Israelis for years rejected Reform as an import. They imported jeans
and Coca Cola with enthusiasm – but pluralism and egalitarianism were
stopped at the border...
-Rabbi Naamah Kelman-Ezrahi, dean of HUC Jerusalem, at the Israel Biennial
The Reform movement in Israel recently held its biennial convention,
at the beautiful Shefayim convention center on the bluffs overlooking
the Mediterranean, just south of Netanyah. The weather was perfect, and
the atmosphere festive. A thousand laymen and communal professionals
gathered from the movement's congregations throughout the country,
including lots of teenagers from the youth movement and the pre-army
preparatory program in Yaffo. Students in the Israeli rabbinical program
of HUC (i.e., Israelis studying to be rabbis) were very much in
evidence, playing key roles in planning and running the program, leading
worship, and facilitating workshops. There were musical worship
services, study sessions, workshops, and plenaries – and no free time:
the Shabbat was packed with programming. Four new congregations were
admitted to the movement. Veteran leaders were honored.
In
addition to the "inside" goals of the gathering – strengthening the
bonds between members and between communities, supporting each other,
learning from each other – there was a strong emphasis on the "outside"
goal: Reaching out to Israeli society. Thus, awards were presented to
best-selling author Yochi Brandes and musician Shlomo Gronich, both
popularizers of Jewish culture, who have shown sympathy and support for
the movement – and are bona fide celebrities. In addition, leaders of
most major political parties showed up to express their identification
with the movement and their promises to support it. On the one hand, one
can see this as "politics as usual." On the other, as many speakers
pointed out, it wasn't so many years ago that celebrities and especially
politicians were far less willing publicly to identify with the Reform
movement. One can dismiss these pilgrimages as "pandering," but there is
something gratifying in the realization that these leaders think we are
worth pandering to, even with our small numbers. And in fact, knowing
what we know about most of them, their support was sincere – and their
willingness to go public with it was an indication of how far we've
come.
Coincidentally, just a few days before the convention, the Supreme
Court ruled that non-Orthodox rabbis are entitled to state salaries like
Orthodox ones. This was the culmination of a legal battle that had been
fought long and hard by Rabbi Miri Gold of Kibbutz Gezer, and the
Israel Religious Action Center. So the convention was one big
celebration of this first government recognition of our religious
leadership. It is interesting to consider: if we are opposed to the
intertwining of the authority of religion and state, and believe in
separation, then how is it that we are so thrilled with this outcome –
which initiates our rabbis into the very unholy alliance about which
we've been complaining for years? Which is better – that no rabbis
should be paid state salaries – or that we should get them too? Or maybe
we should adopt a European model of autonomous recognized religious
communities, funded by the state. But now that we're to be part of "the
system," how motivated will we be to change it? In any case, such doubts
were not part of the celebratory discourse of the convention, and
indeed, there was good reason to rejoice, as the decision proved that
fairness and common sense do have a voice in the Israeli judicial
system, even in the context of the fraught topic of the definition of
Judaism in the Jewish state. It's worth mentioning, too, that this court
decision was a major front page headline in all the media. The liberal
movements may still be a small minority, but year by year more and more
Israelis are forced to come to terms with our existence as part of the
spiritual landscape of the country, as significant contributors to the
developing Israeli Jewish identity.
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