Notes from the Underground five months later...and thoughts on religious apathy and empty shuls

Before getting to Rabbi Schoenfeld's comments regarding coming back to shul, a few general observations.  I wrote on March 26, day #2 of my Notes from the Underground series: "As a result of the total lockdown approach we can look forward to increases in the rates of alcoholism, depression, drug use, family violence, divorce, crime, and even suicide, and who knows what the educational effects of cancelling 1/4 of a school year are."

We are now five months down the road and the data is striking. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

"A quarter of young adults reported that they had thought about suicide in June, compared with nearly 11% of respondents overall reporting they were seriously considering suicide in the 30 days before completing the survey, doubling pre-COVID-19 rates."

A LA Times headline blares:

"Domestic violence rose during lockdown — and injuries are dramatically more severe, study finds"

I assume it is obvious to anyone who looks at the news that there is an upsurge in crime and violence in cities across America.  The collapse of businesses across the country has plunged people into desperation.

And why did we do this? Because of ignorance. Because the true dangers of this virus remain completely misunderstood, as underscored by this study which shows that Americans show "ignorance of fundamental, undisputed facts on who is at risk." 

Is anyone naive enough to think that the leaders who craft public policy, including leaders within our own Orthodox community, are less susceptible to this disease of ignorance that plagues the population as a whole?  (I deliberately call it a "disease" of ignorance because like a disease, ignorance kills.  The poor decision making has had tragic and deadly consequences.)

The consequences of the lockdown for our religious life were entirely predictable as well.  My wife commented months ago when shuls first closed that people just won't come back. If there is no kiddush, no social scene, no groups for kids, and you tell me it is safer to not daven inside, why should I come?  And once you get in the habit of not going, that habit becomes hard to break, even once shuls reopen. It took Rabbi Yoel Schoenfeld a few months to catch up to my wife, but he wrote last week:

Strikingly, I have noticed that the young married generation does not come to shul. Period. I have no reports of them on the lawns and I know that very few if any are in shuls. Our shul has the participation of some singles, some people in their 40s or so, some joining their parents, and some in their 80s! But I can’t think of any young married person who joins us with any regularity.

I was wondering if I am alone in this observation or if it’s widespread. So I put the question out on a Young Israel Rabbis chat that I belong to: “Do you observe that young marrieds are not coming back to shul?” I was stunned by the number of answers that I received from rabbis in many parts of the country, with the exact same observation.

My first reactions to Rabbi Schoenfeld's article is that with all due respect to Rabbis, look at the statistics -- despite what people may believe, the mortality rate for "young marrieds" (age 25-34) is 0.7%! To protect .7% of that population, you closed off your shul and turned them away for months, creating the very problem you are now complaining about. Shuls remained closed in many locales even after stores, restaurants, and barbers opened.  Were people at that point still being protected from illness, or were they being driven away?

Now, there are those who will argue that .7% is still a big number. True. And .1% is a big number too, but I have never in my lifetime heard of a shul closing due to the dangers of winter flu. As I wrote back in March, just give me a number and a source -- tell me what makes .1 or .2 or whatever # you choose an acceptable mortality rate but .7% not. The question still stands.  

Maybe opening shuls to just the younger crowd would not have worked,  Maybe they would not have come anyway.  Who knows?  At least some brainstorming and discussion with them might have been done before locking the door and only opening it months later.  The DOH, whose regulatory whims were capitulated to upon the advice of "experts" within our own community, does not really care if they ever come back or not.

Maybe at the end of the day this situation is a blessing in disguise.  Rabbi Schoenfeld laments the lack of religious commitment within the MO community (I am not so sure it is limited to the MO community...)  Maybe now that the problem is out in the open it can be addressed.  I am not an optimist by nature, but one can always hope. 

I think there is one more factor at play that R' Schoenfeld does not touch on.  I don't have the resources to do it (maybe I can do a little survey on the blog), but I wonder what the results would be if we did a survey of "young marrieds" in various communities asking whether their Rabbi contacted them to check-in over the course of the past few months when their shul was closed.  I don't mean contact as in a form email informing people about a public zoom shiur -- I mean as in a personal phone call or email saying to say hello and ask how things are.  A follow up if there was no response.  A call saying "We haven't seen you back in shul -- is everything OK?"  

If you think no one notices and/or no one cares whether you show up to shul or not, then it is very hard to feel motivated to come.

My general impression still is that a situation that called for a scalpel -- precise, targeted interventions aimed at protecting the most vulnerable -- was dealt with with random hatchet swings, some of which hit the mark, but some of which did more harm than good.  The consequences will be with us perhaps for far longer that the danger of Corona itself.