Rabbi’s Speech Focuses on Rift Within Judaism

Judaism is no longer one religion and it is time for Reform Jews to break free of Orthodox confines, the head of a Reform rabbinic association says.

In a speech to open the recent five-day convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbi Simeon Maslin said Orthodox direction has become insulting, arrogant and power-hungry to Reform Jews.

“It is all very well to sloganize about how ‘We Are One’ . . . but, in fact, we have ceased to be one, and I strongly advise that we recognize that fact and proceed,” Maslin said. “The time has finally arrived to stop deferring to an Orthodoxy that insults us at every opportunity, an Orthodoxy that considers itself . . . to be the Torah-true Judaism.”

An Orthodox leader said the comments were belligerent and would only serve to further fracture the Jewish religion. And a spokesman for another Jewish group said turbulent times call for unity, not divisiveness.

Maslin’s comments come just weeks after a senior Israeli rabbinate official proposed making the Reform movement a separate religion. And the rabbinic association voted to endorse gay and lesbian marriages--a major theological contradiction for Orthodox Jews.

Maslin sees these actions as a turning point for Reform Jews, a movement that came to the United States in the 1820s from Germany. Reform flourished in the United States as Jews, recently freed from European ghettos, became influenced by non-Jewish society, said Bernard Riesman, a professor in contemporary Jewish studies at Brandeis University.

In surveys conducted by the Council of Jewish Federations, 80 percent of Jews say they are Reform or Conservative, compared to 7% who identify themselves as Orthodox.

Recently, the disparities among the branches of Judaism have attracted international attention. At previous conventions, the rabbinic association has passed resolutions recognizing children of Jewish fathers or mothers--not just of mothers, as the Orthodox believe--as Jews, and has approved non-Jewish clergy to co-officiate at mixed marriages.

Those actions bothered--even offended--many Orthodox Jews, said Rabbi Steven M. Dworken, a leader of the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox organization in New York.

But it was Maslin’s recent words, Dworken said, that have made them angry.

“For a movement that has been promoting pluralism,” he said in a statement, “such rhetorical excesses and belligerence are at best distasteful and at worst proof of ideological self-doubt.”

In a telephone interview, Dworken said the Reform movement was responsible for the dilution of Jewish standards.

“If the rates of intermarriage continue at the rate they’re going, then ultimately . . . there will be a traditional Jewish community and that will be the surviving remnant,” he said.

From a different perspective, Rabbi James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee said he did not agree with Maslin. He said the two sides must continue to work together to build a stronger Judaism.

“The last thing we need is a sense of divisiveness,” Rudin said. “Put on your seat belt, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. But that doesn’t mean the plane’s going to crash.”

An encouraging sign, some observers note, is that in spite of the charged rhetoric, both Dworken and Maslin say they will continue to work with each other.

Riesman said these disputes will not bring the end of Judaism as we know it. But he said the Reform movement is placing Orthodox Jews in an increasingly difficult position.

“The dilemma is very clear, the Bible very unambiguous,” he said. “The Orthodox, they have few choices. But the liberal Jews have opened up writings to new interpretation.”

The recent vote on same-sex marriages, says Riesman, is a perfect example of Reform rabbis endorsing a belief that the Orthodoxy could never accept.

“Leviticus says thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination,” he said. “Understand what it means for any Orthodox Jew to sanction a homosexual union in light of that.”