Community Briefs

November 9, 2006

Two neighborhoods reveal Orthodox community’s fault lines

Pico-Robertson vs. Hancock Park

By Amy Klein

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Jews were first sent to Denver's west side by the Hebrew Immigration Society in 1877.

"That became the foundation of the Orthodox community in Denver," said Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, executive editor of the Intermountain Jewish News. He totals the religious community at 375 family units, or 1,500 people, with the ultra-Orthodox primarily on the west side and the Modern Orthodox on the east side. Between them -- 8 to 10 miles -- you will find a brave mohel who will walk over on Shabbat, he says, referring to a man who performs circumcision.

Goldberg categorized the relationship between the two sides as "occasionally, abrasive," but he added, it's "much less so than it used to be."

One reason that there's less friction, he said, is that the two communities have begun to separate, to find their own way: "The east side relied on the west side for a long time, and the two didn't fit."

With the founding of a new Modern Orthodox high school, one of the sore points -- how the main high school was to be run -- is no longer an issue.

While this phenomenon is not happening everywhere, what is going on in Denver and Los Angeles and other cities around the country should be no surprise, according to Brandeis professor Sarna. For Sarna, it's more surprising that they don't clash more often.

"Even though they fire potshots at each other, they don't excommunicate one another," he pointed out. "They both use the word Orthodox -- no matter what, they have to band together against non-Orthodox and the secular."

While many have predicted a split between the two movements, Sarna said the real story is that it hasn't happened.

"The big story is that Orthodoxy has a big tent," he said. "I think the Orthodox have understood that in order to succeed in America you have to be a big tent."

And even as they entrench into their own worlds, there is evidence of crossover in Los Angeles. "We find children that grew up on either side of the town are moving to the other side of the town," said Muskin, whose YICC is in the heart of Pico-Robertson. "Children have migrated in both directions," he said.

"This community is going to attract a certain crowd and that community will attract another crowd," he said. "It's just a fact of life. It's not to be judged."

Muskin doesn't feel there's any friction between the two sides of the town -- just a philosophical and geographic separation. But, he said, "we work together on communal issues" -- like Bikur Cholim and Tomchei Shabbos, social service organizations that attend the sick and help the needy. "There's more that unites than separates us," Muskin said.

It's not the relationship of friends and families that will bridge the gap between the two sides, said Simon Wiesenthal Center's Adlerstein, but the "interactions between teachers and mentors," which have for years been taking place, of which he is an example.

In any case, the neighborhoods are still evolving. While the Modern Orthodox faction is dwindling in Hancock Park, there is also an increasing presence of black hats in Pico-Robertson. Some are Chabadniks (Lubavitcher Chasidim) and Ba'alei teshuvah who largely circulate among their own communities and not the mainstream Charedi and Chassidic community. But mainstream ultra-Orthodox are coming to the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, as well.

Consider Adas Torah, a new shul founded almost three years ago in Pico-Robertson, which hosts 40 to 50 men each week.

"It's a shul for serious people," said one of its founders, Mike Horowitz. "On Shabbos you're going to get proper divrei Torah," he said, referring to the sermon the rabbi gives which apparently has a different flavor according to hashkafa (philiosophy).

Horowitz grew up in Pico, attended Modern Orthodox schools, then studied in Israel at The Mir, a black hat yeshiva. When he returned to Los Angeles, he considered moving to the other side of the town, because his children attend Toras Emes there and he likes the learning there, but ultimately he decided to stay.

"There's a lot of good things, a person can do what they want to -- start a shul, start a kollel," he said, referring to the new full-time kollel he hopes will begin this summer.

Mercaz Hatorah Community Kollel will be led by Rabbi Baruch Gradon, and will house 10 full-time men, who will teach in the community and help connect like-minded study partners, or chevrutas, together.

"The point of a kollel and the point of a shul is to give people more choices," Horowitz said. While it's unclear how the neighborhood will embrace the Kollel, rabbis in Pico-Robertson see the new shul and kollel in a positive way.

"I think it provides a nice opportunity for people to move to this side of the town," said Weil of Beth Jacob. "I think it will expand the neighborhood from being densely Modern Orthodox to having a larger variety of Jews, and a larger variety of options. It's nice to have variety. It's nice to have options."

Interaction between the two groups -- although much of the traffic seems to be the ultra-Orthodox to Pico-Robertson rather than vice versa -- will breed tolerance.

"Each group has its flaws and it needs the others to compensate for the flaws that it has," Adlerstein said. "When you get to know people well, you find remarkable stories of excellence and accomplishment. Cutting yourself off from other Jews is always a bad thing. There's always something you can learn from another Jew."
... and Modern Orthodox in Pico-Robertson

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