The New Jewish Thinker    
What's in a name?

That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet. So declares Juliet as she laments the name of her beloved in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. What is in the meaning of the name “The New Jewish Thinker”? Is it a New Jew who thinks? Is it a New Thinker who happens to be Jewish? Or is it a new way for a Jew to think?

I am not a new Jew. I was born Jewish.
I had a classical Conservative Jewish education as a child, but I did not start thinking about Judaism till I was 65 years old. Did God really instruct Saul to commit genocide against the Amalekites?
David Yaffee suggested I read Richard Elliot Friedman’s “Who Wrote the Bible”.
The real impetus to my thinking commenced after listening to Neil Gillman’s Scholar in Residence Presentation at BSKI in 2009 and reading his book "Sacred Fragments".

In that book, Gillman paraphrases Mordecai Kaplan, saying there are three possible ways of identifying with Judaism: by belonging, behaving and believing.

Belonging to Judaism was initiated in a nomadic middle east family, persisting in a Kingdom, and then in a people living under the control of other Nations. Kaplan insisted in the primary role of belonging, identifying with fellow Jews and Jewish history. He further stated that when that connection disappears, Judaism will disappear.

Traditionalists believe belonging by itself is empty. What really matters is Behavior. How to behave is described in the Torah, a document received during that evolution, administered by the Priests and Judges during the existence of the Mishkan and Temple. The verbiage could be quite punitive, e.g., the second commandment (I am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents on the children of the 3rd and 4th generations of those who reject me) and the second paragraph of the Shema (Beware… if you turn astray, … the wrath of God will blaze against you). While under the control of the Persians, Torah beliefs were redacted by Ezra; while under the control of the Romans, Torah beliefs were discussed in academic institutions in Jerusalem in the Schools of Hillel and Shamai; after the destruction of the Second Temple, academic institutions were continued in Yavne and then Babylonia, leading to the recording of the Talmud by the Tanium and Amariom. Centuries later, Rashi wrote commentary that allowed educated Jews outside of Academia to understand the beliefs described in Tanach and Talmud. The Bal Shem Tov brought an equalitarian character; you could be a good Jew, even if you were not a scholar. Behavior was later altered by the enlightenment movement that brought Geiger in Reform, Frankel in Conservative and Hirsch in Modern orthodox Judaism. Buber, applying the existential approach, stressed the importance of obeying the Mitzvahs out of love, not fear.