In 2005, Yeshiva University established a Center for the Jewish Future, a think tank and outreach organization seen by some as a more flexible counterweight to the university’s affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
This year, the center launched a new program that offers a glimpse into how the new unit is attempting to establish itself as a complement to rabbinical study as traditionally defined at Y.U. In January, the center sponsored a two-day retreat devoted to the subject of spirituality, a topic often overlooked in the Riets curriculum.
Penner, who in addition to his position at Y.U. is a pulpit rabbi at the Young Israel of Holliswood, in Queens, described a sort of spiritual malaise in Modern Orthodoxy today. “Everyone feels that in our synagogues, there’s a lack of spirituality. There’s less singing. There’s a lot of rote behavior,” he said.
What, exactly, is Y.U. talking about when it speaks of spirituality?
The retreat, which was held at a hotel in Tenafly, N.J., was co-sponsored by the Jerusalem-based educational organization Isralight, a group founded with an eye toward reaching out to unaffiliated Jews that now has become involved in training people in outreach.
This story "At Retreat, Y.U. Rabbis Talk God" was written by Gabriel Sanders.