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Detroit Jewish News

Reform Judaism magazine's Web sire
discussion forum.
If the platform is adopted as policy
by the movement, "my children and I
will join swelling ranks of the unaffili-
ated," she vowed.
In an article in the same issue of
the magazine, Rabbi Robert Seltzer, a
professor of Jewish history at Hunter
College, warned that Levy's platform
is "turning Reform Judaism into
Conservative Judaism Lire."
At the same rime, those wi-lo are
more inclined to be observant feel the
proposed platform gives them a voice
in a movement in which they current-
ly feel marginalized.
Mark Levy of Santa Monica, Calif,
has been wearing a kippah and tallit,
and keeping kosher both at home and
while eating out, for about 25 years.
As a result, he has been asked many
times by others in the movement why
he is Reform rather than Conservative
or Orthodox.
When he was president of his con-
gregation, Leo Baeck Temple, his wear-
ing a kippah and tallit while he sat on
the bimah during services prompted
such fury that it was taken up for dis-
cussion by the board of directors.
Levy, who is no relation to the
rabbi who drafted the platform, said
in an interview that adopting the plat-
form "would be valuable for the move-
ment, as long as it doesn't say, You
must' do anything."
For Barbara Shuman, a member of
Temple David in Monroeville, Pa., the
proposed platform has affirmed her
place within the movement.
I've been on a spiritual journey
informed by ongoing learning. Now
I'm one of the few in my community
to personally wear a tallit and to have
more Shabbar in our home," she said
in an interview.
In this movement, we seem to
have erected an idol of personal
autonomy," she continued. For me,
being a Reform Jew means under-
standing that I have a covenant with
God, and I think there are responsibil-
ities incumbent with that," she added.
Rabbi Richard Levy, who started the
whole process, is pleased by the debate.
"I hoped this effort would produce
serious discussion of what God and
Torah and mitzvot mean to us," he
said in an interview from his offices at
the Los Angeles Hillel Council, where
he works as executive director.
"Wherever we go from here, I
know there is a commitment to con-
tinuing the discussion and moving
beyond it to action."