Politics and religion are often reduced to an easy-to-digest phraseology of Left, Right, and Center. Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 promising to govern from the Center. George W. Bush and his political guru, Karl Rove, by contrast, signaled a strong shift to the Right – some would argue the religious Right more so than the political Right.
Is there a political Center today? In the U.S., the political parties have been maneuvering themselves to extreme positions on either the Left or the Right. And what is the Right anyway? Is it about politics or religion? Israeli politics in the 1950’s and 1960’s had a Left and a Right, but it had an even larger Center. Will Ariel Sharon’s strategy of reclaiming the political Center with the newly formed Kadima Party affect other aspects of Israeli life?
Many people are uncomfortable with either extreme, both politically and religiously. They prefer to be in the Center. The Center generally is more inclusive, open and tolerant; provides a closer connection to a wide range of individuals and ideas; and places a premium on dialogue. (Though it should be noted that many of those who describe themselves as being in the Center need to exhibit greater tolerance themselves.)
Today, young men and women are generally categorized in religious terms as Right or Right of Center – which typically means a black hat or a very dark hat/shtreimel – or Left or Left of Center, i.e., modern or very modern.
Girls today look to marry boys who are generally more frum than the boys of years gone by. So many young women go to seminaries in Eretz Yisrael with a certain belief system and return a short year later with a new hashkafa, wanting only to marry boys who sit and learn.
Boys, for their part, are sitting and learning – even those who don’t want to or who lack the ability – for fear they’ll be excluded from good, quality shidduchim. Do so many young men actually want to sit and learn full time, or do they simply feel they can’t afford to be the odd men out?
Some young men may actually want to begin to work full-time, but they’re forced to adapt to the current trend. Think about it. How many boys and girls return from Israel after a year or two and say they want to marry someone who is in the Center? Not many, it seems.
Parents may push for a different type of shidduch from the one preferred by their son or daughter. The young man wears a black hat or the young woman only wishes to become a kollel wife, and the more modern parents are unwilling or unable to support that lifestyle. And the reverse, of course, is equally problematic – a young man and woman do not want to conform, cannot find a place for themselves, and so look for fulfillment farther from home, at times becoming estranged from family, friends and community.
To gain a perspective on the dangers of labeling in any extreme, consider the follwing:
In the mid-1950’s, during the McCarthy era, people outside the political mainstream were publicly summed up in one word, usually “lefty” or “commie.” In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, “beatnik” was the word of the day. In the Vietnam era of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, “hippie” was understood to mean the counterculture, long hair and drugs. If you attended the University of California at Berkeley you were understood to be radical to the extreme. If you were at Harvard, MIT or Yale you were thought to be brilliant. (Student A could have a 4.0 index at Adelphi or LIU and Student B only a 3.0 index at Yale, but would parents prefer a mediocre Harvard shidduch or a brilliant student from LIU?)
