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Kotel Controversy Shows Th at U.S. Jewish
Groups Don’t Represent Th e Orthodox
W
Or Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali
hat are we, chopped liver?
Bennett: “The representatives of U.S.
The question, from my
Jewry feel they were slapped in the face.”
Orthodox corner of the
And, in further slap-happiness, former
American Jewish world, is born of the
ambassador to the U.S. Sallai Meridor
recent onslaught of outrage aimed at
called the Kotel decision “a slap
the Israeli government by repre-
in the face to world Jewry.”
sentatives of “American Jewry.”
Not to be outdone, the Anti-
The outrage itself, of course,
Defamation League bemoaned
was born of two things. The
the undermining of trust
first was the Israeli Cabinet’s
“between American Jewry and
freezing of a resolution aimed
Israel.”
at further accommodating
For his part, the American
mixed-sex worshippers at the
Jewish Committee’s executive
Kotel HaMaaravi, or Western
director David Harris claimed
Wall. The second was a Knesset Avi Shafran
that the Kotel decision was “a
bill providing the Israeli chief
setback for Jewish unity and the
rabbinate oversight over con-
essential ties that bind Israel
versions in Israel with respect
and American Jews.”
to the right to automatic citi-
And for his, Jewish Federations of
zenship (though it was later announced
North America CEO Jerry Silverman
that consideration of the bill will be
decried how “disastrous conversion leg-
delayed for six months).
islation would be for global Jewry.”
Now, all Jews are entitled to their
And then there are things like the
opinions, even to desert island syna-
recent New York Times piece on the
gogues they choose to shun. But do
contretemps. In nearly 1,500 words, an
media and American Jewish leaders
assortment of infuriated non-Orthodox
really have a right to characterize
American Jewish clergy and philanthro-
one particular opinion as being that
pists are duly quoted. But there was not
of “American Jews” or the “Jewish
a single American Orthodox voice.
Diaspora” or “world Jewry”?
Why is the American Orthodox com-
To wit: A Haaretz column headline:
munity being ignored in all this? Why
“Netanyahu To American Jews: Drop
are leaders speaking in our name? Why
Dead.” And a Guardian one: “Jewish
is the media duly swallowing that arro-
Diaspora Angry As Netanyahu Scraps
gation whole?
Western Wall Mixed Prayer Plan.”
Do they not realize that the American
“How Bibi Just Gave Liberal Jews The
Orthodox community exists, and in
Finger — And What We Can Do About
fact is rather robust? That we Orthodox
It” by Jane Eisner ( June 26) or Jewish
harbor different sentiments from them?
Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky:
And that there are actually reasons for
“We’re fighting all efforts to weaken the
that?
Israel-Diaspora relations.”
Orthodox
Jews praying
at the Kotel
Well, it does; it is; we do and there are.
Sociologist Steven M. Cohen of
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion has observed that within
two generations, the Orthodox fraction
of the American Jewish population —
conservatively estimated at 10 percent
— has more than quintupled. More than
a quarter of American Jews 17 years of
age or younger, moreover, are Orthodox.
Pundits Eric Cohen and Aylana Meisel
of the Tikvah Fund estimate that, by
2050, the American Jewish community
will be majority Orthodox.
Not to mention that the Orthodox
sector of Jewish America is the most
Jewishly engaged one, and its members
are greatly involved with Israel, support-
ing it, visiting it, sending its children to
study there. And, quite often, relocating
there.
In the currently contentious issues,
we Orthodox (and not just “ultras”)
stand in a very different place than the
current Jewish establishment. Why?
Start with this thought: A self-
described Jewish state, to merit the
epithet, must maintain some Jewish
standard, including in its treatment of
holy places and its definitions of per-
sonal status.
And continue with this one: The
absence of any standard or the adop-
tion of multiple standards (which is
effectively the same thing) is a recipe for
fractionalization and disunity.
The Kotel was once a Jewish societal
oasis, probably the only place on Earth
where Jews of different religious convic-
tions prayed side by side. No one asked,
or cared, what prayer book or religious
attitudes anyone was holding. What
allowed for that minor miracle was the
maintenance at that holy place of a
public standard — that of time-honored
Jewish religious tradition. Men stood
on one side, women on another; vocal
public prayer reflected millennia-old
halachic norms.
That peace has been shattered and
the holy place turned into a place of
strife, thanks to the antics of “activists”
holding monthly protests in the guise of
prayer services, with photographers in
tow to capture Haredi hooligans’ anger.
The vast majority of Haredim and other
Orthodox Jews at the Wall were just qui-
etly anguished.
The protesters and their American
supporters were given an area of their
own for their “egalitarian” services,
but, not satisfied with having success-
fully balkanized the Kotel, insisted on a
larger, more prominent space (though
the current one is often empty). They
received that, too, or at least a pledge to
create it — a pledge that is now on hold.
As for conversions, keeping the door
open to wholesale “conversions” of non-
Jewish Israelis without sufficient regard
for Jewish religious law might presently
please some observers. But it will only
increase Jewish disunity by creating
populations that some will consider to
be part of the Jewish people but that
others, whose consciences insist on feal-
ty to halachah, simply will not be able to
accept as such.
The essential point of contention in
both issues — as is clear from the activ-
ists’ words — is whether American-style
“Jewish pluralism” should be imported to
continued on page 10
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