Benny Kraut's primary aim was to reconstruct the history of a relatively
unknown and short-lived Jewish collegiate organization, Yavneh: The
National Jewish Religious Students Association, particularly during its
heyday in the 1960s. But he found a story within his story. The story of
Yavneh-its surprising appearance in 1960, its mission and organizational
efflorescence, its stunning educational innovations, its problematic
engagement with inter-Jewish pluralism, and its lamentable but
understandable demise in the early 1980s-is told within the context of
an evolving American Orthodox Judaism. During these very decades,
American Orthodoxy simultaneously underwent a remarkable religious
revival and a deep-seated religious polarization, trends that Yavneh's
history exposes in bold relief. In so many intellectual, religious, and
cultural ways, Yavneh and its members and supporters contributed
significantly to the modern Orthodox revitalization. But the
organization and its students experienced the gamut of internal Orthodox
divisions over religious ideology, educational priorities, and openness
to non-Orthodox movements and secular culture. Yavneh serves as an
illuminating historical marker by which to probe the broader Orthodox
vicissitudes of the day. Benny Kraut's historical account brings this
singular organization to public consciousness and offers a revealing
glimpse of American Orthodox Judaism at a critical juncture in its
recent growth.
