Where Have You Gone Dr. Strangelove
No one can deny that these are very challenging and different times. The Jewish world just finished remembering Tisha B’Av and the overwhelming emotions that surround the litany of sadness that has marked much of Jewish history. Many have struggled to make sense out of this history. What a strange confluence of historical moments faces us this week.
August 6, 1945. It is 80 years since the world changed forever. This is the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the so-called Atomic Age. With the push of a button, we now have the capability of destroying everything. The membership in this atomic club has swelled in these eight decades and the people who have control over those buttons, well, may not be the most stable. The history and implications of this age are reported in a variety of ways in the current Atlantic magazine (August 2025).
Jeffrey Goldberg writes of this anniversary that “The main challenge of the 80 years since the Trinity atomic test has been that we do not possess the cognitive capabilities necessary to successfully manage nuclear weapons without the risk of catastrophic failure.” In another article, Noah Hawley broke down the ages in which we have lived. He notes that the bombs that dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, represented the ultimate invention of the Industrial Age. These events ushered in the Atomic Age which is now being replaced by what many call the Information Age.
It is mind numbing to consider that for many of us, we have lived through these three major transitions and yet, we may still not have the awareness, as Goldberg writes, to understand how we need to manage these ages. This transition syndrome, for want of a better term, is impacting our Jewish life as well. Can any of us recall a time when so much transition is taking place? With so much happening, how much of this transition is leading to transformation? We are living it, so no wonder it is so confusing to so many. It is no wonder that there is so much anxiety for there seems to be no secure foundation for how to live. Everyone seems entitled and we have lost, in so many ways, the sense of community.
Judaism has survived in our ability to adapt to change wherever we may have lived. We are, and have been, an “adapting people”. The current realities of Jewish life need to be discussed. As we soon enter the month of Elul, and thus turn our souls to a new year, it is time for our congregations, organizations and communities to have a serious dialogue on what our Judaism can and may look like.
Shalom,
Rabbi Richard F Address