1) When the topic of Rumspringa comes up in my classes, I
point out that it's based on a major difference between
Anabaptist Christianity and most other religions, including
ours. This was pointed out in a letter to the New York Jewish
Week in August of 2006:
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Steve Lipman's suggestion, in his piece "A Year Of Living
Dangerously" (Aug. 18), that the Orthodox community consider
adopting the Amish practice of rumspringa, represents a total
misunderstanding of Amish religion and history. The very
essence of Anabaptism, the religious movement of which Amish
are a part, is that the covenant can only be one of choice and
not of coercion.
The founders of the Anabaptist faith fought with the
mainstream Christian idea that one can be baptized at birth.
Religion by choice, ironically a very modern idea, was the
defining characteristic of the various Anabaptist groups.
Rumspringa, therefore, is an almost necessary stage for a
community that must be entered out of free will.
Judaism, by contrast, does not believe in covenant by choice.
The chosenness of the Jewish people — with the rights and
obligations that it entails — is conferred upon anyone born of
a Jewish mother. It is simply absurd to suggest that Jews
could take a leave of absence from God.
Jeremy Stern
Bet Shemesh, Israel
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2) Furthermore, it seems that Rumspringa is not as accepted
among the Amish as "The Devil's Playground" would have us
believe. Here's an excerpt of a memoir by an ex-Amish Christian:
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Rumspringa. That mispronounced word popularized by the 2002
documentary film Devil’s Playground, which, to be fair, was a
pretty accurate depiction in many ways. The term Rumspringa
simply means “running around.â€
All Amish youth run around. That’s what they do after turning
sixteen, when they are considered adults. Run with the youth
and attend singings and social gatherings.
But if someone asked me what percentage of Amish youth “run
wild†and touch and taste the unclean things of the outside
world, either while they are at home or after leaving, my
guess would be 20 to 25 percent. But that’s just a guess. It
might be close; it might not. Rumspringa varies greatly from
community to community. Some smaller communities have almost
no wild youth. In larger communities, wild youth are much more
common.
Despite the fact that the producers of the documentary had
unprecedented access to northern Indiana’s wild Amish youth,
Devil’s Playground left viewers with a huge misconception: the
belief that the Amish actually allow their youth a time to
explore, to run wild, to live a mainstream lifestyle. To
decide whether or not they really want to remain Amish.
I’m not saying that never happens. It probably does, in some
rare individual families. But church policy never approves it.
It never has been that way and never will be. In fact, the
Amish church does everything in its power to maintain its grip
on the youth, including applying some of the most guilt-based
pressure tactics in existence anywhere in the world. After
all, there’s no sense encouraging young people to taste the
outside world, because there’s a good chance they might not
return — regardless of how good their intentions might have
been when they left.
The smaller communities keep a tight grip on their youth. Or
try to. That’s why they’re smaller communities, because the
people there usually fled the larger settlements to get away
from the wild-youth practices.
In Aylmer, if you looked sideways the wrong way, the leaders
would whack you hard. Shave your beard? The deacon would be
knocking on your door. Smoking, drinking, partying, or
carousing? Absolutely unheard of in all its history.
Bloomfield used to have a similar iron grip on things, until
six young men shattered the old molds and forged their own way.
And things have never been quite the same since.
— Ira Wagler, Growing Up Amish: A Memoir (Tyndale House,
2011), pp. 81-82. This is the beginning of Chap. 12.
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I recommend that teachers mention these points when discussing
Rumspringa in the classroom.
Uri Cohen
Ramat Beit Shemesh
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 06:37PM by mlb.
