October 10, 2003

How to Be a Jew Now

By NAOMI SCHAEFER

In 1976, the sociologist Samuel C. Heilman tried to describe the relationship between modernity and orthodoxy in the lives of contemporary Orthodox Jews. His book, Synagogue Life, includes a particularly revealing scene in which the members of "Congregation Kehillat Kodesh," located in "Sprawl City," are discussing a biblical passage. When one of the group notes an apparent contradiction in the text, many possible interpretations are offered, all of them attempts to bring into line the

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