Jerusalem – In a recent interview, former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren said Israel must recognize the legitimacy of all forms of Judaism or it risks alienating US Jews in the not so distant future.
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THE TIMES OF ISRAEL (http://bit.ly/1dk5E7c) reports that Oren, when asked about the current relationship between the US Jewry and Israel, said that it is all well and good for Israel to promote itself as “the nation-state of the Jewish people,” but that “we’ve got to stand behind it, let’s live up to it.”
On the American Jewry, Oren said it is “similar to what many physicists say is occurring in the universe — that it’s expanding and contracting at the same time. So the American community — read the Pew Report — they’re contracting through intermarriage and assimilation. However, at the same time, there’s a strong kernel of the American Jewish community, not just Orthodox, but also Jews who’ve gone on Birthright, who are more connected Jewishly and more connected to Israel, and that’s expanding… So if you look down the road, 20 or 30 years from now, the American Jewish community may be smaller, but it could also be more Jewishly identified and more connected to Israel.”
Oren said, “On the constriction side, you have not only Jews who are disaffected because of Israeli policies, but also because the State of Israel doesn’t recognize Reform and Conservative Judaism.”
Oren said that the sole consensus among rabbis he’s met with—from all forms of Judaism—is that they stand in opposition to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s unwillingness to hedge in becoming more pluralistic.
“I‘ll sit with American Jewish Reform and Conservative leaders who care passionately about Israel,” said Oren. “But they’ll say to you: I can’t tell you how hurtful it is that the State of Israel doesn’t recognize my form of Judaism. It is the worst pain when you say something like that. It’s something we have to address as a society if we are to remain the nation-state of the Jewish people.”
“We have to recognize the roles of those movements in Judaism within different life-cycle events in Israeli life,” Oren said. “We risk alienating them. The amazing thing about the Reform movement is that, after so many years of not being recognized by the State of Israel, they remain so pro-Israeli. That to me is extraordinary.”
When a guy like George Sorros , or Steven Spielsberg thinks about a diverse Israel he thinks – chilloni / dati. He doesn’t care about the middle, the conservative, the reformed- trying to make a name for themselves. These guys understand that when it comes to religious observance – either you are or you aren’t. There is no need for Reformed Jews, why would they care if they are recognized or not, once a Jew always a Jew that’s all that really counts. So he must be referring to the Frum American Jew- ohhhhh, finally “they” are beginning to get it.
“Michael Oren said Israel must recognize the legitimacy of all forms of Judaism or it risks alienating US Jews in the not so distant future.”
This claim has been made in one form or another for many decades. It especially came to a head during the MiHu Yehudi debates of the ’80s. During that time visitations to Israel by Conservative and Reform “missions” have not diminished and their youth and professional involvement has remained strong. And the “risks [of] alienating US Jews” is far more due to intermarriage, assimilation and apathy among our heterodox and unaffiliated brethren than to being put off by a lack of Israeli acceptance of temple affiliations.
Oren is a generation late to the party with this claim.
Since Orthodoxy is very different theologically from Conservative and Reform on many issues including such issues as who is a Jew and Marriage and divorce, by recognizing those two movements there would be many difficulties created. The Chief Rabbinate could never endorse this. Maybe the alternative of secular marraige and dovorce in Israel would solve the problem.
So after thousands of years of being a tiny minority, we’re supposed to broaden our ranks by accepting non-observant Jews? No. Quality is better than quantity. Outreach efforts must continue to inform and educate those with little or no observance.
Not the watered down , lowest common denominator Judaism.
According to the Pew Report, most Jews don’t care about Judaism at all. And if they think about Israel, it’s about the Palestinian issue only. An American Jew who isn’t Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or Reconstructionist doesn’t care about how the power struggle among the groups plays out in Israel.
Jews who practice deviant forms of Judaism may be Jewish but what they practice, Conservative, Reform, Deformed, Reconstruction, etc., is not Jewish.
How much was Oren paid off by these movements to promote their cause that he as a seculer Jew likes to begin with.
My family had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Israel throughout the past few years and we have stopped sending money until non haredi Jews like ourselves are treated with respect. When my granddaughter was spit on walking with her little brother by a large group of men, we decided to cancel all donations.
Now all our gelt will go to local shuls and Sloan Kettering.
If he Jewish Goyim of reform and conservative could take their emotions out of it and ask what’s logically best for the Jewish state, they would not want to destroy Israeli Judaism like they have destroyed American Judaism.
The rabbanut needs to be dismantled, and totally privatized. Israel needs a separation between religion and state, like any other civilized democratic nation. Only then will these interdenominational wars end. Let the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel manage their own marriages, divorces, and conversions. Nobody is telling Orthodox Jews to marry non-Orthodox converts.
The ultra-orthodox are responsible for this because they don’t even consider MO to be frum. That being the case it makes perfect sense what these other groups are saying.