Cellphone put Judaism in the pocket • The rabbinate brought the masses closer to Judaism • And a research institute revealed the dimensions of assimilation

Despite the gloomy atmosphere of this decade for the Jews of the United States, it is worth remembering that it has been a decade of success and innovation. While there has been a very alarming rise in anti-Semitism throughout the US and around the world, culminating in a series of violent attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions, this has not hindered the growth of the community, its development and adaptation to modern life.

Here are some of the great developments of the last decade that have changed the fabric of life for American Jews:

1. Technology puts Judaism in everyone's pocket

By Ben Harris

With the advent of the smartphone, we got used to availability anytime and anywhere of every piece of information, all in one click. However, only with the launch of "Library" in 2011 did this become true of Jewish texts as well.

At the touch of a button, thousands of years of Jewish holy literature entered everyone's pocket. The Bible, the Talmud, the writings of medieval Jewish philosophers and commentators, Jewish law - all are available in Hebrew (and often in English) in search engines. Overnight the site was an invaluable resource for studying Jewish sources. Like Google and Facebook before it, the "Library" site made many wonder how it would have worked out without it.

Photo by Getty Imagis

The site also helped make Judaism accessible to all - not only through English translations of key texts that are immediately available everywhere, but also by allowing each user to create source pages that group scriptures on a specific topic and share them with the entire world. The site now has thousands of such issues on diverse topics such as Jewish ethics in business, discrimination, civil rights, hunger and the environment.

Its library is not the only example of technology harnessed to expand the Jewish spread. Synagogues today use streaming online for free prayer, and Jewish educational sites provide the masses with rich, endless information about Jewish life. A directory site is probably the most comprehensive of all.

2. The kosher cheeseburger becomes possible

By Ben Sells

For the past decade, plant-based food products have tasted astonishingly like burgers, without even a pinch of meat. Manufacturers, the most notable being Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, are hoping to revolutionize the vegetarian industry that undermines the U.S. processed meat industry. The company says the protein they use gives their produce the same juicy meat-like quality that was lacking in previous attempts to produce a vegetarian burger.

Meatless burgers are presented at a Las Vegas media event // Photo: Getty Imagis

For the Jews, this means that dishes that were previously strictly forbidden are now possible. Observant Jews can now order a slice of yellow cheese on an Impossible burger and enjoy a kosher cheeseburger before and after. At Dunkin 'Donuts, diners can taste an omelet with kosher bacon from Beyond Meat.

Jews who keep kosher know the attempts to imitate food from time to time. Meatless burgers are part of the new era of these attempts. This is because the rabbis forbade eating meat and milk together but said nothing about fake milk and meat.

3. Ultra-orthodox Haredi rabbis leave their mark

By Ben Sells

At the beginning of the decade, there were no women in the community who held many positions in the Orthodox community. By the end, there are already 33.

The first decade of the second millennium witnessed a revolution in the modern ultra-Orthodox world when a session of the rabbinate, a rabbinical seminar for Orthodox women, trained graduates year after year since 2013. The last class was the largest of 8 women graduating with rabbinical degrees.

Rabbinate Jenna Englander dances with a Torah scroll during a graduation ceremony at a New York City Rabbi meeting // Photo: Shulamit Seidler-Feller / Maharat; photo illustration by Grace Yagel

The graduates - some of whom define themselves in various alternatives of the title "rabbi" - have left their mark. Nine facts in synagogues, many in my sermon. Others work in leadership positions throughout the Jewish world. They also raised objections when two ultra-Orthodox rooftop organizations - the Haredi Union and the American Council of Rabbis - issued a ban on women from serving as a rabbi.

However, the ban did not stop the number of religious women in the United States who were ordained by the rabbinate and thus joined the women of the conservative and reformist movements that have been in use for decades. A few months before the end of the decade, a graduate of the Maharat Yeshiva established the first ultra-Orthodox synagogue headed by a woman.

4. The return of anti-Semitism to America

By Laura E. Adkins

In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League reported the lowest level of anti-Semitism since the phenomenon began in 1979. In 2018, however, the trend reversed completely: there were 1879 anti-Semitic incidents, one of the three heyday since the league began monitoring antisemitic incidents. The incidents included murdering 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by a white nationalist - the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

Not less than a year passed and on April 27, 2019, a woman was murdered and three were injured in an incident at a Chabad synagogue in Poway, California. On December 10, four people were killed, two of them Jews in a kosher supermarket attack in Jersey City. To a rabbi’s home in Muncie, New York, and stabbed five people with a machete.

Curiosities crowd in front of Rabbi Haim Rotenberg's home in Muncie, which was in Chanukah scene of attack by machete armed man // Photo: Getty Imagis

Due to their clothing. US Jews fear this is becoming the new norm: 31 percent of respondents to a recent American-Jewish Committee survey said they "refrained from publicly wearing accessories that would identify them as Jews, or carrying or showcasing them," and 25 percent said they "refrained from going places. Certain, attending certain events or being in certain situations for the sake of their safety or comfort as Jews. "

5. The Pew survey counted American Jews

By Ben Sells

Jewish organizations in the US experienced a shake-up when in 2013 a survey by the Pew Research Center was published regarding the demographic status of US Jews. The survey counted the number of Jews, the proportion of intermarriage, to which streams the Jews belong and to what extent they hold Jewish ceremonies. It emerges that the rate of intermarriage is on the rise, the number of Jews belonging to the Conservative stream is declining, and almost a third of Jews are not religious.

The Pew poll found a new high rate of intermarriage in the Jewish community // Photo: Getty Imagis

Since its publication, Jewish journalists, activists and community leaders have relied on it to guide their decisions and justify their views. He also helped Jewish organizations move from previously unsuccessful attempts to prevent intermarriage to attempts to support religiously involved families.

The survey also found that many define their Jewishness based on the memory of the Holocaust, the management of moral life and the pursuit of justice. He pointed out that most US Jews feel some connection to Israel and that almost a majority of US Jews - 94 percent - are proud of their Jewishness.

6. The rise of Jewish and Israeli television

By Ben Sells

Jews have always known success in Hollywood. For decades, television has been a prolific hub for Jewish cultural references (see entry - Seinfeld, Jerry). In 2010, however, a significant number of leading television shows and films were recorded that deal specifically with Jewish life issues or are imported directly from Israel.

The streaming services brought a flood of local Jewish series to a wide audience: "The Wonderful Mrs. Meisel," which has countless short awards, tells of a Jewish housewife who became an actor in the 1950s. Broad City, a comedy about two young millennials and their lives in Brooklyn, and "The Crazy Axis" in which protagonist Rebecca Bunch is named for "JAP Betty - Jewish American Princess." And, of course, there was also a "transfer" about a Los Angeles Jewish family wrestling with gender identities, and one of the seasons of the series was filmed primarily in Israel.

Abby Jacobson and Ilana Glaser at an event in honor of their series "Broad City" at Sunny Hall in New York City // Photo: Getty Imagis

At the same time, Israeli series came directly into viewers' screens in the United States. The Americans watched Binge watching a series of "knit" on bachelors from the religious state sector in Jerusalem, "shit" on anxious (and married) bachelors in Jerusalem, "our boys" about kidnapping and murdering the youth, and the murder of the Arab boy who upset Israel and "pawda" about the undercover West Bank. There were also several mediocre films about Israel, of which at least three starred Ben Kingsley.

All of this resulted in viewers in America first being exposed to and enjoying a variety of Jewish characters about their weaknesses and stories.

7. The ultra-Orthodox women said theirs

By Laura E. Adkins

On December 22, 2016, Rachel "Ruhi" Sucker was sworn in as a judge in the King's County Civil Court, New York. She is the first ultra-Orthodox woman to be elected to such a position in the US.

Unlike other parts of the Jewish world, many of the ultra-Orthodox reject any contact with the secular world unnecessarily. Men and women in Chassidism adhere to a unique form of dress and women are not encouraged to fit into public office.

Judge Rachel Sucker offers her business card at the New York City Council office // Photo: Getty Imagis

Sucker, who grew up in a Hasidic enclave in Brooklyn, has in recent years been a symbol for ultra-Orthodox women seeking to hold public office without giving up their traditional values ​​or severing ties with their secular communities. In 2011, Sucker established a rescue team consisting entirely of women, "women's help," after the Jewish rescue organization refused to accept women into its ranks. The struggle for women to obtain an ambulance has become a political issue and they are still unacceptable in the ultra-Orthodox world, but it is undoubtedly that Freier and women like her have figured out a way for ultra-Orthodox women to hold influential and prominent positions in their communities.

8. The Passover legume revolution arrived in America

By Ben Sells

2016 was an important year of change in Jewish life in the US, although a noticeable change: The Conservative movement officially declared that the legumes fit the food of Ashkenazi Jews on Passover.

The Halachic ruling gave what was already a silent revolution that was the result of a growing number of liberal observant houses. For centuries, Ashkenazi Jews have avoided eating peanuts, beans, rice, lentils, chickpeas, and other foods that rabbis believe may be considered sour.

Illustrative image // Photo: Pixnio

According to the custom of Spanish testimony, legumes are allowed to be eaten on Passover. In Israel, where most Jews are of Spanish origin, the legumes are available on Passover. A large number of Ashkenazi Jews in the country also eat legumes, even though they observe the holiday commandments. Many Jewish families are involved - Ashkenazi-Spanish - and thus the boundaries blur even more.

In the past decade, the legume-eating trend has crossed the ocean and reached the United States when a portion of the US Jewish population, mostly Ashkenazi, adopted the Spanish custom. Now, you can expect the hummus piles on the shelves of the kosher Passover stores to grow.

9. Spain and Portugal invite their Jews who have been deported to return home

By Canaan Lifshitz

In 2015, Spain and Portugal offered citizenship to the descendants of Spanish Jews who were persecuted and deported over 500 years ago. The laws were intended to atone for the injustices of the Inquisition that destroyed one of the most prosperous Jewish communities of the world. In an age of rising anti-Semitism, world leaders praised the move.

"Spain is roots, beloved and painful memories," President Rivlin said in 2017, adding that "it is not just nostalgia but a home, a place where Jews need not be told to feel at home."

Portugal flag, illustration // Photo: Flickr

The application process was not necessarily straightforward. According to Spanish law, which allowed citizenship applications only until October, Jewish applicants had to prove affinity for Spanish culture and the family tree had to be examined. In Portugal, where there is no deadline for submitting applications, one of the two Jewish communities to which the government imposed the requests, only approves who is Jewish today.

Despite the possibility of submitting millions of applications, only 132,000 applications were finally submitted in Spain and another 50,000 in Portugal. The low numbers come from a number of factors: Most Spaniards live in wealthy countries and may not be interested in second citizenship. In addition, non-Jewish descendants of Spanish deportees often lack proof of their origin.

10. Non-white Jews gain greater exposure

By Ben Harris

Non-white Jews have always urged their communities to acknowledge their ethnic and racial diversity, but over the past decade, a number of non-white Jews have made their existence a fact that is hard to ignore.

In 2014, Angela Bochdale became one of the best-known non-white Jews in the world when she was appointed Chief Rabbi of the Central New York Synagogue, one of the largest in the country. She is the daughter of a Buddhist mother and an American Jewish father. She was born in Korea and became the first Asian-American rabbi in 2001 when she was ordained at Hebrew Union College of the Reform Movement.

But she was by no means the only one that drew attention to Jewish diversity.

A lot of Angela Bochdale is giving speeches at an interfaith prayer ceremony at the New York Central Synagogue in memory of the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue // Photo: Getty Imagis

Barack Obama's election in 2008 helped bring out the prominence of Rabbi Capers Paniera, an African-American rabbi from Chicago who is also Michelle Obama's cousin. Former NBC star Amara Studmeyer, who in 2013 said he thinks he has "Hebrew" roots, eventually converted and plays in Israel. Tiffany Haddish, the actress who only learned at the age of 27 that her father is a Jew from Eritrea, made a glittering Bat-Mitzvah celebration at the age of 40, which she ran by a lot of Suzanne Silverman, the sister of actress Sarah Silverman.

In 2019, the Spanish-American Federation and the Moroccan "Mimuna" Association hosted the first conference to be held by African Jews. "This is of great importance to the African American Jewish community and to the West African Jewish community, because for a long time we said we were here," Panier said after the event.