The World

or
Out of Life

Split In The Ranks

Israel's modern
Orthodox begin to
re-examine role of
movement.

•Three Kosher Meals Daily

•Educational Classes

*Medication Administration

AVI MACHLIS
Special to The Jewish News

•Registered Nurse &
Personal Cure Assistance

Jerusalem

*Health Clinic

*Around the Clock Seamity

*Respite and Guest Rooms
Available

*Daily, Shabbat, and Holiday
Services in our Synagogue

*Daytime and Evening
Activities

*Transportation, Laundry,
Housekeeping

IIIE

*Nosh Nook, Gift Shop,
Beauty/Barber Shop

Aging Services:

*The Club in the Plaza
an Adult Day Program
•teifine institute on Aging

•Jewish Chaplaincy Program

•Guardianship Program

4VA

Fleischman resident, William Israel, 96 year old
recipient of the YMCA Metropolitan Detroit
Heritage Club 1998 Golden Oldie Award.

Jewish Home & Aging Services

Fleischman Residence/
Blumberg Plaza

6710 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield
(248) 661-2999
contact: Tracey Proghovnick, M.S.W.

Director of Admissions

1 1 / 1 3

1998

46 Detroit Jewish News

odern Orthodox leaders
in Israel are trying to
launch a movement to
build bridges across the
widening religious-secular gulf.
Some 200 Israeli rabbis, academics
and activists gathered last month at
Kibbutz Lavi in the Galilee to rethink
the role of religious Zionism and
modern Orthodoxy in Israel.
It was 23 years since a similar con-
ference was held. Although the orga-
nizers of the recent meeting said it was
apolitical, they appeared to be moti-
vated by several trends affecting the
modern Orthodox:
• the shift by the National
Religious Party (NRP), the religious
Zionist party, from a moderating
political force to one of the most
steadfast opponents of land-for-peace
deals with the Palestinians;
• fervently Orthodox groups gain-
ing political power while successfully
luring many secular Jews and mod-
ern Orthodox towards Judaic funda-
mentalism;
• the increasing permissiveness of
Israeli secular culture, which makes it
much more difficult to reconcile
orthodoxy and modernity, and is also
persuading many young people to
remove their yarmulkes.
Organizers insisted the convention
was intended to promote unity on
social and religious issues among the
modern Orthodox, who make up
about 10 percent of Israel's Jewish
population. Pessimistic participants,
however, fear the gathering may actu-
ally further divide the community.
Participants at the conference were
more supporters of Meimad, the
small, center-left modern Orthodox
movement which supports trading
land for peace with the Palestinians,
than the NRP, the political backbone
of West Bank settlers.
In its early years, the NRP was a
moderate political force that often
formed alliances with Labor-led gov-

Avi Machlis is a writer for the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency.

ernments.

Its transformation into a
far-right group during the past 20
years, say experts, has also weakened
its influence as a moderating force on
social and religious issues.
There are few moderate Orthodox
members in the current Knesset, while
there are some 14 fervently Orthodox
Knesset members. Meanwhile, the
NRP's nine are almost exclusively
focused on holding back the peace
process.
Rabbi Yehuda Amital, head of the
Gush Etzion Yeshiva and a Meimad
founder, chose to discuss politics in his
address opening the conference. He
lashed out at the use of Halachah, or
Jewish law, to justify political goals, such
as opposition to the Oslo peace accords.
"It doesn't take a lot of imagination
to think what may happen in a young
person's mind when these beliefs are
shaken," he said, referring to the
transfer of West Bank land to -
Palestinian rule.
"In the eyes of the younger genera-
tion, the Halachah in its entirety has
become something that has no con-
nection with reality," said Amital, who
was a minister without portfolio in the
previous government of Prime
Minister Shimon Peres. "The transfor-
mation of Halachah into 'dangerous
slogans' that fail to emphasize tradi-
tional Judaic values, said Amital, has
created a severe crisis of faith among
religious youth.
The Lavi talks remained focused
on social-religious issues, and after
three days of discussions participants
agreed that:
• Orthodox-secular relations must
undergo a change, aimed at forging
unity instead of trying to attract secu-
lar Jews to orthodoxy.
• Orthodox rabbinic leaders must
complement their training with a
broader. education and deal with such
social issues as domestic violence and
socioeconomic disparities.
• Orthodox solutions must be
found to reconcile the changing role
of women.
"Women attaining a larger role in
Jewish life will make it virtually impos-
sible to promote unity within Israel's
modern orthodox community," said
Menachem Friedman, sociology profes-
sor at Bar-Ilan University and an expert
on Israeli Orthodoxy. "The minute
women study Torah, you cannot stop
the process," he said. As some commu-
nities grant a bigger role to women in
prayer and religious leadership, "this
will cause an explosion, and other ele-
ments will use this as a reason to divide

dal

_AM

