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Forty Years of Change

JL;DR SUMMARY In marking the 40th anniversary of Jewish Action, various writers examine significant shifts within the Jewish community since the 1980s. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish IdentityOrthodox JudaismReform JudaismConservative JudaismPopular CultureAssimilationCultural ChangeJewish DemographicsOrthodox GrowthDenominational Shifts

Places mentioned

New York City, New York, United States
"In New York City (2023), that share climbed to 64 percent of Jewish children."
Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, Israel
"A contributing editor of Jewish Action, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein teaches Torah, writes, and cohosts the Two Rabbis, Three Opinions podcast in Yerushalayim."
Israel
"Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, grew from over 1,000 students in 1985 to over 9,000 in 2025, making it one of the largest Torah centers in the world."
Jerusalem, Israel
"Living in Jerusalem in the 1970s and early 1980s, I could read one, perhaps two, weekly Orthodox newspapers."
Lakewood, New Jersey, United States
"Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, grew from over 1,000 students in 1985 to over 9,000 in 2025, making it one of the largest Torah centers in the world."
New Jersey, United States
"Or, to take another example, the daily Hebrew-language Hamodia back then was a few pages. That slim size is now long forgotten."
Telshe Yavne, Central District, Israel
"Both of my grandmothers were privileged to receive formal Torah educationone at Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn in the 1930s, the other at Telshe Yavne, a high school for girls in Lithuaniarare opportunities for women of their day."
Teaneck, New York, United States
"In order to learn Daf Yomi in 1990, a small group gathered in my Teaneck shul and listened to a cassette tape of Rabbi Fischel Schachter."
Lithuania
"Both of my grandmothers were privileged to receive formal Torah educationone at Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn in the 1930s, the other at Telshe Yavne, a high school for girls in Lithuaniarare opportunities for women of their day."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"I made my first shidduch twenty years ago, and at the time, I was running a medical office in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn."
Rochester, New Jersey, United States
"I first encountered NCSY in the 1980s, as an elementary school kid in Rochester, New York."
Washington DC, United States
"These groups promoted a secular and liberal agenda focused on separation of church and state together with broad promotion of civil rights laws to protect religious, racial and gender minorities from discrimination."
Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel
"This was an exciting trip for those of us who had spent gaps in Israeli high schools in Tiferet and Tel Aviv, but this shared history also fused new ties."
Tel Aviv District, Israel
"Today, Olami and Chabad support over 500. Additionally, the OUs Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC) program, while catering mostly to Orthodox students, serves as a support for all Jews on twenty-four American campuses."
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Retrieved 2025-12-12 05:31:00 UTC
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