I World

Fighting Back

Reform leader is offended by the stance of the religious right.

Michael Jacobs .
Jewish Renaissance Media

that anyone who disagrees with
you is not a person of faith?"
Rabbi Yoffie did not break new
Houston
ground in stating the fundamen-
he Reform movement took tal social positions of the URJ
steps during its biennial
that are in conflict with the reli-
convention here to estab-
gious right. But he reinforced
lish itself as one of the pre-emi-
Reform Judaism's refusal to let
nent voices of the religious left
those issues slide while the
for public discourse or debate
movement focuses on other ini-
with the religious right.
tiatives, such as outreach to the
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of
20 percent of Jews who have
the Union for Reform Judaism
never been affiliated and
for the past decade, used his 63-
renewed encouragement for non-
minute sermon to nearly 4,000
Jewish spouses of Jews to con-
Reform Jews on Shabbat morn-
vert.
ing, Nov. 19, to establish that the
The rallying cry for liberal •
Reform movement would not
Jews was an appropriate climax
allow religious conservatives to
for a convention with the theme:
stand as the unchallenged face- of "To do what's just and right:
politically active people of faith
God's challenge to Reform Jews?'
in the United States.
The five-day biennial gathering
"We are particularly offended
ended on Nov. 20.
by the suggestion that the oppo-
The 4,200 convention delegates
site of the religious right is the
and 900 volunteers enthusiasti-
voice of atheism:' Rabbi Yoffie
• tally received Clinton adminis-
said. "We are appalled when 'peo- tration Labor Secretary Robert
ple of faith' is used in such a way
Reich's blasting of President
that it excludes us, as well as
Bush's economic policies and
most Jews, Catholics and
Clinton administration Secretary
Muslims. What could be more
of State Madeleine Albright's
bigoted than to claim that you
indictment of the Bush foreign
have a monopoly on God and
policy.

T

Far-ranging Issues

Dabbi Yoffie's 63-minute speech, which
was interrupted by applause more

than 20 times, touched on a range of
other issues, most coming out of that
morning's Torah portion, Vayeira:
•He celebrated the union's response to
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
The URJ raised $3 million for Katrina
relief within two weeks of the Gulf Coast
landfall Aug. 29, collected and distributed
emergency supplies through the Henry S.
Jacobs Camp in Utica, Miss., and launched
a fund-raising campaign at the convention
to support the ongoing operations of the
four New Orleans-area Reform temples,
based on the concept that "we are all
Reform Jews of New Orleans."

46

"We are generally liberal in our politics.

But our liberalism flows directly from

our religious commitments."

— Rabbi Yoffie

The URJ members also heard
calls to social action in honoring
former New York City politician
Ruth Messinger for her work
leading the American Jewish
World Service and honoring the
Innocence Project for its use of
DNA evidence to exonerate con-
victs.
Protest folk music made more
than one appearance at plenary
sessions.
The delegates approved a pro-
gressive slate of resolutions, from
calling for an exit strategy from
Iraq to opposing the Supreme
Court nomination of Samuel
Alito and from condemning tor-
ture and the politicization of sci-
ence to promoting voting rights
for Washington, D.C., and work-
ers' rights across the country.
"We are generally liberal in our

Despite the powerful interfaith response
to the hurricanes, Rabbi Yoffie said the les-
son of New Orleans is not that faith-based
organizations should receive government
money to provide social services. Instead,
religious groups can only supplement
properly funded government programs.
•"We intend to argue for every Jewish
sour,' Rabbi Yoffie said. That means reach-
ing out to the 20 percent of American Jews
who never affiliate with a synagogue, •
reconnecting with the 1 million Jews who
have given up affiliation, and doing more
to welcome and hold on to new synagogue
members.
Rabbi Yoffie called on synagogue leaders
to invite unaffiliated Jews to share.
Shabbat, to ensure no members have to
eat Shabbat dinner alone, to establish

politics:' Rabbi Yoffie said
on Nov. 19. "But our liber-
alism flows directly from
our religious commit-
ments."

At Issue

Rabbi Yoffie repeatedly
was interrupted by
Rabbi Yoffie: There's no "monopoly on
God."
applause when he chal-
lenged the religious right
tions soon after taking power in
on these topics:
Germany in 1933, and added,
• Gay rights. Rabbi Yoffie said
he understands people can inter- "There is no excuse for hateful
rhetoric that fuels the hell fires of
pret biblical texts regarding
anti-gay
bigotry."
homosexuality in different ways,
•
Poverty.
Rabbi Yoffie said
-
but he does not understand the
being
religious
means
caring
denial of legal protections to gay
about the poor and the needy.
couples and their children or the
"When people talk about God and
ouster of gay men and lesbians
yet
ignore justice, it just feels
from the military. He cited Adolf
downright wrong to us. When
Hitler's banning of gay organiza-

quiet places for members to share a bagel
and coffee, to better train office staff in
customer service, and to concentrate on
the transition points when many Jews leave
their congregations. Rabbi Yoffie said
Reform nursery schools have 10,000 4-
year-olds, but the religious schools have
only 4,000 kindergartners. "Our post-nurs-
ery-school dropout rate is higher than our
post-bar-mitzvah dropout rate:'
•Reform Judaism must renew the con-
version outreach that Alex Schindler
launched in Houston 27 years ago, which
Rabbi Yoffie called "one of our movement's
greatest legacies to the Jewish world:'
Rabbi Yoffie said the effort should begin
with the non-Jewish spouses of Reform
Jews. Congregations should never coerce
those valuable members to convert but

should encourage them in that direction.
Most important, he said, is remembering to
ask them to consider conversion.
At the same time, Rabbi Yoffie said, the
movement must stand firm in opposition to
interfaith couples raising their children with
both religions. He called on religious
schools to adopt the policy the union
passed in 1995: Children enrolled in non-
Jewish religious schools should not be
accepted in Reform religious schools.
Rabbi Yoffie praised Israel's disengage-
ment from Gaza and said the best way to
strengthen the movement's crucial connec-
tion to the Jewish state is simple. "What is
required is getting Jews to go there;' he
said, "because once they do, they find a
rollicking, dynamic, fervently Jewish country
that invariably sells itself." ❑

December 1 , 2005

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