This week the conflict between liberal and progressive elements in American Jewry and the government of Israel was escalated.
On November 16, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the American Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and others tried to push their way (see video here) into the Western Wall area carrying Torah scrolls in defiance of rules established by the Orthodox authorities that manage the site, intending to pass them to members of the Women of the Wall group, also in violation of the rules. They ultimately succeeded after a shoving match with security guards and ultra-Orthodox protesters.
It should be noted that none of them were arrested, nor did the reaction of the guards rise above the level of shoving (Jacobs was threatened with pepper spray, but not sprayed). It seems clear that the guards made the decision not to use greater force in order not to injure anyone. The behavior of the Haredi protesters was abominable, of course. I don’t know if any of them were arrested, but those guilty of assault should have been.
The New Israel Fund (NIF), an organization that has been criticized for funding groups active in the delegitimization of the Jewish state as well as BDS and lawfare against it, almost immediately organized a joint letter from non-Orthodox rabbis to PM Netanyahu, expressing “outrage.” Would that the NIF might express outrage over the lies, libels and distortions told around the world by their grantee, Breaking the Silence!
The hand of the NIF is seen throughout this conflict. Jacobs himself has a long-time connection to the NIF. Before he was elected to the presidency of the URJ in 2011, he served on its Board of Directors as chair of its committee on religious pluralism. The NIF is a big donor to the Israel Religious Action Center, the NGO arm of the American Reform movement in Israel, which is the main sponsor of the demonstrations at the Western Wall, and which has recently inaugurated a campaignto bring American political correctness and hysteria over race to Israel.
On November 24, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely was criticized by the PM and forced to apologize for remarks that she had made earlier, in which she tried to express the (very true) fact that American Jews are disconnected from the realities of life in Israel, and their criticisms of Israeli policy are often misconceived. Unfortunately she appeared to suggest that American Jews do not participate proportionally in the US military, something which is almost certainly not true. The response was vicious and instantaneous. Despite her clarification, Rick Jacobs of URJ was not satisfied, and called for her to be fired. So far, Netanyahu has resisted the pressure.
On November 27, the Masorti Movement in Israel – associated with the American United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism – released a video attack aimed directly at the PM, accusing him of presenting an “alternative truth” about the Western Wall controversy, and concluding “shame on you, Mr. Prime Minister.” They could have attacked the Haredi parties, which had initially agreed to a compromise, but reneged when their constituents complained. But they chose to blame Netanyahu.
The leaders of non-Orthodox Judaism are spoiling for a fight. The main objective seems to be to create anger among American Jews by telling them over and over how Israel disrespects them. The Western Wall argument is presented as a rejection of Reform and Conservative (i.e., American) customs of mixed-gender prayer, although aside from the provocative actions of Jacobs and his crew, few if any Reform or Conservative Jews have wanted to pray in a mixed group at the Wall (if they had, one would think that at least a few of them would have done so at the location that is set aside for this, despite their objections to the arrangements for access to the site). But the point is not the facts but the “insult” inherent in it.
The same is true for the various crises over attempts to permit or forbid conversions to Judaism in Israel outside the official rabbinate. Israel is accused of treating non-Orthodox Jews as “second-class citizens,” or “delegitimizing” the non-Orthodox Diaspora. Again, the emphasis is not on what the practical effects of legislation might be in Israel or outside of it, but on how it can be construed as insulting to non-Orthodox Jews.
The tactic is simple, and always works. Provoke a confrontation by making demands that anger the Haredim, who then threaten the PM that they will leave the coalition. The PM will look for a compromise – after all, he has a country to run – which can be construed as “submission to the ultra-Orthodox” and insulting to the Diaspora. The Haredim can always be counted on to play their role, including calling the non-Orthodox Jews names and thus increasing the degree of insult.
Orchestrating a physical confrontation, as with the Western Wall security guards, who clearly don’t want trouble, or the helpful Haredi protesters, who clearly do, is another wonderful tactic. Expect more of it.
And then don’t be surprised when, in the next election, Israelis will be told by the opposition not to vote for Netanyahu, because he “damaged our essential relationship with the US.”
The proper response to all of this is that as a sovereign state, we get to determine the rules within our borders. Jacobs thinks that the Western Wall – indeed all of the state of Israel – belongs to world Jewry, and therefore the big machers like him should be able to give us orders. I am willing to agree that in some sense the Western Wall “belongs” to all Jews, but decisions about how it operates must be made by the state in which it is located. And it certainly isn’t appropriate for Jews from America to come here and violate our laws in an attempt to change the rules. This isn’t Birmingham in 1963. It’s about religious customs, not civil rights.
We also get to make our own rules about things like marriage, conversion, divorce and burial for Jews in our country. I and many other Israelis don’t like the ones we have very much, but it isn’t up to Jacobs to try to change them for us. That’s why we have a sovereign state, a democratic state in which we elect our leaders, a state that protects us in return for our fulfilling our (sometimes heavy) obligations to it.
The Reform Movement has an ideology that is a result of the replacement of mitzvah-observance with “tikun olam,” which seems to mean a universalist social-justice ethic that is more at home in Berkeley than Jerusalem. Unfortunately, like the Jews for Jesus, the Reform movement is evangelical in nature, and it won’t be satisfied until it converts the rest of the Jewish world – particularly the uppity Jews of Israel – to its vision of a borderless, multicultural, gender-fluid socialistic worldview. Apparently it has gotten the Conservative Movement (which still maintains a commitment to halacha) on board by exploiting the Western Wall and conversion issues.
The New Israel Fund is in effect the military wing of the Reform Movement, using dollars instead of rockets as weapons. It gives millions of dollars each year to groups working to remake the state of Israel in accordance with its vision, and even to some groups whose goal is to destroy it.
Israel seems to have learned how to deal with evangelical Christians. We will accept their support, but they must understand from the start that trying to change us is out of bounds. Those who nevertheless try to proselytize among us are asked to leave.
Perhaps the same should go for politically evangelical Reform Jews like Rick Jacobs?
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Tut-tut…TWO esses…./ TU double t TUTT.. I think you’re trying a bit of hocus….Let this be the last on this subject, because,as you rightly have said, we should be in Chii-Chat.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
You’re absolutely right…you should have led off the procession…why didn’t you…??
@ Edgar G.:
Belongs in Chit Chat. Time to focuss.
@ yamit82:
Yes, any word at all -when a guy knows everything he KNOWS…. I was like that (up to age 17) but then I met girls, it was one or the other -I chose girls . ….
I grew up with The Stooges. VERY nostalgic; even teary now… They are one of my two favourites, with Laurel and Hardy #1. A sign over their shop door.once said, “Mohicus, Larricus and Curleycue, The Biggest Chiselers in Town”…ancient Roman sculptors. I never grew out of them., just saw with different eyes.
@ Edgar G.:
Slowly, I turned.
@ Edgar G.:
He reminds me of this where any word or phrase can set him off 😉
@ yamit82:
He must have been a trial to his elders when a kid, running away to look in the shop window at Mao’s “Little Red Book”……. or the biographies of Earl Browder, William Z.Foster, etc. He’s grown out of all that and is strong for Israel. Sharp as a (rusty) tack.
@ yamit82:
and the same goes here for your fundamentalist rants.
@ Edgar G.:
Thanks……
@ Edgar G.:
Factious Sebastien Zorn will jump at any opportunity to be dissentious if he is not the center of attention….. I find him quite boorish and tiresome. Stopped reading his self serving long winded monographs most of which are totally irrelevant to any topic on any given thread….
@ Edgar G.:
as for typos, I’ve already accounted for them. Just to save you the bother of getting out your microscope.
i think it’s time for sleep, it’s 3 a.m.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
No accounting for taste true, but as for skill….. there is accounting foe skill. It depends on thr application of the trainee, and above all, his quick grsp and appreciation of what his teacher is imparting. I see you know nothing of this. …Well there’s no accounting for attention deficit disorder.-in others.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I actually have that Katz book, but not where I can get my hands on it.
It’s unfortunate that I’m an “uppity” European”, but a well brought up one, so you shouldn’t be too bothered. You know the old saying “uppity is as uppity does”..
I still prefer my own spelling to the stripped down American way. To many words spelled phonetically, simple ways for simple people….
@ Edgar G.:
We left Europe in the dust a long time ago, little brother. I had my fill of uppity Europeans over here during the Iraq War. And the Katz book you were trying to remember I had just quoted, Palestine Fact and Fiction. He said not more than 420,000 but they didn’t allow a census and it got quickly manipulated to 750,000.
@ Edgar G.:
No accounting for taste. Or skill.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Sorry…Something I forgot….. HA HA HA ..HO HO HO. HEE HEE HEE is that enough laughing…..you got your laugh…….!!
By the way, seeing that I am now focussed, I just looked it up. I read that the American decadent way of ruining the English language insists on “focused” but in England, (and a few miles away in Ireland) Canada, and especially in Australia and New Zealand, it is spelled (or spelt) “focussed”. So my American friend, become informed, don’t be blinded by the size of America, remember that America was mostly peopled by transported felons, hired out for 10-20 years to some farmer or plantation owner, and many had no education at all. Especially after some debilitating British battles which their side lost, they clogged the cross-Atlantic shipping lanes.
By the way, I just unfocussed my interest so no need to respond.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I would, never be sarcastic at Yamit82s expense, your insinuation is grubby. His writing is right on point, nicely phrased and incisive. I liked this last post particularly so I said so. If I want to be sarcstically pretending something or other-whatever you have in your feverish mind- I keep that sort of thing for you, because you’re far more likely to warrant it, or maybe previously for my late nameless buddy, who was obsessed with numbers and their mystical significance decypherable only by him.
Yes I ws, I shudda sed “wuz” I suttingly were. This just gives you something to carp at, keeping your brilliant mind working……You should get a better microscope to examine my posts for pessible errors, which often are not, except in your aforementioned feverish mind…..always working…. working….do you suffer from bd headaches….?? um..?. No doubt you notice the bd…guess which letter I missed out ?
@ Edgar G.:
you ws? I only corrected to get a laugh by correcting your spelling since you were either praising the form of Yamit’s prose or sarcastically pretending to, I honestly couldn’t tell. If the latter, it was brilliantly right on the razor’s edge. “Damning with faint praise,” as they say, or lavish praise. Typos are a given in this medium considering the time constraints and human nature (I had no choice, teach, it was my frail human nature.) The double letters for nuance I was unaware of. You making that up?
@ Edgar G.:
My late uncle, the after-war Labour candidate for Huyton, Liverpool, whose place was taken by Harold Wilson when my uncle resigned, used to actually wear a monocle. He was a doctor so maybe he looked more intelligent that way…??? He was actually brilliant at everything except keeping his wives happy. I’ve mentioned him on here before. What a story, especially how he died-a hero indeed..
@ Sebastien Zorn:
When I went to school we were taught that certain words had double “esses” when used in ways other than the singular.
I know that the American way uses one letter instead of two for many words and I’m sure you often see me used 2 letters, and think…gee, that guy can’t even spell. Well I ws top of a very high grade class at spelling all my school years. If you see a different kind of spelling error it’s most likely a typo because this cursed computer has smaller keys than I’m used to and I don’t often go over what I’ve written. Also if I key a bit too quickly in spots it misses out a letter completely or gets the next one instead. I often see in my posts “thr” instead of “the”, but don’t bother to correct, (just now corrected “nother” to “bother”).
I’m lucky that I can even see, have never had glasses or any eye aids.
@ Edgar G.:
focused.
@ yamit82:
Not doubt about it. You write terrific, succinct stuff. I agree wholeheartedly. You should be writing articles on specific matters and have them published here and elsewhere.
I am very fond of the rounded, well-turned, focussed phrase, from early youth.
BREAKING NEWS
Israel no longer depends on nor needs American Jewry’s support.
Reform Judaism is a typical leftist movement which uses the sophistic device of redefining terms. Reformism dresses the atheism of its flock in arbitrarily redefined Jewish terms rather than seeking the current meaning of ancient terms.
How many people in the average reformist temple believe in God? None, including their lesbian rabbi. The enlightened audience cannot believe in the God who created the Earth and listens to our prayers. Liberal Jews cannot stand the concept of their own chosenness. Jews with analytical minds refuse to believe that God spoke to us from Mount Sinai and gave us every commandment. Even if they had believed in God’s existence, that would be of no practical consequence to them. If the Torah is not of divine origin, what should we make out of God’s existence? What laws should we follow? Reformists, therefore, fall into the comfortable position that they follow those commandments which fit their pan-human consciences. Here comes a vicious circle: they test the religion against the ethics, and consequently their religion is always narrower than even their ethics. And their “Judaism” is indistinguishable from the ethical maxims of a well-mannered Swede.
Reformism has no firm values or doctrines, only the lack thereof. In reform “Judaism,” there is not a single value or doctrine which is specifically Jewish. Reformists explicitly reject Jewish uniqueness by their leftist outreach to gentiles. They talk of things too universalist even for Lenin, of repairing the entire world and of social justice for all. Never mind that social justice for some means unjustly robbing others, and repairing the world in Africa means neglecting the Jews Under attack in Israel like Shderot.
In Reform Judaism, there is no reason to remain Jewish; a Jew is no different from others. In fact, reformists explicitly promote interfaith dialogue meant to prove that Jews are similar to others. What possible reason is there to be Jewish, to bear specifically Jewish children? One reason is racism: my ancestors were so good that I don’t want to mix with you, who are the offspring of other ancestors; that sounds abominable. Two, cultural chauvinism: Jewish culture is superior to others or at least valuably unique, so I want to continue it; never mind that Jews embraced the culture of the nations among whom we lived, and there is little in common between the Sephardi and Ashkenazi cultures. Three, because God chose us to be his people, and both I and my children must obey his will; this is the only moral reason. It has, however, a problem: reformists reject the absolute authenticity of the Torah, imagine some commandments to be obsolete, and therefore can never be sure that Jewish chosen-ness is both authentic and currently valid.
Well said. Hotovely should get an award -not punished. The reform Jewish movement in the West is becoming more antisemitic by the moment!@ Sebastien Zorn:
@ Sebastien Zorn:Very well stated. Rabbi Rick Jacobs appeared before a Presbyterian assembly considering endorsing BDS. Jacob spoke against the pending resolution. However, he acknowledged the evils of the “occupation”, etc. according to some associates were present for his talk.
They estimated that he tilted three votes that were going to be against the resolution in favor the resolution and it passed.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I think 2 lines pretty short. The other 2 1/2 lines are about the Reform crappers and obviously, glaringly, have nothing to do with your gospelling. I didn’t accuse you of singing “Abide with me” or anything like… just a surprise at your little… “slip” of the cheek.
@ Edgar G.:
Know another short-hand way of saying it?
These Israel hating provocateurs should be interdicted upon arrival in Israel and interrogated for names and information about their big pocketed supporters and other associates who will then also be treated likewise if they come to Israel.
We don’t need them, they are a liability not a help anymore.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Sebastien I’m surprised at you for using “the other cheek” (like using the West Bank instead of Judea and Samaria (or YESHA)). It’s not from the Torah but from the Gospels -I think Matthew.
The Reform don’t even believe in Halacha, the eser Ha MItzvot nor indeed in anything that Jews normally believe in. Meyer Wise wanted to get away from Judaism and the Torah . They even built their “synagogues” to look like churches.
Common sense: Why should I (or anyone) care about being sensitive to the opinions or desires of anyone who neither has my back nor the ability to harm me?
I heard that speech, I can’t find the video now, she never said anything about proportionality. It was clear that she was saying that as Americans, and like most Americans, most American Jews do not serve in the military or fight in wars. It’s true. We have no draft. Moreover, most liberals despise the military, irrespective of religion or ethnicity.
She was right. Americans have no business telling Israelis how to live, Jewish or not, especially, when they keep pressuring Israelis to turn the other cheek to terrorists and give up the land to these charlatans who call themselves, “Palestinians.”
Foreign liberals, it doesn’t really matter if they are Jewish except they are claiming the right to have a say on that basis, are such hypocrites. They openly call for violating Jewish civil and property rights and have no concern at all for the safety of Israeli Jews and they jump on the bandwagon of every international attack, no matter how trivial. Do they ever trumpet Israel’s successes? No. They neither know nor care.
American Jews mostly supported HIllary Clinton who compared Israel to Iran because of a brief experiment in one ultra-orthodox neighborhood of having gender segregated buses that was later struck down by the courts.
Even when she introduced Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch to Congress, did you hear her speech? I did. It’s online. She objected to the brainwashing of Palestinian Arab youth to kill Jews on the grounds that it was depriving them of a childhood!
Designated yeller.