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Jan 11, 2016
Reform restyles relationship with Israel
Arutz 7 has an article about how the new Reform curriculum is designed to alienate Reform Jews from Israel. The article gives examples of how it trains the students to look critically at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in various ways..
I've seen people online comment angrily about how the Reform are again separating themselves from the Jewish people, acting anti-Israel, and whatnot.
While I think it is sad and wish Reform would teach differently and show themselves in practice to be more pro-Israel, I am not quite sure they are entirely at fault here. When Israel pushes away the Reform as much as Israel does and openly rejects them, can one really blame the Reform for then turning its back on Israel and teaching its members to look at Israel in a more critical way?
Even if Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, wants to be more inclusive of the Reform, as he is sometimes accused of, if in practice he is prevented from doing so then they legitimately feel slighted and rejected. If every time they want to strengthen ties and create a community in Israel living by the way they want to live they are rejected, whether it is funding for their community institutions, or land to build schools or their style of worship or activism or anything else, can one really blame them for then rejecting Israel?
The debate might become the chicken or the egg, did Israel first reject Reform or did Reform first reject Israel, but it seems to me that if the Reform are told the only way they can live in Israel is by Orthodox rules, I wouldn't expect anything different than what the article describes.
And those who regularly reject Reform and their attempts to get closer to Israel should definitely not suddenly be upset when the Reform change their attitude to Israel.
I've seen people online comment angrily about how the Reform are again separating themselves from the Jewish people, acting anti-Israel, and whatnot.
While I think it is sad and wish Reform would teach differently and show themselves in practice to be more pro-Israel, I am not quite sure they are entirely at fault here. When Israel pushes away the Reform as much as Israel does and openly rejects them, can one really blame the Reform for then turning its back on Israel and teaching its members to look at Israel in a more critical way?
Even if Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, wants to be more inclusive of the Reform, as he is sometimes accused of, if in practice he is prevented from doing so then they legitimately feel slighted and rejected. If every time they want to strengthen ties and create a community in Israel living by the way they want to live they are rejected, whether it is funding for their community institutions, or land to build schools or their style of worship or activism or anything else, can one really blame them for then rejecting Israel?
The debate might become the chicken or the egg, did Israel first reject Reform or did Reform first reject Israel, but it seems to me that if the Reform are told the only way they can live in Israel is by Orthodox rules, I wouldn't expect anything different than what the article describes.
And those who regularly reject Reform and their attempts to get closer to Israel should definitely not suddenly be upset when the Reform change their attitude to Israel.
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Israel has definitely rejected Reform, on religious grounds, rather than the other way around. I don't think there's any valid debate about that at all. The only question is: does Reform rejecting Israel matter in any significant way? Reform itself is dying as a Movement. An increasing percentage of those born into Reform families feel little-to-no attachment to Judaism, whatever they feel towards Israel. As a Jewish State, I don't think that Israel need worry about a population that does not identify with it.
ReplyDelete"Classic Reform" prayer services long ago eliminated references to the restoration of our people and Beit HaMikdash in Eretz Yisrael.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a rejection due to Israeli policy. Being typical Americans, the average Reformer probably can't even locate Israel on a map, let alone speak about its religious policies.
ReplyDeleteThis is about political correctness which is the guiding philosophy for Reform - it's politically correct to distance oneself from Israel. That's why they're doing it.
Exactly as Dr. Garnel said. If you look at the Reform movement over a span of, say, 100 years - you will see that they adapt themselves to whatever social trend or notion seems popular with their target audience. Time and again. They do the same with their prayerbook as they do with all their other policies. Other than talking a good line; what happens in Israel doesn't seriously mean much to them.
DeleteReform judaism actively opposed zionism, till the state was established, when they had to accept its popularity among rank and file.
ReplyDeleteThe problem today is that most reform (and conservative) jews actually think that having leftist politicalt beliefs is actual jewish religious practice. After all, being a leftist is good, so its their religion.
Exactly right MiMedinat HaYam. Not too long ago as RAM above also commented, the Reform movement had their prayer books in English and with translation in Hebrew with three paragraphs for the Shmoneh Esrei and no mention of Jerusalem, Zion and the Beit Hamikdash were all eliminated from all their prayers. They are just a mockery of Judaism and will, hopefully, disappear soon. There is no such thing as denominations in Judaism. There might be different customs as we were all scattered around the world taking on different minhagim but our Torah and Tefilot are all the same. There is only one Torah and that is Torah m'Sinai.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally, in my travels, i come across questionable siddurim. The quick way to check is look at musaf yom tov, and check if it deletes the words we shall make korbanot in yerushalayim. If it says 'where our forefathers made korbanot' i know its a conservative siddur.
DeleteJust posted a comment and it was being published but came back, it disappeared - WHY?
ReplyDeletethere's nothing in the spam folder or awaiting moderation, and I didnt delete, so it isnt on my end. there is an anonymous comment just above this - is that yours?
Delete