viewpoints » s point continued from page 8 promised the Mikvah Bill will have no impact on women, but it is difficult to see how those promises can be any- thing more than mere words. What would prevent a mikvah attendant, even one who is acting independently, from imposing her view on the wom- en’s immersion process? But even as we are pained by recent events, we must take a posi- tive perspective. The current battles are a result of the fact that more open-minded Israelis and Jews in the diaspora are demanding change. The Rabbinate feels its control slipping away. Recent moves by the ultra- Orthodox are an attempt to maintain its stature. We must sustain our fight. We must also recognize that we are in this together. The secular Israeli population is unwilling to accept the Rabbinate’s monopoly. Over the years, a growing number of younger members of the National Religious community have begun to oppose it, too. And we are likewise seeing a new generation of ultra-Orthodox who are beginning to at least feel uncomfort- able with this monopoly. Real change takes time. But this is a battle that, if won, could ulti- mately turn Israel’s stormy relation- ship between religion and state into a more docile one that benefits all Jewish people. * Yair Sheleg is the director of the Religion and State program at the Israel Democracy Institute. counterpoint continued from page 8 the restoration of the Holy Temple upon the Temple Mount, and the overwhelming majority of liberal Jews do not pray daily at all. They are not coming on aliyah, neither are Israelis interested in their revisions of Judaism — there are less than 100 liberal congregations in all of Israel, serving less than 0.4 percent of the Jewish population. Liberal leaders themselves acknowledge that they are demand- ing the government spend millions of dollars and irrevocably compro- mise archaeological sites simply for “recognition.” If so, one must ask why they are willing to dis- rupt the attitude of American Jews toward Israel in order to make these demands at this time. Recent Pew Research Center surveys provide the answer: The American liberal movements are col- lapsing here in their North American home. They claim to represent the dominant voice of American Jewry; certainly, they must accept primary responsibility for the 70-percent intermarriage rate among non- Orthodox Jews and the failure of the plurality of Jews under age 50 to identify with any Jewish denomina- tion. Only 25 percent of American Jews are members of a Reform or Conservative congregation, and their median age is 55. They have lost the next American-Jewish generation. Why are these movements spend- ing an inordinate amount of time and money to change Judaism in Israel, rather than educating and influencing their youth, working to guarantee that their grandchil- dren care about Judaism? If they NOW ON 910AM EVERY FRIDAY 12 NOON - 2PM INSIGHTFUL, RELEVANT AND INTELLECTUAL Journalist and accomplished author, Bankole Thompson, challenges the conscience of the powerful and breaks down complex policy questions each week on his all talk show “Redline”. He cuts through the double talk of politicians who sometimes play fast and loose with the facts. Thompson is a columnist for the Detroit News and author of the highly regarded books Obama and Black Loyalty and Obama and Christian Loyalty. He is one of the most influential black Journalists in America today. www.910AMsuperstation.com A DIVISION OF ADELL MEDIA 000000 10 July 28 • 2016 truly care about the Jewish future, they will not besmirch Israel with unfounded accusations of limitation on Jewish practice, but encourage their own to visit or even live there and learn for themselves — both about Israel, and about Judaism. This is all the more true when it comes to Sheleg’s second topic, the issue of Jewish conversion. The State of Israel adopted traditional standards to determine Jewish identity in order to preserve Jewish unity so that the grandchildren of Orthodox and lib- eral Jews might marry without seri- ous investigation of each individual’s Jewish heritage. The liberal move- ments have already necessitated this in America, with sometimes tragic consequences. Importing this to Israel will permanently divide the Jews of the Jewish state. In the end, it is clear that Sheleg’s statement to the media is notably more accurate than his opinion piece: There is no “ultra-Orthodox offensive,” but rather an effort by liberal movements to enact drastic changes in Israel to draw atten- tion away from their self-inflicted decimation at home in America. It is incumbent upon them not to try to change Israeli Jews in a way that draws them away from Jewish tradi- tion, but to change American Jews in a way that draws them toward it. That should be, after all, the goal of any Jewish movement. * Rabbi Yaakov Menken is director of Project Genesis – Torah.org and the co-editor of Cross- Currents.com, an Orthodox online journal. Rabbi Pesach Lerner is executive vice president emeritus of National Council of Young Israel.