Social action is important. But it's not inherently Jewish, so, almost by definition, Judaism can't survive by raising money for the hungry, saving the environment, or promoting "spay your pet" week.
I'm not sure I agree. Certainly the protest movement doesn't seem to have a lot in common with Judaism. But there are examples of zealotry throughout our texts (whether these things happened or not doesn't matter, they're still part of our tradition). Avraham is a great example. Aside from the midrashic examples of him taking a stand against his father's idolatry, he interceded with God on behalf of S'dom and went to war against the four kings, rescuing not just Lot, his nephew, but other people as well. Other examples (of varying palatability to modern sensibilities) are Shimon and Levi, Moshe, Pinchas, Eliyahu, and several incidents in the Purim story. So that's activism.
What about social justice, which is in essence the other half of the equation of "social activism"? Well, off-hand, let's see. There's tzedakah (charity), tikum olam (repairng the world), ba'al tashchit (don't waste), return of land in yovel (jubilee year, every 50 years), free produce in shmita (sabbatical year, every 7), pe'ah (leaving a corner of your field for the poor), kindness to widows and orphans, kindness to converts, kindness to animals, fair wages and treatment of employees. I'm sure I've missed some concepts, but to me, Judaism has always covered the basics of humanitarianism and environmentalism. Of course, there are conflicting messages -- it's really not clear if God is loving or vengeful -- but at the end of the day it's up to us how to interpret our patchwork tradition. I think it's a real shame that minute laws (like whether you can separate a bone from your fish on Shabbat) are viewed as more important than these major world issues.
I guess I feel that if that's how things remain, Judaism doesn't really deserve to survive. It only deserves to survive if it has something to offer the world. We're not an ohr l'goyim (light unto the nations) if we measure our success on how long our skirts are or how big our kippot are. We only deserve that title if we earn it by making a positive difference. Jews have contributed to many fields: arts, science, politics, economics. This will wane if the move to the right continues: we'll become a curiosity like the Amish and nothing more.
(Well, there's my dvar Torah for the year. Hope you enjoyed it!)
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