Why Josh Can't Be Left Alone

Without getting into theology, I just want to lend my reaction to a recent conference by Edah - The courage to be modern and orthodox, in Skokie. Rabbi Saul Berman spoke at Congregation Or Torah on Shabbos. Without even addressing what he said, I wanted to share a little background to this organization so that you can understand my reaction to this event. Edah started about three years ago, after deciding that most of the rest of Modern Orthodoxy was too much to the ideological right. No biggie there. But it seems to me that the real reason they were able to find a niche is not ideologically, but practically. All I could think of as I saw this conference was, why can't Yeshiva University do this? The only reason Edah is around is because the beauracrats at YU can't get their heads together to produce any original discourse on religion in America. So other groups pop up and with it spin the discussion in different directions.

But all that YU needs to do is stand up and be active. It will stay in the shadows as long as it chooses to play second fiddle to these upstarts. And letting these radicals grab the empty pulpit doesn't fare well for the moderates. So all that remains to be seen is how long it will take for YU to stir from its slumber to share its resources with the world at large.