NO LONGER A JEW
When I awoke last Saturday morning, I did what I always do, reached over and turned on the radio. And I experienced, first-hand, a possible reason for the Orthodox prohibition against switching on a circuit on Shabbat. For, if I had not turned on the radio, I would have never learned that I was no longer considered a Jew.
Apparently, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada declared that Reform and Conservative movements are "not Judaism."
This radio soundbite stayed with me the rest of the day. If I had believed the Rabbis' pronouncement, I might have become very depressed. I might have thought, while in Torah Study that morning, "What am I doing here?" I might have thought the presenter should have spent his time catching up on his sleep, rather than helping us better understand Leviticus and the temple sacrifices.
Upstairs, during the Shabbat services, I might have thought, "Poor deluded Bat Mitzvah, your years of study, your shining proficiency, your thoughtful drosh, all for nothing!"
That afternoon, after lunch and our naps, as my husband and I brought out our books and continued our study of Hebrew, I might have thought, "What's the point? If we are no longer Jews, the hell with it! Let's put a pork roast in the oven and go out and mow the lawn!"
I might have thought all of that, but I didn't. You see, I know who I am. I am a Reform Jew.
But for all that day, I wondered who it was who could
have made such a statement,
- on the Shabbat before
Purim, as we read of
Haman's plot to kill all the Jews of ancient Persia;
- on Shabbat Zakhor,
as we recall what
Amalek had done to
us;
- on the Shabbat after a suicide bomber had killed
himself and three Israelis in Tel Aviv;
I wondered who could so easily wish to wipe out millions of Reform and Conservative Jews with the stroke of a pen?
I truly think that these rabbis mean well--they think they are preserving the Torah and their special interpretation of it. But I believe they are frequently boxed in by this interpretation. Irving Greenberg, a well-known Orthodox rabbi and the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership said, in response, that the statement "does not represent the consensus of the whole community." He went on to explain, "Orthodox Jews lack a theology that affirms a pluralistic view of religious Judaism."
I can understand this. But if there is one thing that should bring us together as Jews it is the deep knowledge, burned into us by harm done to our people over the ages in the name of religious fervor, of how easy it is to go from righteousness to zealotry and from zealotry to destruction. It is those who cross the line between zealotry and destruction who are no longer Jews.
ref 3/29/97
References
Cohen, Debra Nussbaum, "Tiny rabbinical group under fire for disavowing non-Orthodox," Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, March 28, 1997, p 1.
Niebuhr, Gustav, "Rabbi group is set to denounce Non-Orthodox," New York Times, March 24, 1997, p A9.
A Message to the Jewish Community. Text of an advertisement by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations in America and the Rabbinical Council of America published in The New York Times, Sunday, April 6, 1997, Section 4 (Week in Review), p. 7.
Tobin, Jonathan S., "Jews must devote more time to uniting, not dividing, " Northern California Jewish Bulletin, April 4, 1997.
5/16/98
© 1997 Rosemarie E. Falanga, Cy H. Silver