The weight of Jewish intellectual opinion in the United States has mostly been on the left. I think it's very hard to make the case that certainly communism or even socialism is the Jewish, says Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Conservative Judaism lost over 600,000 members 15 years after Otis Israel moved from New York to Tel Aviv. Unless there is a compelling, non-fundamentalist rationale for why I should eat a certain way and why I shouldn't go out on Saturday, many rabbis have tried to maintain the cohesion of the tradition.
Named one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of our time, Rabbi David Wolpe joins Tyler in a conversation on flawed leaders, Jewish identity in the modern world, the many portrayals of David, what’s missing in rabbinical training, playing chess on the Sabbath, Srugim, Hasidic philosophy, living in Israel and of course, the durability of creation.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Other ways to connect