Opinion
Editor's Notebook
Judaism In Israel
Needs An Alternative
Separate, But Equal
At The Dinner Table
RABBI ERIC H. YOFFIE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
D
oes Israel have something
to teach American Jews?
Is it really a place where
we can learn about Ju-
daism and Jewish identity? The
answer is "yes." Israel has a great
deal to teach us.
Israel is the one country where
Jews constitute a majority and
exercise sovereignty, the sole
place where Judaism belongs to
the public domain, where He-
brew is the language of every day,
and where Shabbat and the fes-
tivals provide the rhythm of the
calendar.
Israel is the only place where
Jews do not have to worry about
reconciling their Judaism with an-
other culture. Only there, where
Jews are in the majority, are the
problems of assimilation and self-
hatred substantially resolved.
Only there is the Jew no longer re-
quired to explain to the gentile
who he or she is. Only there do we
have a setting where the values
of our rabbis and prophets can be
fully tested against the realities
of everyday life.
But as valuable as the expe-
rience of Israel can be for Amer-
ican Jews, the learning process
is not a one-way street. Yes, Is-
rael has much to teach us, but we
have some things to teach Israelis
as well. American Jews have cre-
ated many models of vibrant
Jewish living, and if we are
smart, we will learn from each
other.
Most important, Israelis will
learn from us about religious plu-
ralism, religious tolerance and
Reform Judaism because, gener-
ally speaking, they know noth-
Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie is vice
president of the Union of
American Hebrew
Congregations.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
ing of such things.
This is not really surprising.
Reform Judaism was born in cen-
tral Europe. The dominant ele-
ments of Israel's population come
from Arab countries and Eastern
Europe, places where there was
never even a hint of a progressive
Jewish alternative.
Furthermore, we too are to
blame. Until the fairly recent ef-
forts of the Association of Reform
Zionists of America and the
World Union for Progressive Ju-
daism, the Reform movement
never made a serious and sus-
tained effort to build a movement
Israelis know
nothing about
religious pluralism,
religious tolerance
and Reform Judaism.
in Israel. American Jews usual-
ly have listened to those com-
munity leaders who told us that
kcal Yisrael was more important
than particularistic religious con-
cerns. "Give your money to im-
migration and housing," they
said. 'That's the priority for now.
Reform institutions can wait."
That's what they said, and fool-
ishly, we listened.
Now we are all paying the
price. Because today the Jewish
state, ironically, is a place that is
both intensely Jewish and with-
out a spiritual anchor. It is a place
where religious fanatics run
amok, extorting huge sums from
the government and creating
models of Jewish behavior that
no reasonable person would ever
embrace. It is a place where
many Israeli Jews have never
been exposed to even a modicum
of religious vocabulary and ob-
servance that makes sense in the
modern world.
How bad is it? It is very bad
indeed. Because the Orthodox es-
tablishment enjoys a monopoly
on matters of personal status,
women in Israel cannot divorce
without the consent of their hus-
bands; as a result, approximate-
ly 8,000 women in Israel are
unable to divorce and remarry.
Reform rabbis in Israel cannot
perform marriages, and Reform
converts cannot be married by
anyone. More fundamentally, the
politicization of Judaism has
caused an entire generation of Is-
raelis to view organized religious
life with contempt. For most Is-
raelis, religion is synonymous
with parliamentary blackmail
and exemption from military ser-
vice, and not something of which
they want to be a part.
Let us understand the stakes.
In 20 years, Israel will be the
largest Jewish community in the
world. Can we imagine what it
will mean for Israel if by that date
there is no genuine religious plu-
ralism in the Jewish state?
At the same time, can we
imagine what it will mean for Re-
form Judaism if we have failed to
establish ourselves by then in
what will be both the homeland
of the Jews and the world's
largest Jewish community? If Re-
form Judaism has failed to be-
come a force in Israel by the year
2020, we may find ourselves on
the margins of Jewish history.
And so our task is clear: We
must build an indigenous Reform
movement in Israel, and we must
do it now. And to those who will
tell us that "religious issues can
wait," we must respond: "They
cannot wait a single day." 0
Embracing Poverty's Enemy
LEONARD FEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
t is a cold and drizzly day here
in Boston. I am listening to
Yiddish folk music recorded
by Sidor Belarsky, with whose
songs I was raised, and I am re-
minded how preoccupied the Yid-
dish-speaking — and
Yiddish-singing — world was
with poverty, how pervasive a
theme of our people it was just
a little while ago.
One after another, Mr. Be-
larsky sings soulful songs of
lamentation and consolation to
the poor. From such nostalgic
musing one can go in any num-
ber of contemporary directions.
One might provide disturbing
data on the persistent poverty of
so many of our neighbors. or
praise our community for its
doggedness in standing for poli-
cies and programs intended to re-
lieve the bite of poverty, if not to
reverse it.
Or one might, as I do, intro-
duce a new lament: How, in the
name of all the things we are
meant to remember, can the Jew-
ish Theological Seminary of
America, the proud heart of Con-
servative Judaism, home once of
Abraham Joshua Heschel, plan
to have as the speaker at its an-
nual Louis Marshall dinner the
Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives, Newt Gingrich of
Georgia?
it is an often-remarked shame
that the Conservative movement
treats social justice as an after-
thought. (Needless to add, with
numbers of estimable exceptions,
both lay and rabbinic.) It is a
shame for the community be-
cause the work of justice is not an
optional item on the Jewish agen-
da; it is an essential aspect of our
raison d'etre. It is a shame for the
Conservative movement because
the work of social justice could so
readily be a device for rousing
that movement from its current
torpor.
But there is a difference be-
tween a shame and a disgrace.
And for JTS to offer Mr. Gingrich,
enemy of the poor, an honored
place at its table is more than a
POVERTY page 12
very now who keep kosher. It's somehow
and then, not user-friendly. Not accom-
when I'm modating in this politically cor-
not watch- rect world. It means we can't
ing some TV bi- really break bread together, all
ography about sharing in brotherhood as we
the Judds or sing "Kumbaya" and talk about
telling liberals I fighting social injustice in Cen-
love Rush Lim- tral America.
baugh just to
Yes, food is that important.
make them mad, I take a look
First of all, I have kept
at magazines.
kosher for the vast majority of
A lot of magazines focus on my life and I have never felt de-
things I can't imagine people prived. I eat well, have a vari-
actually caring about: what ety of foods to choose from, and
kind of car Bono of the rock look forward to mealtime (es-
group U2 drives, or new ways pecially when I know I can have
to attractively set my table with cookies for dessert). I can have
scarves, rendering it both aes- virtually every candy anyone
thetically pleasing and practi- else does, I can drink a Coke, I
cal (Girls! Remember there are can eat plenty of potato chips.
many wash-and-wear scarves What else could you want?
out there, making this so much
OK, so I can't have lobster. I
more convenient than table- can't sing like Frank Sinatra ei-
cloths that invariably call for ther, and yet I still lead a very
ironing!), and new ways to ap- fulfilled life.
ply eye shadow so as to make
Equally important, I have
my eyes appear wider.
never felt that keeping kosher
I confess to having a love af- somehow means I am separat-
fair with lipstick, not just be- ed from anyone in an offensive
cause it perks my face up after way. It does mean I am sepa-
three hours of sleep (small chil- rated and different, but so are
dren) but because I love the vegetarians, and no one com-
names. Ming Red, Fire and Ice, plains about them. On the con-
1940s Red — what thinking trary. Can you imagine this
person wouldn't want this stuff? so-called Jewish leader saying
But exactly why I should care no one should be vegetarian be-
how wide my eyes look I've yet cause this demands a separa-
to understand. Obviously, the tion?
whole issue is more complex
The truth is that when I tell
than I can begin to imagine.
most gentiles I keep kosher and
explain what that entails, they
are remarkably accommodat-
ing. If we're about to dine to-
Who is
gether at their home, they buy
paper plates and kosher baked
accommodating, goods,
or maybe I'll bring my
own
food.
No one has ever been
who is
offended, and more often than
not they are interested in learn-
separating?
ing more about kashrut. They
respect my decision to honor a
religious law, rather than find-
Several weeks ago, I picked ing it divisive.
up an issue of a Jewish maga-
Now I happen to like diver-
zine that made me really angry. sity. If vegetarians come to my
A certain Jewish leader want- house, we serve dairy — and
ed to discourage everyone from that includes on Shabbat, when
keeping kosher because, she it's traditional to eat meat. If
said, "it separates people."
somebody stops in for lunch and
I assume she was speaking doesn't want any vegetables or
about Jews and gentiles, and salad or anything remotely
I suppose her point is the fact healthy, I'm not offended. Bring
that I keep kosher means I can't on the cookies, I say.
eat in a gentile's home or, even
What I don't appreciate is
worse, we couldn't eat out to- people (like the author of that
gether at our local Grub Is Us, magazine article) who make a
where this week's special is pretense of being deeply con-
crab cakes and bacon burgers. cerned about human relations,
She failed to mention the fact and so denigrate my decision to
that we Jews don't see Jesus as keep kosher.
the messiah also separates us
Let's be honest. What this
from Christians. But I guess it's woman said she was talking
that eye-shadow thing again. was tolerance. But her real
I've just missed the point.
agenda had nothing to do with
I worry that this woman is "separation" — and every-
typical of how any number of thing to do with religious intol-
people today regard those of us erance. ❑