not possible before. It's possible for the elderly to interact with family even from nursing homes in ways that we had scarcely begun to use before. So there are benefits and yes, even Bar and Bar Mitzvah, I think, are likely to have a virtual component. Although, I don't have any doubt that there will also be an in-person component. For relatives who are frail or live far away or otherwise prevented from attending, they'll now be able to join virtually and that will make a great difference and there's no doubt that the technology will improve. So that it'll be easier to integrate those who are in-person and those who are attending from afar and they'll all be a part of a single experience. You can't give somebody a hug and you can't play sports virtually in the same way, but you can nevertheless be part of an experience and I think many of us have participated in virtual funerals or even weddings that had been a deeply meaningful even though we're not there in person.
Sarah Berkowitz: Most of the impacts you've mentioned in terms of synagogue life are primarily the impact on non-orthodox streams. What do you think about orthodox synagogues and Zoom with Covid?
Jonathan Sarna: It's a wonderful observation. There was a big program on a modern orthodoxy and one of the questions which was also asked in a study by Rabbi Trencher was do you expect that people will find ways to incorporate social media or distance of media in orthodoxy? The truth of the matter is that orthodox synagogues across the country have introduced regular classes by Zoom, meetings by Zoom during the week. There's no problem with that. They've also, in some cases, introduced worship during the week. It's not identical to being within the synagogue, but it sure beats not doing any of those things. My guess is that like any great change, this will go across all of the movements. My definition, some who studied American Judaism with me of a truly significant movement. The women's movement is that it impacts from one end of the spectrum all the way to the other end of the spectrum and I think that's going to be true here. It will impact in different ways. I think we are already seeing that impact even within the orthodox community.
Sarah Berkowitz: Do you think the American Jewish community was somehow better equipped to weather this storm based on its past?
Jonathan Sarna: Yes. The American Jewish community had an infrastructure. We had federations. People once very critical of some of these big Jewish institutions, but it turned out as one of them wrote, that when you have big problems, you're glad that you have great, big institutions that can meet those challenges. Similarly, a story that has not sufficiently being told is how Jewish funders got together and resolved that they would pool funds, work together, and try and meet the needs of organizations that suddenly found themselves in periled organizations that had depended on visitors and now wouldn't have them, cultural organizations and the like. The fact that only a few of them have now gone out of business is really a credit to those funders. When you look, you see these people who had learned, they'd met one another before the crisis. They'd learned how to work together and I'm very proud to say that one of their Brandeis alumni, Dr. Felicia Herman, the head of Natan, has played a huge role in coordinating this relief effort. I have to say, I wish our Federal Government had pivoted as quickly and as well as the Jewish community did and the Jewish community was able to do what it did because we did have institutions and well trained Jewish professional leaders. Many of them trained at the Hornstein Program at Brandeis. Well-trained leaders who knew that it was their mission to help the community at this hour of need just as earlier leaders during World War-II and during many other crises stepped in, now it was their turn and I think we will look back and say, overwhelmingly, they met the challenge.
Sarah Berkowitz: The restaurant industry has been hit extremely hard. What do you anticipate will lead to long-term effect on the availability of Kosher food for those living in smaller communities and traveling to places that have restaurants that go out of business?.
Jonathan Sarna: That problem of restaurants is of course, a problem of nationwide. We've already seen in many communities. Boston is a good example, in big decline in restaurants even before COVID-19. And this of course has had added enormously. I think the people will be happy to return to restaurants once COVID-19 is over. I have been interested in some new experiments across the country, a special kinds of restaurants. Restaurants that can really employ and even be managed by those with various forms of disability and that they're specially built for that. Going to a restaurant, on the one hand. Is an experience and you want to go out, but you also have a sense you are helping people who otherwise wouldn't be employed in the community. Great advances have been made in creating the kitchens and the like where the disabled can be put to work. Now, the point is that if we create some of those institutions, I think there will be people who will keep them going, not just as a business, but also from charitable motivations. That that may allow a certain kinds of Kosher restaurants to remain. It should be noted that in community after community efforts have been made. To help the Kosher restaurant, feed their people outside restaurants. Some of those restaurants and caterers played a huge role in the different holidays, Passover, the high holidays, and so on. But, they are suffering. It does involve all of us once, COVID-19 is done to make extra effort to help those who are in that industry. Because, they are among the most harmed of all of the different parts of the Jewish community.
Sarah Berkowitz: A final question. Do you think the American Jewish community is distinct from other large communities? Canada, the UK, France, Israel. In terms of the COVD-19 impact, or will the impact be comparable?
Jonathan Sarna: The easy way to answer that. Is that, I certainly do not claim I had to have made that into national studies of the impact of COVID-19. But, I do try and read what's going on. Of course, the situation in Israel is different. Because it's largely, government to manage and that's an entirely different situation. As we've seen, it's gotten caught up in religious politics and so on. I think it's fair to say that some Jewish communities around the world, let's say Australia, New Zealand. Those countries have taken a very different stands in how to fight COVID-19 than American governments did. The Jewish community was the beneficiary where COVID-19 was tamped down early. Obviously the impact was less. Even that's true in Canada, where the effects of not be nearly as strong as in the United States. It is also the case that for probably accidental reasons, the number of Jews in the United States who was stricken by COVID-19 and who lost their lives to COVID-19.That I did see an initial estimate of 5,000. That's a big number. That really suggests that America was hit particularly hard. Since America is the largest diaspora, a Jewish community in the world, it follows that the American Jewish community has been hit particularly hard. I have heard from people outside the Jewish community certain expressions of envy. We, wish we had the communal infrastructure. Lets say they were to do what the Jewish community has done. I think that we will be studying some of this for a long time in the hopes of learning from the experience and avoiding mistakes and doing even better. If God forbid, there is another such a crisis as there will inevitably be down the road. For now, I hope people come away in the last minute with a sense that there's some good news hidden among all the gloom and doom of, COVID-19 and well, there will be an inevitable all. Let's return to normalcy. Certainly they'll be a return to travel and a return to the city, Israel and the life. It will be some very profound changes. Hopefully, we will look back and be able to say that we've been strengthened by these chain, by these changes and that we too were steel by adversity. Thanks.
Sarah Berkowitz: Thank you, Professor Sarna and thank you to all of you for joining this event. We will share a recording of the program when it becomes available, usually within a couple of weeks. A couple of other quick announcements, Giving Tuesday is coming up on December first. Please save the date to make your gift and help Brandeis set a new single-day fundraising record. We look forward to seeing you. More virtual events in the coming months. There'll be faculty speakers, alumni panels, trivia, cooking classes and more. Please be sure to check your email about information about events and Giving Tuesday. Thanks again. Have a great rest of the day or evening and Happy Thanksgiving.