oints of view
Reforming Reform from page 23
How will we know when the high-profile campaign
has succeeded? Reads the resolution: "When, rather
than being the exception, it becomes the norm that
Reform Jewish teens experience social, emotional, spir-
itual, moral and intellectual growth within the context
of a vibrant, caring and inclusive Jewish community"
An earlier resolution passage gives a timeline: "By
2020, we aim to engage a majority of Reform Jewish
teens actively in Jewish communal learning and living in
order to guarantee a vibrant and dynamic Jewish future'
Time, of course, will tell. But standing pat isn't the
answer.
Buoyed by the generous support of Audrey and Bill
Farber of Franklin, Temple Israel has initiated "One
Hundred Ways In:' an innovative approach to engaging
post-b'nai mitzvah teens that can serve as a national
model. The target population is about 750 teens. The
synagogue currently serves about 50 percent in the
post-b'nai mitzvah years, a decrease of 20 percent from
previous decades. The goal is to significantly expand
options to get involved and dramatically lower hurdles
to participate — and thus create 100 ways in not just
for temple teens, but also unaffiliated teens.
Troubling Trend
In his address at the biennial, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, outgo-
ing URJ president, declared: "I don't believe that our
kids are a lost generation. And we cannot afford to wait
and see what happens. Therefore, our synagogues and
our movement are already doing what
they do in times of distress — they
are rethinking, readjusting and recon-
figuring. And this is what is going
to happen. We are going to invite
our young people in. We are going to
empower them. And we are going to
dream with them."
Rabbi Yoffie
The test will be how many of those
dreams come true, especially here in
Metro Detroit, where the Reform-teen
synagogue dropout rate is high. The Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's 2010 Update to its 2005
Detroit Jewish Population Study reveals that the num-
ber of 5- to 12-year-olds in Reform synagogue schools
is about even since 2005, but the number of 13- to
17-year-olds is down a whopping 36 percent. Jewish
camp enrollment, a key launch pad for future leaders
within organized Jewry, is down nearly 2 percent for
Reform synagogue youth ages 3-17.
Rabbi Mike Moskowitz of Temple Shir Shalom in
West Bloomfield said, "For many, myself included, the
decision to become a rabbi began as a teen in NFTY,
where the influence of exciting young rabbis and pro-
fessionals challenged us and motivated us to dedicate
our lives to Judaism.
"We realized our faith gave us not
only social connections we desired as
teens, but also a lens through which
to see our world. Our community has
been blessed with great rabbis that
understand this, but developing this
understanding nationally will moti-
vate us even more."
It's not a stretch to say the future of
Rabbi
the Reform movement, nationally and
Moskowitz
locally, hinges mightily on the broad,
but not-yet-deep pillars of the Campaign for Youth
Engagement. I I
24
January 5 - 2012
JN
Commentary
A New Israel?
Threats to democracy come from within.
I
write this out sadness and alarm. I immigrated to
Israel more than 40 years ago, and never have
I been as worried about Israel's future as I am
now. It's not the external threats, but the internal
threat that distresses me.
When I moved to Israel in
1971, the country was open
and fairly liberal. Although
there were conflicts between
the ultra-Orthodox and secu-
lar populations, in general, an
attitude of "live and let live"
prevailed. Over the past few
years, this has changed.
The ultra-Orthodox popula-
tion has imposed segregation
between men and women on
buses in Jerusalem and sought
to enforce separate pathways
for men and women on the same streets. Ultra-
Orthodox soldiers have refused to participate in
events where female soldiers sing, and a well-known
yeshivah head recently declared that "it's better to
face a firing squad than to hear a woman's voice."
Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, an ultra-
Orthodox member of the Knesset, excluded women
from participating in an official awards ceremony.
I keep asking myself, what kind of Judaism is this?
Certainly not the Judaism I learned in yeshivah and
Hebrew school growing up in Detroit.
Over the past year, our Knesset has been deluged
with all manner of antidemocratic and totalitarian
legislation that mandates loyalty oaths for Arab
citizens, attempts to muzzle the news media, fines
for anyone advocating a boycott of products from
the occupied territories, and stringent regulations
and exorbitant penalties for non-governmental civil
rights and leftist organizations. Most of these bills
have been introduced by Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party. He and
most of his Knesset faction grew up in the former
Soviet Union. Their concept of democracy is far dif-
ferent from Western democracy and values.
Violent and thuggish settlers and their right-wing
allies, who for years have uprooted Palestinian olive
trees and attacked innocent Palestinians and were
not arrested nor convicted of their crimes, have
been emboldened to desecrate mosques and to
attack soldiers, who are there to protect them.
Who is responsible for these antidemocratic
trends that are destroying Israel's Declaration of
Independence and record of defending human rights
and liberal values?
The blame lies squarely with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite his tough words and
speeches, during his premiership he has done noth-
ing to protect Israel's democracy and stop the drift
toward authoritarianism. Although he has preached
about and marketed fear about the external threats
to Israel, which do exist, he conveniently ignored the
I keep asking myself, what kind
of Judaism is this? Certainly
not the Judaism I learned in
yeshivah and Hebrew school
growing up in Detroit.
dangerous internal threats that became worse and
more blatant as time went on.
One well-known political commentator sees
this as a reflection of Netanyahu's weak leader-
ship and moral laxity. It appears that Netanyahu is
more interested in holding together his right-wing
coalition and staying in power than he is protect-
ing Israel's democracy, freedom of expression and
human rights.
After an army base was recently attacked by vio-
lent settlers and their supporters, none of whom
was arrested, and the shock this had on Israelis,
Netanyahu was forced to emerge from his lethargy.
He assured Israeli voters that such action would
not be tolerated and the perpetrators would pay a
heavy price. But since he has ignored violent set-
tler actions in the past, we must wait and see if his
actions match his words.
Recently, certain Knesset members launched a
misguided publicity campaign in the United States
to bring Israeli expatriates back to Israel by instill-
ing the fear of assimilation and loss of Jewish iden-
tity. This upset the American Jewish community.
Because the prime minister is very cognizant of
American Jewish opinion, he ordered it stopped.
But how successful would any such campaign be if
the Israel being marketed to the expatriates is more
religiously intolerant, less democratic and less free
than the country they currently live in and the Israel
they left?
The only solution to the internal threats we face is
strong governmental action to stamp it out. Without
such a commitment, Israel will become a country
that few Jews in Israel or abroad will support or
want to be identified with.
Israel is a wonderful country to live in. Israelis
are warm and outgoing. The country is filled with
talented and creative people. The numbers of Nobel
Prize winners, medical and agricultural innovations,
high-tech startup companies, patents and Israeli
prize-winning films all attest to this. In this sense,
the country would make its founders proud. But the
recent antidemocratic and antiliberal trends are not
what they dreamed of and our young men died for.
Robert Rockaway is a professor emeritus at Tel Aviv
University. He grew up in Detroit and wrote a history of
Jewish Detroit, "The Jews of Detroit: 1762-1914" (Wayne State
University, 1986).