An Impending Split? The Ultra-Orthodox and Everyone Else

by Daniel E. Levenson, ALM

July 27, 2010

Over the past few months things have been heating up in the Israel political and judicial system over the question of who is a Jew, and in a larger sense, who gets to make that decision. Apparently this is such a big story that even the New York Times has devoted digital ink to it, with reporter Ethan Bronner noting in a piece on the NY Times website that: “The more liberal forms of Jewish practice advocated by the Reform and Conservative movements, with which most American Jews are affiliated, have never taken root here. Israel has left liturgy in the hands of the Orthodox, with most Israeli Jews leading almost completely secular lives, seeking out rabbis only at birth, marriage and death.”

In this piece, Mr. Bronner notes (I believe correctly) that there is a good reason behind the outraged reaction of American Jews opposed to the idea of the conversion process coming completely under the control of the Orthodox Rabbinate within Israel. This opposition is rooted in the idea that such a move will endanger the legitimacy of conversions which take place under the authority of other rabbinic courts or Jewish movements. I believe that this is a legitimate concern – allowing an increasingly isolationist ultra-Orthodox community to take complete control of the conversion process is a terrible idea. At a time when Diaspora-Israel relations are already strained, such a move would only further alienate Jews from one another and might very well cause an irreparable break between the ultra-Orthodox and the rest of world Jewry.

This latest battle between the ultra-Orthodox and the rest of the Jewish world is yet another sign that they are a community which is increasingly out of touch, not only with modern Israeli society, but with core Jewish values as well. Just because they have been able to take control of matters of Halakha in Israel does not give them the right to ignore the nullify decisions made by other rabbis, other bet-dins and other Jewish communities. Judaism has not had one center of authority since the Temple was destroyed and Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaism we practice today, has evolved over the last two thousand years, in the way that it has, precisely because it has left room for debate and discussion between different authorities and communities.

The efforts by the ultra-Orthodox to consolidate power over deciding who is a Jew is not only an affront to Reform and Conservative Jews, but I believe, to Rabbinic Judaism itself. When they say that they are only ones who can determine someone’s status as a Jew they are insulting everyone from Rabbi Akiva to the Rambam to Heschel, all of whom were a part of a grand tradition of Jewish inquiry and discussion. While Prime Minister Netanyahu may have brought a temporary halt to the progress of this bill in the Knesset, the threat remains that it will regain momentum in the future. When and if it does, we in the Diaspora must join with other moderate Jews in Israel to resist the setting of this dangerous precedent; I for one believe that the future unity of the Jewish people depends on it.

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2010.