516 A History of Judaism
a cruise, and she got to go to a women’s seder. It was a little too verbal and
too strident for her tastes, but she’d like to try more of that sort of thing,
if it were conveniently available. She read part of I and Thou years ago and
liked it, but most of her inspiring reading has been by Eastern authors or
by Americans who have chosen an Eastern path. The fact is that she really
doesn’t read very much at all. Being of the video generation, she’d much
rather watch tapes of lectures by the Dalai Lama, which she owns, than
read his book ...The search for spirituality by Jews, mostly in their youth, since the
1960s has led many into eastern religions, especially Buddhism, but
others have found a new form of spirituality within Judaism through
‘Jewish renewal’, an informal movement to capture the spirituality of
Hasidism within a largely secular lifestyle, drawing on the writings of
Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel for theological support but
inspired by the infectiously melodic, hasidic- inspired music of Shlomo
Carlebach and a general revival of interest in klezmer music, with its
echoes of the east European shtetls.^1
ALEPH, the ‘Alliance for Jewish Renewal’, was founded in 1962 by
Arthur Green’s former teacher, Zalman Schachter- Shalomi, who had
been a Habad hasid (as had Shlomo Carlebach), with the aim of spread-
ing spirituality to all Jews rather than becoming a new denomination
alongside the others which have emerged in modern times. The move-
ment encouraged a quest for devekut, ‘attachment’, or communion with
God, as understood in Hasidism, through any spiritual means, from
kabbalah and other Jewish resources in midrashic and hasidic tradi-
tions, to yoga, Buddhist and Sufi forms of prayer and meditation, using
dance, music, storytelling and the visual arts. A distinctively North
American phenomenon in origin, with a strong commitment to eco-
logical and peace activism and to social justice, Jewish Renewal has also
proved attractive to some secular Israelis seeking spiritual fulfilment
without subjection to what they see as the alien world of the religious.
The movement has also gained some following, but to a lesser extent,
among Jews in South America and Europe.^2
The search for spiritual experience and expression by young Jews in
North America in recent decades reflects of course cultural trends in
wider society (especially California), not least in reaction to the materi-
alism of the older generation. Jewish Renewal, with its concentration on
personal fulfilment and inspiration (as in Hasidism) by a charismatic
leader, allows its followers to decide for themselves how much to pursue