Declaration by Ultra-Orthodox Group Intensifies Debate Among Jews

Philosopher Bertrand Russell observed that “Fanaticism is the gravest danger there is.” Fanatics grip their “truth” as if it was exclusively presented to them, and they ride on the conviction that those who oppose them are not only “wrongheaded” but should be roundly denounced as enemies, sometimes murdered. Such fanatics are found in every religious and, alas, in many political communities today. They are a part of what sociologist Peter Berger identifies as the anxious and, often, terrified response to modernity. Whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish, such religious extremists always leave behind the same message: “We, and we alone, have the truth from yesterday, and we, and we alone, will decipher and enforce it for you today.”

Little wonder that many of us in the Jewish community are so outraged by the latest grandstanding of the fanatical Union of Orthodox Rabbis in declaring “that Reform and Conservative are not Judaism at all.” The vicious attack of this tiny fringe of Jewish Orthodoxy not only questions the spiritual integrity of 90% of all North American Jews, but it mocks the meaning of Judaism and the historic unity of the Jewish people.

The Torah, or “teachings of Judaism,” have never been the exclusive property of one segment of the Jewish people. Moses was told to hand Torah down to the people. Nor was the Torah solely the possession of the priests, prophets, rabbis, Sadducees and Pharisees, of Hillel or Shammai, Rashi or Moses Maimonides.

Judaism is a vibrant democracy of interpretations, of minority opinions in one age becoming majority opinions in another. Diversity of opinions, often argued passionately, is the hallmark of our legacy.

Jews are a people who have cherished and promoted the dialectic of differing views about God and Torah. We have never had, nor have, a single individual or group empowered to define our faith and traditions forever. Even among our “Orthodox” there are many differing communities and points of view. The Baal Shem Tov had it correct when he taught that “Torah is interpreted in accordance with the age.”

Judaism is a vibrant legacy because its Torah is not the exclusive property of one group of rabbis, but remains open to many applications and meanings--a glorious and exciting challenge to all Jews whether they are Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Orthodox or secular.

But the seriousness of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis charge goes beyond their fallacious assertion that they alone posses the “true” interpretation of Torah. Their arrogant declaration that Reform and Conservative Jews should “withdraw from their heretical temples and clergy” is a brazen attack on the cherished value of respect for other Jews and for Jewish unity.

When one segment of Jews seeks to disenfranchise another, they do great harm to the Jewish community. They pollute the air of cooperation between us. With their malicious twisting of facts, their deliberate and demeaning lies about Reform and Conservative Jews “altering, misrepresenting and distorting Jewish law to further their assimilationist aims,” the Union of Orthodox Rabbis sows suspicion and hostility in our midst. They poison our local federations, our fund-raising campaigns, our rescue and relief work for Jews in desperate need throughout the world, and our support for the state of Israel.

And where is the gumption for such action on the part of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis coming from? Much of it derives from Israeli Orthodox political parties who now occupy 23 seats in the Knesset.

Over the past weeks, these parties have pressured the Netanyahu government to push forward a bill that will declare illegitimate all conversions performed by Reform and Conservative rabbis in Israel. They have introduced legislation that will turn the historical wall in Jerusalem into a “synagogue,” thus allowing Orthodox rabbinical authorities alone to dictate the form of prayer offered there. These same parties have stirred riots over closing streets on Shabbat, have pressured for the shutdown of art exhibits they considered objectionable, and recently stormed a Jehovah Witnesses Church in Lod, desecrating the building with graffiti and harassing worshipers.

These efforts of fanatics in Israel, together with the “declaration” of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, all follow a similar stratagem. First, they seek to de-legitimize their victims. Then, feeling justified, they plunge the sword into the Jewish body, just as one of their Israeli leaders last August interpreted and justified the biblical story of Pinchas’ zealotry in murdering Zimri as an example of what Reform Jewish leaders deserved.

It is time for such teachers of contempt to be denounced. The moment has arrived for moderate Orthodox leaders to censure them with a force of Jewish conscience. And it is time to send a message to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the state of Israel should no longer be held hostage to such dangerous extremism.

Harvey J. Fields is senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel.