Opinion

Moving Beyond Denominational Borders?

R

abbi Naftali Rothenberg, an
Orthodox rabbi, recently wrote
an Op-Ed in The Jewish Week in
New York City entitled "Time To End The
Reform-Orthodox Wars." He was respond-
ing to Israeli chief rabbi Shlomo Amar's
attack on Reform Jews and his pressure on
the Israeli government to prevent involve-
ment of non-Orthodox movements in state
and religion affairs.
I was pleased to read Rothenberg's
perspective that it is time for Orthodox
Jews to "build bridges of cooperation [to
Reform and Conservative Jews] for the
sake of the entire people of Israel and its
future" without compromising principles
or "fidelity to a life of Torah and mitzvoth."
My own sense is that despite some
animosity toward other denominations
of Judaism, which is often bred on igno-
rance, there is actually much tolerance
and understanding among fellow Jews. We
are moving toward a Jewish community
in which the borders that separate the
denominations are becoming blurred.
Rothenberg recognizes the need to
bridge the vast abyss between his brand
of Orthodoxy and the more progres-
sive streams of modern Judaism, but he
remains concerned that the depths of
antipathy will make this too difficult. I
disagree.
We live in a time when a Jewish per-
son's Facebook profile identifies her reli-
gion as "Recon-newel-ortho-conserva-
form?' This combination of religious

denominations does not
spiritually, intellectually and
demonstrate confusion or
communally. They were in search
haziness, but rather the real-
of meaning, not a denomina-
ization that there is "mean-
tional brand.
ing" to be made from the
Last year, I traveled to New
various pathways to Torah.
York City several times to be
I knew when I decided
part of a fellowship with rab-
to become a rabbi that the
binic colleagues spanning the
Conservative movement's
denominations. We gathered
Jewish Theological Seminary
every few months to study
Rabbi Jason
in New York would be the right
Torah together, to pray together
A. Miller
place for my training. I had
and to dialogue about the
Community
been raised in Conservative
important issues of the day. As
View
Judaism, studying at Hillel Day
part of Clal's Rabbis Without
School of Metropolitan Detroit
Borders program, we found a
and honing my leadership skills in United
safe space to share our distinct view-
Synagogue Youth, the movement's youth
points on a host of topics — from faith
program. However, it was in rabbinical
perspectives on healing to the economy's
school that I came into contact with the
effect on religion to the role of music in
other "flavors" of Judaism — praying each prayer. We might not have all agreed on
Shabbat at an Orthodox shul, engaging in
how the Torah was revealed to the Jewish
Torah study with a Reconstructionist rabbi people in the desert thousands of years
and training as a hospital chaplain with a
ago, but we each managed to share our
Reform rabbinical student.
Jewish wisdom through the medium of
My first job after graduating rabbinical
Torah.
school was at the University of Michigan
Denominational labels are becom-
Hillel, an institution that offers five differ-
ing far less important in the 21st cen-
ent Shabbat service options. On any given
tury as the borders have blurred. While
Friday evening, I could find myself in a
I may be a card-carrying Conservative
Reform havurah, a Conservative minyan,
rabbi, I work for Oakland County-based
an egalitarian gathering with separate
Tamarack Camps — a Jewish camping
seating, or a traditional Orthodox service.
agency that serves the entire community,
From week to week, I saw many students
from the unaffiliated to the religious.
sampling the various options, less con-
I lead a Reconstructionist synagogue,
cerned with ideological labels than with
Congregation T'chiyah in Oak Park, in
finding a comfort level that spoke to them
which my more traditional practices and

beliefs are not compromised, but respect-
ed and admired. I teach teens on Monday
nights at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield,
one of the largest Reform congregations
in the world. I run a kosher certification
business in which I demand the highest
levels of kashruth compliance to meet the
requirements of our faith and the needs of
our community.
Looking beyond the borders that divide
our Jewish community is not always easy
or comfortable. After all, there are real
differences that set us apart. There are
always going to be political and ideologi-
cal conflicts that keep us from praying
together or eating together. But we must
always seek to dialogue with civility and
come together over the issues on which
we can agree. A Reform Passover seder
may differ greatly from an Orthodox one,
but the context is the same — we are all
recalling the days our people spent in
slavery. Neither Pharaoh nor Hitler differ-
entiated between Reform, Conservative or
Orthodox Jews.

Rabbi Jason Miller will teach "Jewish

Denominations: Addressing the Challenges
of Modernity," a 10-week class at the Oak

Park JCC co-sponsored by Congregation

T'chiyah and the Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit's SAJE (Seminars in

Adult Jewish Enrichment) program. Contact

Judy Loebl, Florence Melton Adult Mini-School
director, to enroll: loebl@jfmd.org or (248)
205-2557.

Let Us Embrace Religious Tolerance

Washington

E

ver since an act of horrific vio-
lence on a bright blue morning
nine years ago, our nation has
been at war. At home and abroad, this
war has tested our military strength
and our diplomatic skill; tested our
resilience and our courage. Over the last
few months, I fear our nation has been
in danger of failing one of these tests, a
failure that would threaten our safety and
the freedoms we hold so dear.
At issue is a plan to build an Islamic
community center a few blocks from
the site of the attack on the World Trade
Center and the larger question of wheth-
er our nation will embrace diversity or
choose a path of division. This is not
just a question of doing the right thing,
although it is that. It is not just a question
of preserving the values that have made

40

October 7 • 2010

our nation a beacon of freedom
forth by our Founding Fathers
across the globe, although it
would hold.
is certainly that, too. This is
And so it is in this case.
also a question of whether we
American Muslims have built
will make our nation safer by
homes, raised families and
focusing on and extinguish-
run successful businesses in
ing the flames of hatred that
communities across our coun-
spawned the 9-11 attacks or, on
try. They have been drawn
the other hand, add fuel to the
here because of the belief, as
fire that threatens us.
one prominent member of
Sen. Carl
There should be little doubt
Michigan's Arab-American
Levin
that religious intolerance has
community recently wrote,
Special
no place in a nation built on
"that there is room in America
Commentary
the idea; as Thomas Jefferson
for all cultural and religious
once wrote, "that our civil
backgrounds." That is the
rights have no dependence on our reli-
America in which they chose to build
gious opinions." Our history is filled
their lives. It is the America that we
with moments in which we struggled to
aspire to be, that we claim to be.
live up to that notion, in which Roman
We should ask ourselves: If we would
Catholics or Mormons or Jews or others
not object to a church or a synagogue at
found themselves beset by religious intol- that location in Manhattan, how can we
erance and wondering if the ideals set
object to a Muslim place of worship and

remain true to our most fundamental
principles?
Upholding the promise of our found-
ing values should be reason enough to
resist anti-Muslim sentiment. But there
are equally powerful reasons that rely not
on values, but on simple common sense.
The war that began on Sept. 11, 2001,
is not only a war against terrorists, but
also a war to isolate those terrorists from
broader Muslim society. We have seen
time and time again that when we stray
from our values, it's not just a moral fail-
ure, but also a national security failure.
Our troops work every day to keep
weapons out of the hands of Al Qaida
and its terrorists. Yet by indulging in
intolerance, we hand Al Qaida a powerful
propaganda weapon, one used to stoke
hatred of us and to recruit the terrorists

Tolerance on page 41