Rabbi Harold White, 77, has spent 41 years as the senior Jewish chaplain at Georgetown University working at what he calls his labor of love: “Creating a Jewish understanding of Christianity, and a Christian understanding of Judaism.” He sat down with The Examiner to share his faith’s meaning, and how the years have seen his own beliefs change and grow richer.
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
My faith is Judaism, but I look upon Judaism as more than a religion, I look upon it as a civilization. And a civilization incorporates a number of elements. It incorporates a sense of peoplehood, a sense of religion, and it incorporates, in the case of Judaism, a sense of nationhood. So my Judaism is based on a commitment to the perpetuation of Jewish peoplehood, a commitment to the Jewish religion and a commitment to the state of Israel. Sometimes I disagree with Israel’s policies, but I am critical only because I love the idea of the restoration of the land and its people.
Working each day with college students, do you ever worry that religious pluralism has gone too far? That they are respectful of other faiths to the point of neglecting a rigor in their own beliefs?
I do worry about that, because you can’t be a universalist without being a particularist. You cannot possibly engage in religious dialogue unless you know who you are — otherwise you’ll be caught up and you’ll lose your identity. So you have to go into it with a strong identity. And so often I find that young people don’t have that strong identity.
I still believe in the Socratean dictum: Know yourself. Know yourself before you can walk the universalistic path.
Young people are sometimes quite dreamy about their capacity to bring change to the world. Who or what, in your mind, can bring real change?
When I told my parents I wanted to become a rabbi, they were shocked. They were very involved in synagogue life, but they asked, “Why do you want to become a rabbi?” And I said, “To change society.” And their answer was “No. Go into a more lucrative profession, because money is power in the society in which we live. So if you want to change it, go into a profession that will provide you with the financial means to do so.” At the time. I thought they were very much wrong, but I know now they were right. Society is controlled and ruled by moneyed people, not by university professors or rabbis, but by moneyed people. I’ve changed individuals, and since I’ve changed individuals, hopefully they will be able to change society. But I realize now, many years later, that my parents were correct.
This is your 50th year in the rabbinate and your 41st year at Georgetown. How has your own faith grown and changed since your younger years?
It has changed considerably. When I was younger, I considered myself a deist. I did not really believe in a personal, supernatural god, but I believed in a god idea, god as a process. As I grew older, I developed a genuine interest in mysticism, and mysticism isn’t something you study, but something you experience. You have a mystical experience, and as a result of that you delve into the history of mysticism and mystic thoughts. I became very involved in kabbalistic thought, based on the idea that everything that happens to us has a purpose. We may not understand what it is in the moment, but in time we will. In looking back on my life, I’ve realized that nothing that has happened to me has been accidental. Everything that has happened to me was meant to be.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
One of my defining beliefs comes from the teachings of Martin Buber, and that is that the world may not always be comprehendible, but it is embraceable. I might not understand everything there is about society and the world and people, but that doesn’t mean I can’t embrace them.
– Leah Fabel
