Jerusalem – The chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Eli Yishai, said on Thursday that Reform Jews in the United States were “disappearing” through assimilation.
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Yishai, who is also the Interior Minister, made the comments at the second Presidential Conference in Jerusalem.
The majority of guests attending the conference were American Jews, most of whom were Reform Jews, who reacted with vocal indignation upon hearing the minister’s comments.
Yishai said in response that he was only reiterating data that was passed on to him, and that it is a commonly known fact that U.S. Jews are dwindling due to rapid assimilation.
What an abomination. Yishai is an elegant manifestation of the dreche leadership of Shaas. His mindless excuse that he was “simply reiterating data that was passed on to him” without having the common sense to check on its veracity or otherwise think through what he was saying is entirely consistent with recent comments by the theological leadership of Shaas.
Eli Yishai should learn a little diplomacy. With these kind of statements you will accomplish nothing and antagonize many.
He’s absolutely correct. Do they have a guilty conscience ? Many of these reform jews hate the orthodox. too bad.
Megalgelem z’chus al yedey zakey!!!!
Without reform judaism there would be even fewer jews in the u.s. It is entirely unrealistic to think that without reform and conservative judaism, all the u.s. jews would become orthodox — the vast majority would not. If the orthodox really cared about the issue of “disappearing” jews, they would work cooperatively with people of different sects, stop having a “my way or the highway” attitude, and stop denigrating and insulting reform and conservative judaism and their rabbonim and yes, maybe even go to their synagogues once in a while. In any event, there are still far more reform jews in the u.s. than orthodox.
so, the truth hurts……for reform and far away IF they are still Jews.THEIR LAWS state that if the FATHER is a JEW and the MOTHER a GENTILE, then their children are Jews…Strange MODERN ASSIMILATED LAW.
This man is talking to jews who took the trouble to come to this conference in Israel and therefore obviously care very much about judaism, jewish identity and keeping kids jewish and he can’t find a nicer way to talk to them.
For Orthodox groups which accept Karaites as Jews with no need for conversion (and I believe that is most of them), what is the excuse for rejecting any Reform Jews?
After all, Karaites are exclusively patrilineal.
People who post on VIN fail to recognize that many reform jews read VIN. (Anyone doing an internet search on a jewish topic is likely to find VIN easily.) All the animosity and anger that is sometimes reflected in the comments just helps drive people away.
Rather than anger and alienate these people further, we should be embracing them and trying to bring them closer to the right derech. Reform or no, this is sinas chinam and it will keep Moshiach from coming.
He is not diplomatic and accomplished nothing by such a tone. In fact, he created enemies from people who were becoming to closer to Israel.
Insecure people always find the need to denigrate others; its what defines them. Without the perceived inferior “other” they have no sense of self-worth or identity.
I don’t see anything wrong with what he said.
He is the leader of the largest frum political party in the world. His concerns are not far different than those of the gedolei hador.
Intermarriage is a terrible problem for us all and its the number one killer of jews. Its our biggest concern.
Intermarriage is a bigger problem for judaism than iran is.
there is no nice way to say that. Devarim ha’yotzim min halev nichnosin el ha’lev.
Last night I attended a shivah. The family consisted of the children of atheists. The person who led it was a female Reform rabbi.
I was very suspicious of her and what might happen.
Well, it was one of the sweetest, most supportive Jewish events I have ever attended and that includes years in the yeshivishe velt.
She had been a horrible accident and had a major brain injury. She had difficulty talking. She had prepared many passages of Torah translated into English as well as Kaddish and other prayers with some Hebrew but mainly English. Many of the participants were crying. She was doing this to be makkarev people who would otherwise have no Jewish contact.
Be careful before you condemn others.
Yishai is an unprincipled political hack. He opposed Ohlmert’s positions and first screamed that Shas should quit the government over the peace talks with the Palestinians. Tnen he cut a deal with Yosef who was desparate to get his son appointed by Ohlmert as Jerusalem rabbi as backed off his opposition. There have been multiple allegations of corruption by Yosef, Yishai and their ethically challenged chevrah in shas. If I remember correctly one of Yishai’s predecessors actually went to jail for several years for bribery and corruption.
Maybe Yishai ought to look at what caused about 90% of our brethren to leave Orthodoxy, before condemming others. Not a very good track record. Let’s look at our own chesronos and fix them first.
MK Yishai was fed incorrect information by someone. The facts are that the Reform movement in the US has grown somewhat in recent years based by their number of dues-paying members (and remember that dues for Reform congregations are typically MUCH higher than for Orthodox congregations) and they have over two hundred more congregations today than 30 years ago (and remember that Reform congregations tend to be MUCH larger than Orthodox congregations). Simply put, Reform Judaism has not disappeared and is not likely to for the forseeable future. We should not underestimate the appeal of a religious movement that is truly montheistic but also antinomian. Nor should be become arrogant and triumphalist; those are bad midot turn off non-observant Jews from Torah.
Charlie,
Bimchilas K’vodcha, that is a rather weak kal v’chomer.
There is so much to say on this topic.
Clearly, Orthodox Jews (myself included) should not denigrate other Jews. Nothing is to be gained by doing so, and much damage can (and has) been done. Every Jew is our brother or sister and deserves our love and support as of right. When we speak haughtily towards them, we in fact lower ourselves and what we represent.
That being said, there are serious doctrinal differences that cannot easily be put aside for the sake of unity, noble a goal as it is. As many have pointed out above, there are a large number of strains and branches of Judaism within the Torah framework. We are obligated to have tolerance towards other such views than our own. This is something our community needs to work on, as the social disunion within the frum world is a source of pain to many of us. G-d willing, we will do better.
But we cannot accept forms of Judaism that deny the G-d given nature of the oral and written Torah. We can (and must) be polite, respectful and courteous. We can (and must) come to the aid of any fellow Jew who needs our help. But we cannot (and must not) ever acknowledge legitimacy of a dogma that says that our sacred ancient laws from Sinai can be changed, nullified or ignored as the prevailing social mores may dictate from time to time. That we can never do.
I have many relatives that are not religious, in the Orthodox sense. I really understand how people can be offended by our views on this subject, which can strike many as stubborn, intolerant or worse. But if we were to consider, say Reform Judaism, to be an acceptable alternative to our way of life, we are in essence denying our own beliefs.
The trick is to hold true to our faith while be mentschlach at the same time.
Shloimy
“We should not underestimate the appeal of a religious movement that is truly montheistic…”
You’re right. And we should also not underestimate the appeal of Reform Judaism which is hardly “truly monotheistic”.
There are nominally greater numbers of Reform members but the percentage of them that are actually Jewish is far less.
Rabbi Eli Yishai was simply utilizing his position to inject some mussar to his audience. He was warning them of the perils of Reform Judaism, as borne out in the undesputable, tragic, indeed, empirical statistics.
Yishai speaks the absolute truth. The Reform know it, too. But since they can’t admit they destroying Klal Yisroel, they make up new ways to bolster their numbers in the short run by including goyish spouses and expanding who is considered a Jew. Why else would Reform keep changing their Hashkofo to accept Israel in the 60’s and add more ritual in recent years. Oh I forgot, they can change things as they see fit, to meet the times.
Baruch HaShem that this time Eli Yishai said something RIGHT! The Reform movement is a blot on the Jewish people. They are a mockery to Torah and everything that is holy. They have one of the highest rates of intermarriage. Go back about 15 to 20 years ago, they took out of their so-called siddurim any reference to Israel and Yerushalaim, and today they have the gall to dictate what they want in our Eretz Hakodesh. It’s bad enough we have them here and don’t need them in Eretz Yisrael! It’s so obvious that there is an upheaval going on in E.Y. today that is frightening. The conversions, left and right, the missionaries going full speed, the radical leftists in the courts, etc., etc.
Only ezra min HaShamaim will help!