A milestone of sorts was crossed yesterday when the Israeli government agreed to pay the wages of non-Orthodox rabbis currently serving on local religious councils. Acting on the advice of the Supreme Court, the country’s attorney general ruled that a Reform rabbi who is serving on a council should be paid just as Orthodox rabbis who serve in the same capacity are currently financed by the state. The decision was the result of delicate negotiations and hair-splitting in which the state didn’t actually recognize the Reform rabbi in question — Rabbi Miri Gold of Kibbutz Gezer — as a rabbi per se, but as a “rabbi of a non-Orthodox community.” Nor will she or any other such official be given any authority over religious matters but just given the right to serve their specific communities. Nonetheless, the decision was still criticized by Orthodox politicians and organizations that begrudge the least whiff of state approval or funds for the Reform or Conservative rabbinate.
The decision, while welcome by Diaspora Jewry, will also serve to highlight the ongoing inequality between Jewish denominations in Israel wherein Orthodoxy is considered the official, subsidized authority on Judaism and Reform and Conservative Judaism are wrongly treated as illegitimate knock-offs. This is bitterly resented by the majority of American Jews who identify with non-Orthodox religious streams and is the cause of no small amount of tension with Israel. But the deal that produced this advance for their denominations also ought to make it clear to Americans that the problem is not so much Israeli prejudice against their beliefs but a system in which any rabbi is paid by the state.
For all of the ongoing controversy about defining Jewish identity in Israel, the real source of friction there is not so much one of “who is a Jew” but who is a rabbi. And any country where rabbis are in effect employees of the state, as priests or imams are in other nations, is one in which the assignment of rabbinical status is inherently political. That means the debate about recognition of Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel is not really one of competing doctrines as it is a scramble for government patronage.
Seen in that light, it is no mystery that the Orthodox political parties, who can count on the support of a large share of the Israeli electorate and whose influence is magnified by a system of proportional representation in the country’s parliament, have zealously defended their stranglehold on the state-financed religious bureaucracy. Nor is it imaginable, even with the best of wills on the part of Israel’s political leadership, that this monopoly will ever be broken up until the distant and perhaps unattainable day when Reform and Conservative Judaism commands the support of a sizeable electoral constituency of its own.
It is possible that a scheme of electoral reform that will make it harder for niche parties to win seats in the Knesset — something Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current grand coalition could pass if it wanted to — will diminish the influence of the Orthodox. But so long as the synagogue that even most secular and non-religious Israelis choose not to go to is Orthodox, there will be no groundswell there for equal rights for the rabbis of religious streams with little popular backing.
A far more urgent issue for most Israelis than the discrimination against Reform and Conservative rabbis is the oppressive nature of the taxpayer-financed official religious authority that is the bailiwick of ultra-Orthodox officials who have the ability to make an application for a marriage license the equivalent of a visit from the Spanish Inquisition. Like much of the structure of the Israeli bureaucracy, the whole idea of state-subsidized religion (and it should be specified that all faiths including Christianity and Islam are also given government support in Israel — the only reason non-Orthodox Jews are left out is because they refuse to register as being separate faiths that are distinct from traditional Orthodox Judaism) is the core of the problem. Until Israel fixes that, Diaspora Jews will continue to complain about the lack of religious pluralism and to largely misunderstand the source of the problem.
As a Diaspora Jew who spent 7 years of his youth as an observant Orthodox Jew, I fully support the Israeli position of exclusion of Conservative and Reform movements from government recognition. n nIt is the Orthodox Jews who have earnestly and fervently prayed for centuries for the return to Israel and Jerusalem. It is the Orthodox Jews who are the guardians of traditional Jewish identity. It is the Orthodox Jews who, more than any other group, need too keep Israel a Jewish State. n nLet the Conservative and Reform movements enjoy their power and popularity in the US and elsewhere, places where they serve as gateways to assimilation and deconstruction of the Jewish identity. But let the Orthodox continue to define Judaism in Israel or we might as well just hand it over to the Palestinians today.
Perfectly stated. Much better than I did.
It may be perfectly stated, but it's incorrect. In fact, nearly ALL Orthodox groups opposed the creation of the state of Israel, and continued to do so for some time. Moreover, the Orthodox gain their homogeneity in practice by cutting themselves off from the rest of the world. far from causing assimilation, the non-Orthodox are what keeps many, if not most, Jews from disappearing. And finally, Orthodoxy is not in fact the traditional Judaism that has existed for millenia – for all intents and purposes that no longer exists. Orthodox is a product of the modern world and is a reaction to the enlightenment. It is QUITE different halachicly from what came before, and indeed, it's attitudes towards halacha is a completely modern chidush (innovation). In fact, if one wants a glimpse at what traditional halacha looked like prior to the enlightenment, it looked a great deal more like Masorti Judaism ( ideologically, not as practiced by Conservative Jews). Sorry to disappoint, but your history is just WAAAY off.
You don't know what you're talking about. The vast majority of Jews who joined the "enlightenment" movement descendents are no longer Jewish the number of non orthodox Jews who leave Judaism is more than quadruple that of orthodox Jews. Approx 100 years before the "first aliya" Chabad started a settlement that still exists today. Without orthodox Jews, Judaism would have disappeared long ago.
Jonathan, while the Orthodox rabbinates in Israel do try to shut out the reform and conservatvive, there may be a silver lining, which Israeli leadership is aware of, and which helps them to go along with the sequestration of religious authority to the Orthodox. n nLook at what has happened in the US – the decline and decay of Jewish identity in the Us has paralleled the increased proportion of Jews identifying as conservatvie, reform, and even more 'liberal' forms of organized Judaism. With that has come reduced Ahavat Israel and substitution of liberalism for Judaism. Net result : to too many Jews in the US, being Jewish is more about Obama and bagels than it is about Israel. Bad for them, bad for Israel. n nIt may actually be adaptive for Israel to gow along with the Orthodox political agenda, there. They have seen the alternate future here in the USA, and from their perspective, it stinks. n nWho can blame them? n nHomo Judeanensis is getting stronger in israel (even among the secular), and becoming weak and dying out in the USA. n n
This is not true. 80% of Jews in America were Reform — back in 1880! Today the fraction of American Jews who are Orthodox might be 15% — and it might be lower. The threat to the future of Judaism in America isn't the non-Orthodox movements, it is assimilation and apathy. n nAnd I write that as an observant Orthodox Jew.
The next thing you know, a leftist rabbi, well like rsbbi michael lerner will offer group conversions to the palestinians and bring a lawsuit to give them right of return status, keep them out.
It seems to me that most Israeli Jews don't really want Rabbis, they want Kohanim. A class of Priests who live under rules and strictures that don't apply to them, and who can perform the necessary rituals to intercede with G-d on their and the State's behalf.
Reform Judaism and its offshoots Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism are diaspora creations that were developed with the aim of reducing anti-Semtiism by reducing differences in customs, practices, mode of worship and day to day life between Jews living reluctantly in exile and their gentile neighbors who reluctantly permitted them to live in their host countries. The movements did little to reduce anti-Semitism, but a great deal to reduce Jewish knowledge, unity (who was it that tried to redefine millenia-old standards for conversion, marriage, divorce and descent?) and commitment, and to increase assimilation and intermarriage. n nIt is no wonder than none of these movements have found much traction in Israel except among olim from America or western Europe who were affiliated wth those movements before making aliyah. The non-religious Israeli may be turned off by the corruption and apathy that grow out ot the political spoils system, but they also recognize what is Judaism and what is adulterated Judaism, and realize that a largely unsuccessful solution to a disapora problem is not likely to solve any Israeli problems.
Reform Judaism does not interest Israelis and has no real future here (as it has no future in the USA to say the truth). Israelis, like most non-US Jews, don't buy the "denomination" ideology. There is only one Judaism (not necessarily the Haredi way but the Halakha way) and Reform Judaism is clearly perceived as weird and fake by most Israelis including the seculars. nThis decision won't change anything.
The author's obvious bias vitiates his argument. The weakness of his argument is clear in the comments.
All of the comments regarding how non-Orthodox Judaism doesn't interest Israelis may have reflected the Israeli reality of 20 years ago, but it is long since a cliche and stereotype that Israelis themselves have shattered. There are now dozens of Reform and Conservative congregations from Carmiel to Eilat. In recent years, thousands of Israelis – only a small fraction of whom are North American immigrants – come to High Holyday services, have enrolled their children in Reform and Conservative run pre-schools, elementary and secondary schools, ask for these rabbis to officiate at weddings and funerals and turn to Reform and Conservative institutions for adult study and cultural events. There is a growing cadre of Israeli Conservative and Reform rabbis who serve the emerging spiritual needs of a new generation of Israelis. In the coming 20 years, products of non-Orthodox youth movements will move into leadership positions in Israeli society and the voting constituency of affiliated, non-Orthodox Israelis will grow. You are entirely welcome to ignore this reality because it displeases you, but it doesn't change the fact that thousands of Israelis are finding a spiritual home in Conservative and Reform Israeli synagogues and schools.