Chicken Soup Or Cheeseburger
Reform Jews pursue new balance in ritual observance.
DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Orlando, Fa.
Illgir hen Rabbi Eric Yoffie
and other Reform move-
ment leaders walked
through the doors of
Walt Disney World's Dolphin Hotel
about a week before Christmas last
year, they were greeted by a garishly
lit, outsized Christmas
tree and the sound of
caroling. Each meeting
room they hoped to
book for their conven-
tion a year later was fes-
tooned with Christmas
trees and wreaths.
But when some
4,500 Reform Jews
gathered in that same
hotel last week for their
biennial convention,
they found the caroling
silenced and the
Christmas lights turned
off. The darkened 45-
foot Christmas tree still
stood in the lobby,
however, surrounded by
enormous foil-wrapped,
fake presents.
That compromise, a
result of Rabbi Yoffie's
Rabbi Eric
negotiations with
Disney management, could be seen as
a symbol of the movement's effort to
strike a comfortable balance between
American values and Jewish tradition.
Reform Jews, led by Rabbi Yoffie
— four years into his presidency of
the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations — also are grappling
with the pull between traditional
Judaism, whose foundation is a system
of commandments and obligations,
and the individual autonomy that is a
Reform movement hallmark.
Deeply rooted in general American
culture, while at the same time yearn-
ing for a more Jewishly authentic spir-
itual experience, Reform Jews today
are on a quest, searching to develop
their own brand of Judaism for the
next century.
Rabbi Yoffie led the charge for a
new Reform movement at the last
12/24
1999
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convention two years ago, when he
initiated a movement-wide Jewish lit-
eracy program. He continued it in
Orlando, with a similar call for "a rev-
olution" in the way Reform Jews wor-
ship.
The atmosphere at last week's con-
vention was different than it has been
at past gatherings.
There were no heated controversies
and no obvious political battles.
ity, panel members and attendees
voiced a deep desire for more Jewish
feeling in their lives but some also
expressed hesitation about how much
of a commitment they were willing to
make to Jewish practice.
In the session titled "Can We Pray
What We Don't Believe?," panel par-
ticipant Jean Abarbanel, from Temple
Isaiah in Los Angeles, said that after a
long spiritual search, she began to say
was available every morning, each
devoted to a different interest, such as
men's concerns, women's concerns, the
choreography of the prayer service and
meditation.
It was apparent in the spontaneous
late-night singing that broke out in
parts of the hotel lobby well after mid-
night, with Reform congregants sitting
around a cantor strumming on a gui-
tar, long after scheduled music perfor-
Pressing Gun Control
Orlando, Fla.
R
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eform movement congregations are
throwing their full weight behind
gun control.
A resolution, titled "Ending gun vio-
lence," passed overwhelmingly and with-
outdebate Sunday, at the end of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations five-day convention here.
The resolution calls on every Reform
Jew to contact his or her representative
and senator "demanding that effective
gun control be enacted during the next
congressional session."
The resolution passed by the 4,500
Reform Jews attending the convention
also calls upon its constituents to invite
elected officials to appear in the move-
Instead, the Reform congregants, rab-
bis and cantors attending the gather-
ing spent their time in quieter, more
reflective sessions considering their
religious future.
It was clear that for Reform Jews, it
is a time of inquiry and apprehension.
The most popular workshops, filled
to overflowing with hundreds of par-
ticipants, were those that focused on
issues such as "God and Theology,"
"Reform Worship in the 21st
Century" "Can We Pray What We
Don't Believe?" and "Torah and
Observance in the 'Principles of
Reform Judaism," referring to the
statement of beliefs adopted by the
movement's rabbis in May.
Workshops devoted to issues of
social action and Israel, by contrast,
had relatively few participants.
At the sessions devoted to spiritual-
ment's synagogues to explain their posi-
don on gun control and become involved
in broader anti-violence coalitions in
their local communities,
Other politically related resolutions
passed by delegates at the conference
included one condemning the criminal jus-
tice system for disparities in the way it treats
white and black defendants. The resolution
reiterated the movement's position, in place
since 1959, opposing the death penalty; and
called for increased recruitment of minority
police officers, support of legislation pro-
hibiting discriminatory - racial profiling, and
support of legislation to repeal state and
federal laws requiring mandatory imprison
meet for first-time drug offenders.
the Shema, Judaism's central prayer,
upon retiring at night, and upon wak-
ing in the morning.
She first experienced praying daily
at a Reform retreat, she said, adding,
"The repetition gives me a sense of
wholeness at the times of day when I
feel most vulnerable."
Evidence of the new direction was
visible everywhere.
It was apparent in the fact that as
his four-year term as the UAHC's
chairman came to an end, Jerome
Somers for the first time publicly
donned a kippah and tallit and chant-
ed from the Torah at Sabbath morning
services.
It was apparent in the filled-to-
overflowing daily morning prayer ser-
vices that they were held at 7:30 a.m.,
after people had been up late the pre-
vious nights. A wide choice of services
— Debra Nussbaum Cohen/JTA
mances had ended.
And it was apparent in the speech
Rabbi Yoffie gave on Shabbat morning.
He devoted most of it to calling for
a new Reform revolution" in worship,
and also called on new practices in
Reform families, asking that every
Reform Jewish child read a Jewish story
or play a Jewish tape or video or com-
puter game before being put to bed.
Condemning the fact that in many
temples prayer has become "a specta-
tor sport," Rabbi Yoffie instructed his
constituents to no longer leave respon-
sibility for worship in the hands of
their clergy. He proposed five concrete
steps, asking that:
• Synagogue ritual committees reor-
ganize themselves and begin studying,
with rabbi or cantor, the history and
theology of Jewish prayer and that
they undertake an in-depth self-evalu-
"