By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
The newly reelected president of the Orthodox Union, Stephen J. Savitsky, spent two days in Seattle in early January during a coast-to-coast congregational listening tour trying to take the pulse of his membership. He spoke at several local Orthodox synagogues, met with more than 100 Jewish high school teens, and attended community member Josef Russak’s 90th birthday celebration, recognizing him for his decades of work in the Orthodox community.
Although his main mission was to encourage Orthodox congregations to increase their memberships, he told JTNews that the OU is also hoping that their members will reach out to unaffiliated Jews.
“This is a wonderful community,” Savitsky said. “Our goal was to get to know them, to understand them, to hear their concerns, and to see what we can do. I talked about general, macro topics, like Jerusalem, and microtopics, like how to help your synagogue grow and attract more people into their community.”
The century-old organization dedicates itself to several areas of Jewish life, including youth development through their National Conference of Synagogue Youth program; their political arm, the Institute of Public Affairs; Yachad, an outreach program to the disabled and Our Way For the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Their kosher certification label, the “U” inside of an “O,” is found on more than 400,000 products in 80 countries.
Savitsky has been the OU president for the last four years and in November 2008 was elected to serve for another two years. He has helped launch several new programs during his tenure.
Most recently, last November, the union began a program called Project CHESED, helping those in need in the Jewish community find jobs, get counseling, learn computer skills, and cope with the current economic downturn.
And as the recession and the Madoff Ponzi scheme touch many in the Jewish community around the world, the OU convened a summit with yeshivot and Jewish day schools in the Northeast, tri-state area, to brainstorm some financial remedies.
Despite the global financial meltdown, Savitsky is focused and positive about the future of Orthodoxy.
“We are doing very well in the Orthodox community,” he said. “It’s the fastest growing segment of Jewish life. We have a low attrition rate and an extremely low intermarriage rate. We have large families. We are committed Zionists. I wish that other segments of the community were doing as well as we were. But they’re not. We want to reach out to them and show them the richness and beauty of Jewish life. That’s the goal.”
Savitsky cites two problems that present ever-growing threats to the Jewish community both in the U.S. and internationally.
“Intermarriage is a plague,” said Savitsky. “It’s happening all over the world and it’s besieging the American Jewish community. If we don’t do anything about it soon, we’re going to be in big trouble.”
Savitsky also condemned the rate of assimilation among Jews into the general population.
“People are opting out of Jewish life,” he said. “I think the reason is that there’s not enough Jewish education and [many Jews] don’t understand who they are.”
According to Savitsky, the OU’s work with the National Conference of Synagogue Youth gives thousands of Jewish teens across the country a sense of what it’s like to have a Shabbat program, and also gives them “more of a spark and a closer identity with their Judaism.”
However, in today’s political environment, there’s no way the Orthodox leader can avoid commenting on issues like the Israeli incursion into Gaza, the Hamas rockets that were falling deeper and deeper into southern Israel, and the status of Jerusalem, according to the views of the Orthodox Union. Though the OU is not a political organization, it doesn’t back down from the tough issues.
“There’s no question that Israel is doing what any sovereign country would do, and they’re doing it in the most humanitarian way that’s possible,” said Savitsky in response to the war in Gaza. “People on TV who talk about a ‘measured response’ — I don’t know what a measured response means.
“When you start having five rockets a day, and then 100, then 200 rockets a day, and the rockets are no longer just in Sderot, but they’re in Ashkelon and Ashdod — soon they’ll be closer to Beersheva.”
Since Savitsky’s visit, rockets had fallen on Beersheva.
The OU was one of the sponsors of the pro-Israel rally held in New York on Jan. 11. Savitsky believes it’s important to speak out and make the world understand who Israel is and what they’re doing.
“Our position on Jerusalem is that we believe in maintaining it as the undivided capitol of the Jewish people, forever,” he said. “The whole issue should be off the table. It shouldn’t be a part of the negotiations.”