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Originally Posted by levite
In no small measure, the tendency of Orthodoxy in Europe over the past 200 years, and in America over the past 60-odd years, to become increasingly strict, rigid, and closed-off, is the reaction to the rise, dramatic increase, and prospering of Reform Judaism.
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This same tendency also brought about the advent of modern Orthodxy whic did not exist 50 years ago.
Modern Orthodoxy follows all the same halachot (torah and rabinical laws) as orthodoxy but has a way of looking at things as though you are a Jew that is living as part of the world at large. The idea is not to insulate yourselves in your community and that insulation is inherently your protection against the influences of the outside world. The idea is that you make yourself strong by sticking to the halachot and at the same time living and interacting with the rest of the world. These people, while often live in a more Jewish area becuase of the need to be in walking distance of a shul (synagogue) and mikvah (ritual bath), do not exclude themselves from the community at large. They work at the same jobs that non-Jews work at (doctors, lawyers, business owners, employees). They go to movies. Listen to secular and religious music. Play sports. Read all books. Essentially, they are just like any regular person yet they also strictly keep to halachot.
My point was that that levite is right that a widening rift came about as the right moved farther over to the right and the left in reaction moved to the left but Modern Orthodoxy and Conservatism moved in to fill that gap.
The gap is still there in that the Jew way on the right can't (or doesn't or chooses not to) indentify with the Jew on the left but the middle is not an empty hole.
Modern Orthodox jews are the ones that you see wearing the smaller knit, leather or felt kippas (yarmulkas) all the time.