It has always been realistic for Reform Jews to adopt and adapt daily 
Jewish rituals. Today more than ever those are less and less the 
exclusive possessions of Orthodoxy. How we respond to the demands of 
the mitzvot is up to us. The obligation to seek, study, be informed 
and act remains within our individual capacity and part of our free 
will. We are not free from the obligation even if it is unconscious 
to become more aware of mitzvot, doing them and in so doing building 
the foundation of the relationship with the Eternal.

Bill Hess
New Orleans

I would be reluctant to see a visit to a mikveh made a requirement for converts.  I believe it is a personal choice. One of the Rabbis has made the point of "Informed Choice".  I agree, we should learn about the traditions and rituals of our faith.  But the decision to participate in a particular observance is a personal one.  My emphasis in this note is the inclusiveness of Reform and my reluctance to see a monolithic regimen required for all.  I can recognize the criticism of the risk of too indivual a personal a faith, with Chinese menu choices of different items from Column A and Column B of ritual.

Irving Kuntz

I was astounded by Michael Chernick’s comments about giving up on religious schools’ role in creating Reform Jews who can make informed choices.  He is asking the wrong question and therefore getting the wrong answer.  The question he should be asking is “What role can congregations (with or without Day Schools) play in creating Reform Jews who can make informed choices?”  If he asks that question, there is a tremendous amount that can be done and some congregations are already doing it.  While I understand the movement’s new interest in cultivating Reform Day Schools, I hope that we don’t give up on the 80%+ who don’t go to them and the very large percentage who never will.

Amy Asin

Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA

Assistant Director, The Experiment in Congregational Education

I find myself wishing you would include a female rabbi in this dialogue – or perhaps in a future dialogue. I don’t normally have a “knee-jerk feminist” response to such things; generally I see the two individuals involved in the dialogue simply as two individuals (not representing stereotypical “male” or “female” perspectives).  But given the powerful role mikvah has played (for better and for worse) in the lives of Jewish women, I feel something missing.

Laura Rosenthal

I agree with Rabbi Chernick that religious schools are in a bind.  However, there are possibilities for teaching informed choice during the b'nai mitzvah year and with teens.  In teaching our 7th grade midweek curriculum on mitzvot, prayer and Torah study, our study is framed by the principle of informed choice.  I teach the students about a range of Jewish practices of both ethical and ritual mitzvot and then have them choose practices to try out over the course of one or more weeks.  It's a small beginning, but I believe that planting these seeds will bear fruit, perhaps sometimes in unexpected ways.  If religious school teachers, even with younger grades, understand the principle of informed choice they can teach it in subtle ways.

Abbe Lyons
B'nai mitzvah educator
Congregation Tikkun v'Or
Ithaca, NY