I ask an Orthodox rabbi: “Why do you think most Jews are not
Orthodox? Is the principal obstacle difficulty or expense or
intellectual or moral? And what did you think of the Newsweek top 50 rabbis list?”
The rabbi replied: “The modern era is all about personal independence and Orthodox Judaism is all about submission to external rules. Not too many people can or want to reject that modern impulse.
“The Newsweek list was about the 50 rabbis mentioned most in the mainstream media. Since the Orthodox community is largely either ignored or misrepresented in that media, its representation in the list is entirely distorted. The description of R. Shmuel Kamenetsky is a case study in cluelessness. The absence of R. Menachem Genack and R. Yaakov Perlow is inexcusable and the inclusion of Sara Hurwitz is inexplicable.”
Historian Marc B. Shapiro responds to my inquiry on why most Jews are not Orthodox: “I haven’t examined it, but I think the reasons are convenience, but also now ideological reasons. Many non-Orthodox Jews see the positions that Orthodoxy takes as immoral. E.g., when it comes to issues like gay marriage. For the non-Orthodox, this is a human rights issue, and Orthodoxy is on the wrong side of history (the women’s issue is also relevant in this regard). So the non-Orthodox are turned off by the difficulty of Orthodoxy, the expense, and what they regard as the moral failings of Orthodoxy. The intellectual issues are minor if at all.”
