“Gordimer’s refusal/failure to propose a new model of Modern Orthodoxy…bespeaks a failure in his thinking…”

Orthodox Jewry of our days needs new constructs. Tradition, once again needs to be reshaped. As opposed to the reformers of the nineteenth century, Open Orthodoxy is not looking to abandon Jewish praxis or belief and assimilate. It recognizes the problems encountered by Conservative Judaism in the twentieth century and wants to avoid those as well. Be it ultra or modern styles, Orthodoxy needs to be re-formed into a Judaism that resonates and gives meaning, lest it be deemed an irrelevant anachronism by the present generation of Modern Orthodox Jews. Gordimer’s refusal/failure to propose a new model of Modern Orthodoxy, one that presents his quasi Chareidi values in a meaningful fashion, bespeaks a failure in his thinking and that of Modern Orthodoxy’s right flank. It demonstrates that a heretofore significant faction of Modern Orthodoxy has nothing to offer the future beyond the doctrinal pronouncements of the leaders of a bygone generation. Theirs is a path to the demise of Modern Orthodoxy. For without a vibrant creative right flank to ameliorate against the excesses of the left, Modern Orthodoxy will fall down the slippery slope and morph into a sui generis heterodox movement.

Daniel B. Schwartz, “Modern Orthodoxy’s Right: In Search of a Message”, Times of Israel (10 January 2016) [http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/modern-orthodoxys-right-in-search-of-a-message/]