POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Struggle For Religious
Equality Intensifying
In rejecting the Ne'eman Commis-
sion's recommendations, the Chief
Rabbinate could not restrain itself
from lobbing vicious verbal volleys
against the Reform and Conservative
movements. In truth, the movements
would have been put in a much more
difficult position had the rabbis simply
e Ne'eman Commission
ignored the passage which dealt with a
as concluded its work. It
joint conversion institute.
ended not with a declaration
But they could not resist blasting
of victory nor with a big
the notion that "Torah-true" Jews
bang. It just petered out.
could cooperate with those who
Despite Minister Nee-
"undermine the Jewish
man's rather grandiose state-
faith."
ments, none of the seven
There are two basic reasons
participants on the commis-
why the Chief Rabbinate
sion agreed to sign off on its
will never voluntarily cede
recommendations. The
power. The first is that the
commission failed because
ideological opposition of
its basic logic — that the
ultra-Orthodox leaders to
Chief Rabbinate and the
Reform and Conservatie
non-Orthodox streams
Judaism is all-consuming
could work together to
and uncompromising. It
implement one universally
RABBI AMMIEL cannot be overstated.
recognized conversion
"Destroyers of religion,"
HIR
RS CH
process — was flawed.
"goyim of the highest order,"
Speci at to
What have we learned? I
The Jew ish News "idol-worshippers" and "spir-
offer five preliminary lessons:
itual nazis" are but a few of
1. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate will
the arrows slung our way. Those who
never voluntarily cede power. There
believe with such perfect faith in the
were many, including Yaacov Ne'eman, fallibility of competing interpretations
who persuaded themselves that the
of Judaism do not decide to work
Chief Rabbinate would make some
together on joint standards. They may
concessions, even if only cosmetic, for
support other political arrangements
the sake of an agreement.
but not religious cooperation.
The second reason that the Chief
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch is executive
Rabbinate will not cede its power vol-
director, Association of R eform Zionists
untarily is that it is worth considerable
of America, New York City.
money, patronage, jobs and influence.
Fighting against belief
in a `perfect faith" and
power, influence and
money.
ir
There is not one monopoly in the
world, political or financial, which has
voluntarily ceded power.
2. Important Orthodox voices have
emerged to challenge the Chief Rab-
binate. The Chief Rabbinate has
demonstrated that it is so extreme that
significant Orthodox communities are
beginning to challenge its authority. To
the extent that a new generation of
Zionist Orthodox leaders are sincerely
interested in beginning a dialogue with
non-Orthodox leaders, this could
prove to be a significant development.
3. Orthodoxy in the United States
A monopoly does
not cede power.
is losing its moderate wing. I assert this
with tremendous sadness, for a healthy,
vibrant and intellectually courageous
modern Orthodoxy is vital to the
future of world Jewry.
The most disappointing element of
the entire conversion crisis was the
loud silence of the so-called "modern
Orthodox" community during so
much of the crisis. When its officials
did ultimately speak, groups like the
Orthodox Union supported the hard-
line views of the Chief Rabbinate.
4. American Jews have considerable
influence over events in Israel. When
the conversion crisis first began some
18 months ago, Israeli leaders from the
prime minister on down told us that
resisting the conversion law was futile.
After all, Orthodox parties controlled
almost a fifth of the Knesset; there was
a coalition agreement that committed
all of the governing parties to pass the
law; the law was an internal matter for
Israeli society and had nothing to do
with American Jews; all the law pro-
posed doing was codifying the status
quo.
American Jews bought none of that.
If Israel claims to be the spiritual and
physical homeland of the Jewish peo-
ple, then it must embrace the religious
sensibilities of world Jewry.
5. The struggle for full religious
equality will continue and intensify.
The conversion crisis is not over. As a
result of the failure of the Ne'eman
Commission, we have returned to
court. In a sense, we're back to the
early days of the crisis — with one
fundamental difference — the conver-
sion law has been defeated (for now).
The Reform movement will be
moving forward aggressively on all
fronts. Let there be full and fair disclo-
sure. We shall soon begin a major
effort to entitle Reform and Conserva-
tive rabbis to officiate at marriages in –\
Israel.
It is preposterous that the only place
in the world where Jews are deprived
of the option of non-Orthodox wed-
ding ceremonies is the Jewish state.
Even Orthodox polling indicates that
32 percent of Israelis — well over a
million Jews — want this option
immediately. O
LITTERS
Nursing Home
Problems
We are truly indebted to The Jewish
News for its monitoring of problems at
the nursing homes which serve Jewish
residents.
The former Borman Hall.
4/17
1998
30
In all profit-oriented nursing homes,
every dollar saved in patient care and
food service costs is an additional dollar
in bottom-line profit.
It is unfortunate that the leaders of
our Jewish community saw fit to end
the dedicated traditional non-profit
nursing care of our Jewish elderly. They
claimed that it was too costly.
Hopefully some day, members of
our Detroit-area Jewish commu-
nity will come forward and
acknowledge their duty to build
and operate a non-profit nursing
home.
That the Detroit Jewish commu-
nity does not now have a non-
profit traditional Jewish nursing
home is truly a shandeh.
David Temple
Erie, Mich.
A Caution
For Eaters
.
A word of caution before you start
the toothpick approach of inconspic-
uous food-consumption at parties as
recommended in "Have Toothpick,
Will Travel" April 10.
Although people with a metabo-
lism like Mr. Manello's can eat more
than their allotted share at parties (as
he did when he developed the tech-
nique at my bar mitzvah in 1957),
most of us are soon discovered one
way or another. If a stain on our
clothes from the squirt of something,
we speared doesn't reveal our
overindulgence, waistlines soon give
truth to our serendipitous toothpick
adventures.
Therefore, use this technique with
appropriate caution.
Dr. Mark Roth
Farmington Hills
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