Speaking to Army Radio, the minister said, \u201cLet\u2019s just say there\u2019s a problem as soon as a Reform Jew stops following the religion of Israel. I can\u2019t allow myself to say that such a person is a Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThese are Jews that erred along the way, and we must ensure that every Jew comes back into the fold of Judaism, and accept everyone happily and with love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The stupidity of this remark is magnified by the fact that he\u2019s wrong. Not spiritually wrong. He\u2019s wrong by his own standards.<\/p>\n
Jewish law considers anyone who is the child of a Jewish mother to be a Jew. Even Jews who convert to another religion are still considered Jews. This is not an obscure rule. There is an enormous body of Jewish law that addresses these issues.<\/p>\n
When someone like Azulai says that Reform Jews are not Jews, he really means that Reform Judaism is not Judaism and that Reform rabbis are not real rabbis. Why this is news is what\u2019s really surprising. Probably because of his venal language and the fact that he said it to a secular reporter.<\/p>\n
There are Reform Jews who are not Jews by their lights. These are the Reform (and Conservative and Reconstructionist and Renewal) converts. Which brings me to conversion, which is the real issue in Israel.<\/p>\n
As most people know, only Orthodox rabbis may conduct conversions in Israel. Orthodox Jews in general and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews in particular are extremely ungenerous with their conversion requirements. They demand of their converts full compliance with Jewish law. The Haredim take the strictest approach while more modern Orthodox rabbis are a tad more flexible. But the vast majority of Orthodox rabbis of any flavor are unlikely to perform conversions for people who intend to live as non-Orthodox Jews.<\/p>\n
The previous Israeli government instituted a tiny, but potentially meaningful reform, when it\u00a0decided to permit\u00a0conversions by\u00a0local rabbinical councils some of which are staffed by more moderate\u00a0Orthodox rabbis. This\u00a0might have made it a bit easier for the hundreds of thousands of \u201cnon-Jewish\u201d Jews, mostly Russians of patrilineal Jewish descent. That decision was reversed this week. Conversion has now reverted to the central rabbinate\u2019s monopoly, dominated by the most severe Haredi rabbis.<\/p>\n
As a Secular Humanistic Jew, I don\u2019t have anything to do with conversions. We view Judaism as a culture and we welcome all comers. We\u2019re also more or less alone in this approach. Even the most liberal theistic Jews have their own rules and regulations for signing up. I remember a Reform rabbi (it might have been me) saying, \u201cWhat? They\u2019re going to go outside, put their hand on a rock and say, \u2018I\u2019m a Jew,\u2019 and we\u2019re supposed to accept that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well\u2026yes.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t need to be an exclusive club. We are a tiny and ever-diminishing people whose numbers have just barely caught up with where we were before the Holocaust. You\u2019d think we\u2019d want to grow our ranks. As long as conversion is still the gold standard for acceptance in our little tribe, why wouldn\u2019t Israel want to ease the way for hundreds of thousands of self-identifying Jews to make their Jewishness \u201cofficial\u201d?\u00a0Unlike the Haredim, these Jews actually contribute something to the nation\u2019s defense and economy. They\u2019re already Jews in all the ways that should matter. They simply have the \u201cwrong\u201d maternal grandmother. It makes no sense.<\/p>\n
Sigh. Since I embraced secular humanism,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0come to realize that a lot of what the Jews do makes no sense.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The newly-appointed Israeli Minister of Religious Services, David Azulai, has said something stupid. This puts him well within the tradition of his ultra-Orthodox (Sephardic) Shas Party where saying something stupid is a daily event. This stupid comment was stupid enough to be covered by\u00a0the New York Times: Speaking to Army Radio, the minister said, \u201cLet\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":2801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,20,24,31,39],"class_list":["post-2800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-haredim","tag-israel","tag-liberal-judaism","tag-orthodox-judaism","tag-secular-humanistic-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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