Rosh Hashanah 5758

You know the one
that goes "two Jews,
opinions?"

Women read Torah at the Western Wall.

$ ash in

The 'unity

36

1997

74

Myth:

Thanks to the way many Jews treated one another in
the past year, perhaps we should modernize that once-
humorous saying. The updated version should go like
this:
For every two groups of Jews, three accusations in the
Jewish media, four community programs lamenting the
sad state of Jewish disunity and five Jews promising to
never again support the other group. Even more pathetic, -
six under-affiliated Jews stop in a synagogue or read a
Jewish newspaper. To be a Jew, they learn, is to be more
interested in beating up co-religionists than growing
intellectually and spiritually.
By anybody's accounting, the story of the year for the
Jewish world in 5757 was the ongoing Jewish Disunity
Wars.
While much of the contentious debate took place in
Israel, its impact was vigorously felt throughout Americar
Jewry. To jar your memory, let's revisit some of the low
points of the past year:
• Some Haredim, or fervently Orthodox Jews, attacked
Conservative and Reform worshipers near Jerusalem's
Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, on both the eve of
Shavuot and the eve of Tisha B'Av. With painful irony, the
first holiday celebrates the giving of the Torah to all the
Jewish people at Mount Sinai and the second laments the
destruction of the Second Temple, which the Talmud says
was brought about by two Jews arguing with one another.
• Last month, a Reform kindergarten in a Jerusalem
suburb was torched. Reform activists suspected support-
ers of the Sephardic Orthodox religious party Shas.
Around the same time, the scrolls in the mezuzot from
several religious buildings in Israel were removed and
burned, allegedly by activists with Meretz, the secular,
left-wing, Israeli political party that has joined with the
Reform and Conservative movements in the religious
pluralism push.
• Reform and Conservative movements in Israel went
to the Israel Supreme Court to gain the right to have the
life cycle events of their rabbis — particularly conversions
and weddings — recognized by the state.
In response, Orthodox political parties drew up legisla--,
tion to ensure that their word would be final on such
matters. The result was months of accusations and
counter-accusations — and zero progress. Finally, both
sides agreed to government-sponsored negotiations seek-
ing a compromise. An Aug. 15 deadline came and went
as did a mid-September one. Another tentative one is set -
for Oct. 22. Don't hold your breath.
• In the United States, Conservative rabbis walked
from their annual convention to protest in front of the
Israel consulate in Boston. Meanwhile, Reform and
Conservative rabbis and their publications continually
hammered away at the Orthodox, who responded in

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