Factional Spat

Insult from Russian chief rabbi puts Chabad-Reform dispute in public eye.

LEV KRICHEVSKY

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Moscow
n article blasting Reform
Judaism in Chabad Lubavitch's
main Russian-language maga-
zine has outraged Reform leaders in
Russia and the United States.
Reform Judaism "embodies an
approach toward things that is oppo-
site to the approach of the Torah,"
Rabbi Berel Lazar, the leading
Chabad official in the former Soviet
Union and one of Russia's two chief
rabbis, wrote in the February issue
of Lechaim.
Tension between Chabad and the
Reform movement has been simmer-
ing in the former Soviet Union (FSU),
but Rabbi Lazar's broadside has inten-
sified the conflict. Leaders of the
Union for Reform Judaism in the
United States and of the World Union
for Progressive Judaism called Rabbi
Lazar's attack on Reform Jews
deplorable.
"Rabbi Lazar cannot request
American Jewish support for his
work and profess to speak in the
name of all Russian Jews while
simultaneously proclaiming that
Reform Judaism is not Judaism and
Reform rabbis are not rabbis," said
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the
Union for Reform Judaism.
Lechaim is a monthly magazine pub-
lished by the Federation of Jewish
Communities, a Chabad-led umbrella
group and the largest Jewish organiza-
tion in the FSU. The_ magazine, which
is free and distributed across the FSU,
is one of the largest Jewish-interest
monthlies in the area.
The article, "Do Not Bargain with
God, Gentlemen," attracted the atten-
tion of Reform leaders in Russia this
month. Reform leaders in the United
States, Israel and around the world
joined in the denunciation.
"'Reform Judaism' cannot be seri-
ously called a religion!" Rabbi Lazar
wrote. " 'Reformed Judaism' is just a
code of rules created by the people for
their own worldly comfort. There is
no God there."
Reform Judaism is "an interest
club," the article continued, and "I
feel strange when a director of the

A

club is all of a sudden called 'a rabbi.'"
Though they were not surprised to
find criticism of their movement in a
Chasidic publication, Reform leaders
were worried about Rabbi Lazar's arti-
cle, given its author's prominence.
Rabbi Lazar argues that over the past
100 years Reform Judaism developed
primarily in the United States and
therefore reflects American values,
which grow out of a secular society.
Those values make it hard for Jews to
fully observe the Torah's command-
ments, he writes.
He hopes the Reform movement's
expansion in Russia fails, Rabbi Lazar
wrote. "Luckily, despite all the efforts,
there has been no success in rooting
the U.S. invention in the Russian-
Jewish soil, and with God's help, will
never be," he wrote.
Russian Jews, who endured consid-
erable suffering to remain Jews during
the Communist era, are more likely to
embrace traditional Judaism than any
other variant, Rabbi Lazar argued.
Assimilated and non-affiliated Jews
often tell him that if they had to
decide to go to a synagogue, they
would chose the one "that resembles
most of all the synagogue of my
grandfather" — which would not be a
Reform synagogue, Rabbi Lazar
pointed out.
Russian Reform leaders say Rabbi
Lazar is wrong about their movement
not being successful in Russia. Rabbi
Grigory Kotlyar, head of the Union of
Religious Congregations of Modern
Judaism in Russia, the central body of
the Reform movement, said the move-
ment has 35 active congregations in
Russia, 40 in Ukraine and 20 in
Belarus. The movement now has six
rabbis born in the former Soviet
Union working in congregations in
Moscow; St. Petersburg; Kiev,
Ukraine; and Minsk, Belarus.
Rabbi Kotlyar said Rabbi Lazar
might have been motivated in part
because Chabad Lubavitch fears the
Reform movement will gain new
momentum in Russia in response to
the World Union for Progressive
Judaism's global forum, slated for this
summer in Moscow. It is believed to
be the first time Reform Jewish leaders
from around the world will meet in
the former Soviet Union.

In a letter to Rabbi Lazar signed by
five Reform rabbis, Russian Reform
leaders noted that their movement was
not born in the United States. In fact,
they wrote, the movement's Russian
roots are almost as deep as those of the
Lubavitch movement: The first
Reform congregations opened in
czarist Russia in the middle of the
19th century.
The letter added that Lazar's article
undermined the principles of democ-
racy and pluralism in the Jewish com-
munity that Rabbi Lazar has praised
when meeting with American Jewish
leaders. The Reform leaders said it was
regrettable for one Jewish group to
publicly attack another, given growing
anti-Semitism in Russian.
Rabbi Lazar has not responded to
the Reform letter or to the Jewish tele-
graphic Agency's request for comment.
Reform officials demanded to know
how the leader of a group that claims
to represent Russian Jews both domes-
tically and internationally could have
written what Rabbi Lazar wrote.
Lazar's federation has been increasing
its fund-raising efforts in the United
States, claiming that the money it rais-

es will benefit Jews across the former
Soviet Union, Rabbi Yoffie noted. But
Rabbi Lazar's Lechaim article proved
that he doesn't represent all of Russia's
Jews, Rabbi Yoffie said.
"He is speaking the language of a
Chabad functionary and not of a
Russian Jewish leader," Rabbi Yoffie
said.
Rabbi Uri Regev, executive director
for the World Union for Progressive
Judaism, said, "It's regrettable that
Chabad — which professes to connect
all Jews as they are — so easily returns
to its old, hateful bashing of Reform
Judaism."
Rabbi Regev said U.S. partners of
Rabbi Lazar's federation should recon-
sider their ties to his group if he refus-
es to re-evaluate his comments.
"A movement guided by such views
cannot be a partner to pluralistic,
inclusive Jewish organizations"
such as the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish
Organizations and the American
Jewish Congress, "who have been
approached by Chabad in recent
times," Rabbi Regev said. Li

Purim In Hebron

An Israeli child attends Purim celebrations March 27 in the West Bank town of
Hebron. Hundreds ofiews paraded amid tight security. They live surrounded by
120,000 Palestinians. The celebrants brought two new Torahs to the tomb of the
patriarchs.

3/31
2005

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