I think people go a bit overboard in applying everything about RSRH in one package and insisting that it’s that way or the highway. If Hirsch liked watermelon, TIDE is not exclusive to people who like watermelon.
I think we are underselling the idea that the principles of TIDE (what @YGB refers to as “core principles”) are compatible with any hashkafah that does not undermine those principles. TIDE can be practiced by people who believe the Zohar was a forgery by Moshe de Leon, and by people who study Chasiddus. TIDE can be practiced by people who view the significance of Eretz Yirsael to be some sort of symbolic “take home” concept, and by people who believe that having the land controlled by Klal Yisrael is a mandate to imbue it with Torah values, gather the diaspora, and use it as a vehicle to bring unaffiliated Jews around the world closer to Torah and work towards rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash and bringing the geulah.
As it pertains to Austritt, I have 2 thoughts:
- In line with my comments above, I do not think that TIDE is married to Hirsch, and even if he would somehow apply Austritt today, you can still be an adherent of TIDE if you would not.
- I cannot see how Hirsch would apply Austritt today. Who is out to get us? Which movement is actively pulling our youth (or adults) away from Torah and Mitzvos? If your answer is “TYH” or “Avigdor Miller”, you cannot be taken seriously. Hirsch never applied Austritt in a way that violated ‘Lo sasu lachem Agudos agudos’. He applied it against active threats from people who were openly out to put an end to Halachic observance.
I saw a draft of the “core principles” a short while ago, and it included a comment that seemed to indicate that anti-zionism is a core value of TIDE. If I interpreted it correctly, I strongly disagree. Even if it can be proven that Hirsch would be opposed to Zionism today (R. Weinberg would likely not agree), and even with the understanding that Zionism was founded as an anti-Torah movement (an oversimplification), the very fact that there is a strong Religious Zionism today undermines the assertion that anti-Zionism is a TIDE core. Hirsch would apply TIDE to Jews of all Hashkafos. He was very respectful not to tread on other Hashkafic turfs like Eastern Europe (if only this courtesy would be returned), but that does not mean that he would apply TIDE only in communities with German sensibilities. On the contrary, he viewed it as an ideal.
I read a couple of essays that attempted to tie Austritt to TIDE and did not find them convincing enough to negate the arguments I have just made. I know I did not put forth my arguments eloquently. It is late, and I am engaging with this as an informal forum.
The TL;DR: I respectfully disagree with including any value as a core principle of TIDE, unless it is TIDE itself. Define TIDE, and there you have its core principles.