Lawrence Bush

‘I want to see our fences become fringes’

A secular Jew argues for inclusiveness

Does Jewish secularism have a future? Will there be American Jews half a century from now who are nonbelievers, uninterested in prayer, but nevertheless affirmatively engaged with Jewish identity through culture, language, politics, and community life?

The late, great Irving Howe was doubtful about it. As the author of “World of Our Fathers” (1976), Howe detailed the effusion of vibrant Jewish culture that resulted when Jews became secular, or “worldly,” in the 19th and 20th centuries — yet he believed that the secular movement was “reaching its end,” with its “messianic impulse” perhaps nearing “a point of exhaustion.” Therefore, he concluded, with a sage wink at the Apocrypha (and James Agee), “Now let us praise obscure men.”