Open Orthodoxy is the answer according to ej

Open Orthodoxy would be an answer to many of these problems. I define it as LWMO plus a genuine lack of concern for how frum is the guy sitting next to you in shul. Instead of playing catch up to RWMO, Open Orthodoxy (OO) and the Open Orthodox (also OO, as in “How OO of you.”) would become the center of a larger more vibrant space.

Such an open kind of Orthodoxy would incorporate some or many of the innovations of Shira Chadasha, and thereby alleviate the demand for egalitarian minyanim. Part of openness involves never asking anyone to show their tzizit, which when interpreted as a general principle ends up being a welcoming place to gay Jews who want to daven in an Orthodox shul.

Because the shul is flexible the children raised there are less likely to rebel. They may end up for a time less frum, but the rebellion, the anger and the rage that never quiets down is largely missing.

The solution to the money problem is to bring down the price of Jewish education which can't be achieved without economies of scale. LWMO is too small especially outside NY. The solution is to create non denominational elementary schools, as was done just recently in downtown Chicago. In addition an open allgemeine Orthodoxy would be accepting of those parents who prefer SSDS over the RW Orthodox day school.

The face of this Open Orthodoxy is directed to all those Orthodox on the left and those Conservadox and Conservatives who look to Orthodoxy. When you look towards Conservative Judaism while remaining Orthodox, LWMO doesn’t look watered down at all. Embracing the drift to Conservative culture while maintaining the halachot and practices of Orthodoxy provide additional spiritual strength. As things stand now LWMO is racked by guilt for being who they are, and in a panic of what they might become

The gedolim of OO would include the great Jewish academic scholars who have taught us so much about tanach,kabalah and Jewish history. (See my old post (6/26) on EJ "Geek Jews.") The decision making power is bottom up from the members of the community. The OO recognize if we look to salvation from the gedolim nothing will ever happen.

The DH is a source of anguish to charedim in a 10 step self help program and all those who were brought up in a yeshivish atmosphere. Conservatives, and I am talking the rank and file, who never thought of doing mitzvot out of a sense of ‘must’ have no problem with the DH. It just floats past them, as in "what else is new?" In OO, mitzvot are performed out of love for tradition, the Torah and the Jewish people. The DH and its possible resolution is put on hold until Judaism is sufficiently secure and self confident to work through the issues.

The OO realize that openness without Orthodoxy tends to become vapor, and a closed inward looking Orthodoxy is way too suffocating and narrow minded.