the history of the Jewish religion.
To be sure, there were always dif-
ferences of opinion and approach
among the rabbis — but such plural-
ism was part of the quest to ascertain,
not redefine, the corpus of Jewish
religious belief and law.
Over the past century and a half,
however,
a new sort of Jewish "plural-
he rabbis must be crazy.
ism"
has
emerged,
begetting move-
The Orthodox Chief Rab-
ments
that
limit
the
Torah, in one
bis of Israel, that is.
Reform
Rabbi's
oft-quoted
characteri-
Offered a government
zation,
to
"a
vote,
not
a
veto."
Clear
commission's sweet deal that would
Jewish
religious
standards
and
man-
have affirmed their control of all con-
dates have been severely bent or
versions to Judaism performed in the
abandoned entirely by
country — and asked only
new groups that have cap-
that they endorse a joint
tured the affiliation of
Orthodox-Conservative-
many American Jews.
[ Reform conversion training
As
a result, the religious
program — the Chief Rab-
heritage
of all Jews was
bis refused.
given
the
label "Ortho-
This, despite pleas — and
doxy,"
reduced
to one
threats — from government
item
on
a
menu
of multi-
officials and Knesset mem-
ple
"Judaisms."
o; hers seeking some way of
If the American Jewish
resolving Israel's religious
Pluralism experiment was
crisis. Despite the pledge of
RABBI AVI
intended
as a means of
non-Orthodox activists to
S HAF RAN
ensuring
a
bright Jewish
'renew their efforts in the
Special to
future,
it
has
failed. Rates
Israeli courts to chip away at
The Jewish Neivs of intermarriage and
the Jewish state's 50-year-old

The Chief Rabbinate
made its ruling out of
idealism, not from
contempt.

\

assimilation are astonishingly high in
the Reform and Conservative Jewish
communities; loss of Jewish identity,
endemic. And new kids on the Jewish
block — from secular humanists
(who espouse what they deem a
"non-theistic" form of the faith) to
Hebrew-Christians — are knocking
at the pluralism-portals.
And so Israel's Chief Rabbis had to

Acting on
principle, not
politics.

choose. They could accept the plan,
providing American-style "Jewish
Pluralism" the imprimatur its propo-
nents crave, and thereby receive the
praise and support of the Israeli gov-
ernment commission, the govern-
ment itself and many presently angry
American Jewish leaders and their
congregants.
Or they could affirm the essential

principles of the Judaism of the ages.
They may be crazy, but they're cer-
tainly not stupid.
Knowing, as they do, what has
empowered Judaism and the Jewish
people since time immemorial, and
knowing what the abandonment of
the engine of that empowerment has
wrought in America, the rabbis did
the honorable, if impolitic, thing.
They ignored pleas and threats,
shunning kudos and political gain,
and unabashedly affirmed the body
of belief and law that is the religious
heritage of every Jew. Their refusal to
in any way be part of the legitimiza-
tion of the neo-Judaisms in the Jew-
ish state was clear, strong and princi-
pled.
American non-Orthodox Jews may
be stunned, even outraged, by that
choice. But all who are truly objective
and who are more concerned about
the collective Jewish future than the
status of their own rabbis' credentials
will come to recognize that Israel's
Chief Rabbis acted not out of expedi-
ency but idealism, that they harbor
not contempt but the deepest care for
all their fellow Jews, and for the col-
lective Jewish future. ❑

policy of recognizing only
conversions, marriages and divorces
performed in accordance with
Halachah, or Jewish religious law.
Despite the fact that the Israeli
high court, where those legal chal-
\lenges to the religious status quo will
be heard, is widely regarded as wholly
unsympathetic to Orthodox con-
cerns. And despite the political poll-
sters' forecast that Orthodox-led
counter-efforts to enact legislation
codifying the rabbinate's control over
conversions is doomed to failure.
Why didn't the Chief Rabbis just
accept the plan proffered by the gov-
rnment commission and solidify its
control of religious "personal status"
issues?
The answer, actually, is quite sim-
ple: The Chief Rabbis acted on prin-
ciple, not politics.
For over 3,000 years, Judaism had
a clear definition: the laws of the
Torah, as explicated by ancient tradi-
tion. Jewish sects that in fact
-mbraced alternative views of
H
Judaism itself — like the Saducees
and Karaites — quickly faded from
the scene, and serve only as historical
footnotes to the grand panorama of

\---

Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public

affairs, Agudath Israel of America, New
York City.

4/17

1998

31

