oints of view

>> Send letters to: Ietters@thejewishnews.com

Editorial

Israel Speeds Push For Jewish Religious Pluralism

T

he question of who is a Jew
through the lens of Israel's
Orthodox-controlled Chief
Rabbinate continues to pulsate, ironically
causing lingering religious turmoil in the
Jewish state. Notably, the Israeli govern-
ment has stepped up to help extend access
to the conversion process, which is at the
epicenter of the dispute.
Standing to gain from breakthrough
legislation by the Israeli Cabinet are hun-
dreds of thousands of Israeli citizens who
couldn't marry in Israel because the Chief
Rabbinate didn't consider them Jewish.
In a law effective Nov. 2, the Israeli
Cabinet extended authority for conversion
to include municipal chief rabbis in Israel.
Such rabbis will be able to set up indepen-
dent conversion tribunals in accordance
with the government order and with a
more lenient view of Jewish law. The
province of conversion no longer will fall
just to four courts appointed by the Chief
Rabbinate, which is dominated by haredi
adherents.
The law represents a sea change in
Israeli religious life especially in light of
Israel's determination to maintain a Jewish
character.

Shifting Tides

While most Israeli Jews say they are
religiously secular, the majority of the
others say they are Orthodox. Upwards

of 500,000 Israelis identify with the
Progressive (Reform) and Masorti
(Conservative) movements in Israel.
The government order should help
increase conversion among Israeli citi-
zens who in the 1990s emigrated from
the former Soviet Union under the Law
of Return, but who aren't considered
Jewish according to Orthodox strictures.
About 330,000 immigrants fall under this
umbrella, according to the Jerusalem
Post. The new law will help these immi-
grants avoid having to "intermarry"
because Israel wouldn't recognize their
Jewish descent.
The law is the most productive initia-
tive yet in the struggle to reform Israel's
contentious and frustrating conversion
practices.

What's In Store

Under the new law, municipal chief rabbis
who accept conversions approved under
their three-judge tribunals will have the
power to further embrace those converts
by registering them for marriage —
enabling bypass of the Chief Rabbinate.
Because Israel recognizes non-Orthodox
marriages performed overseas, the new
law, given its less-restrictive conversion
provisions, may dim the need for Israelis
to go abroad to marry — for example, to
Cyprus.
Haredi concern that Israelis who con-

vert under the law won't be recognized
as Jews among a significant number of
rabbis in Israel and around the world is
somewhat tempered by more Reform and
Conservative converts stepping up to active
participation in American Jewish life.

Political Maneuvers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
seemed resigned to haredi pressure to let
the bill leading to the new conversion law
lag. But Religious Services Minister Naftali
Bennett and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni
pushed authoritatively to win passage.
Even Israeli President Reuven Rivlin,
who for years challenged the legitimacy of
Reform Judaism, has become more religious-
ly inclusive since taking office in July.
Both of Israel's chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi
and one Sephardi, oppose the law along
with the haredi political parties. Meanwhile,
Hiddush, a religiously liberal Israeli organi-
zation, found increasing support for Israeli
religious pluralism in a just-released study.
Any effort on the chief rabbis' part to
thwart the new law could send the law before
the Israeli Supreme Court. The high court
isn't likely to buy into the restrictive will of
the Chief Rabbinate over freer expression of
Judaism.

Not The End

With passage of the new law, the Jewish
religious strife that has gripped Israel

The Shrinking Jewish Middle
- And How To Expand It

A

s the Jewish Federations of
North America held its annual
General Assembly this month,
newly emerging evidence from the
Pew Research Center's 2013 "Portrait
of American Jewry" study points to
enormous challenges facing federations,
Jewish philanthropy and organized Jewish
life, more generally. Virtually every Jewish
institution is contending with a sharply
diminishing base of people who give, join
or even care.
Though the Orthodox are expanding
numerically and growing in strength, the
number of non-Orthodox Jews who are
actively engaged Jews — no matter how
engagement is defined — is shrinking
rapidly. As we compare non-Orthodox
Jews between ages 50 and 69 with Jews
of the next-younger generation (between
30 and 49), we find about half as many
of the younger cohort who donate to
any Jewish causes, belong to synagogues

26

November 27 • 2014

Jr"

or join Jewish
younger non-Ortho-
organizations. In
dox Jews between
addition, only half
ages 30 and 49 are
as many of the
substantially and
younger group
consistently trailing
feel very attached
their elders on virtu-
to Israel, agree
ally every measure of
that being Jewish
Jewish identification.
is very important
Two separate pro-
Steven M. Cohen and
to them or have
cesses are driving
mostly Jewish
Jack Wertheimer
these declines. First,
close friends.
JTA
there simply are far
Of particular
fewer 30- to 49-year-
note to federa-
old non-Orthodox
tions and all who care about Jewish phil-
Jews than 50- to 69-year-olds (about 1.2
anthropic giving: Just 43 percent of non-
million vs. 1.8 million) because of low
Orthodox Jews between 30 and 49 donate
birthrates in recent decades. The current
to any Jewish cause, sharply down from
fertility rate of non-Orthodox Jews —
60 percent among those just 20 years
about 1.7 — has now dropped consider-
their senior. And only one quarter of the
ably below replacement level.
younger non-Orthodox Jews are members
Second, compounding this population
of a synagogue, even though they are in
decline, high rates of intermarriage —
their peak child-raising years. Indeed,
now running at about 80 percent among

is bound to diminish. Chief Rabbinate
oversight that doesn't respect the growing
religious diversity of the Jewish state will
act as a wedge rather than draw Israeli
Jews closer under the national flag —
which it must. Israel faces a multitude of
pivotal issues, ranging from security and
settlements to housing and retail price
points. Jewish religious turmoil should
not be among them.
Whether the new law goes before the
high court hinges on whether the Council
of the Chief Rabbinate accedes to the
legislative provisions and how it responds
toward Israeli Jews seeking to marry, but
who converted under a non-Orthodox
tribunal.
Non-Orthodox Jews in Israel and the
Jewish diaspora ultimately eye full, if not
supportive, Israeli recognition of non-
Orthodox conversions. The new law helps
move the recognition needle.
Jewish agency chairman Natan
Sharansky put it well in a JPost interview:
"This reform of the conversion pro-
cess is crucial to the successful absorp-
tion and integration of many immigrant
Israelis.
"The measures adopted by the govern-
ment will enable many immigrants and
citizens who have connected their fates
and futures to the State of Israel to join
the Jewish people in a more inviting
manner."

❑

those raised Reform — have resulted in
disengagement from Jewish life on the
part of most adult children of intermar-
ried parents. In short, in the younger age
cohort (30-49) there are both fewer Jews
and, among them, lower rates of partici-
pation in Jewish life.
Unless these patterns are reversed or
at least ameliorated, they portend rough
sailing for federations and other Jewish
organizations in the years to come.
Though federations have done an admi-
rable job of growing their endowments and
persuading affluent donors to increase the
size of their annual gifts, the federation
world already has experienced a precipi-
tous drop in its total number of givers.
Since the year 2000 alone, donors to fed-
erations have declined by nearly one-third.
Other Jewish organizations have seen
similar losses in membership, as have
many Reform and Conservative congrega-
tions, along with the number of students
in non-Orthodox day schools.
If these patterns are to be reversed,
the Jewish middle — Conservative and
Reform Jews who are in-married or inter-
married but unambiguously attached

Jewish Middle on page 27

