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Class of 1955
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otel Baronette:
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from page 35

mer camps.
On a personal note — a point he
emphasized — Ruskay said, "It is time
to seriously reconsider" the "extension
of public funding in Jewish day
schools." Noting that the separation of
church and state has not been under-
mined by the state's funding needy
children in parochial schools with
transportation, lunch or special educa-
tion, Ruskay wondered why such
funding could not include "food ser-
vices, physical education, guidance,
clerical support, maintenance of facili-
ties and even reading and math."
While calling for increased com-
munal spending for Jewish educa-
tion, Ruskay agreed with
Wertheimer's thesis. But he added
that "only public funding has the
capacity to enable the quantum leap
that is needed to both reduce finan-
cial barriers to participation in Jew-
ish day schools and to substantially
raise the quality of Jewish day
schools throughout the system."

REFORM from page 35

progressive when it dropped kashrut
and served shellfish at a banquet of
the Hebrew Union College in the
late 19th century. Yet, it was only
imitating the larger gentile world.
Today, Reform embraces mitzvahs
such as kashrut, and many Reform
rabbis refrain from eating shellfish.
• Reform Judaism thought it was pro-
gressive when many of its congrega-
tions changed Shabbat from Saturday
to Sunday. Yet, it was only imitating
the Christians among whom the
Reform Jews lived.
• Reform Judaism thought it was pro-
gressive when it dropped virtually all
Jewish religious rituals and Hebrew at
its services. Yet, it was only making its
services more like those of the Protes-
tants among whom Reform Jews lived.
Today, most Reform services have
more Hebrew than English. And now
Reform Judaism thinks it is progres-
sive in equating homosexual and het-
erosexual behavior. Yet, again, it is
only imitating the larger world — the
liberal, secular world among which
Reform Jews live.

Revisiting Our Roots

As the day went on, some of the
speakers at the conference insisted
there was no dissonance between
Judaism and American society while
others suggested Jews need to be dif-
ferent to survive. So for all the discus-
sion of dollars, it seems the bottom
line American Jews must grapple with
is cultural identity.
While the specific question may be
whether significant numbers of Jews
are prepared to opt for and fund day
schools for their children, the larger
point is whether they are willing to
choose Jewish priorities when they
conflict with American values on vari-
ous issues. These include abortion,
intermarriage and Jewish day schools
vs. public or private schools.
In the end, only when we as a com-
munity are fully committed to the pri-
mal responsibility of the mitzvah of
teaching our children Jewishly will we
find the faith and fortitude — with or
without government funding — to
provide the quality education they
deserve. ❑

The reader might be surprised to
learn that I attend a Reform syna-
gogue almost every Shabbat, and
deliver the weekly sermon at its
minyan. I love the services that free-
dom has enabled many Reform syna-
gogues to produce.
And I love those Reform Jews, rab-
binic and lay, who, though free to do
nothing, have embraced Judaism.
It is also critical to add that Jewish
life must embrace our fellow Jews who
are gay. They are as much our brothers
and sisters as any heterosexual Jew.
But this latest resolution, an
attempt to undo Judaism's awesome
contribution to the world — making a
man-woman monogamous love soci-
ety's ideal — should make it clear that
we need standards-based Jewish
denominations. This means that for
those Jews who are willing to change
talmudic law, but not Torah princi-
ples, there is no denomination. Maybe
this resolution will be the catalyst for
the creation of such a movement —
perhaps a Torah-based Reform
Judaism. Movements have started over
much lesser issues than the definition
of marriage.

❑

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

*TN

6/23
2000

36

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