Recharging Reform Judaism

Just over a month ago, a unique gathering of Reform Jews occurred in the heart of New York City’s West side, at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue near Central Park. The convening group, Re-Charging Reform Judaism, is not part of the Reform Movement’s hierarchy, but its conference at the Stephen Wise Synagogue has become a major force for putting new energy into the Reform Movement in North America. Over 300 people attended.

The speaker and guest list was impressive, including Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of New York’s Central Synagogue, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, and many other well known Rabbis and other leaders, like Professor Andrew Rehfeld, president of the Hebrew Union College and Conference Chair Mark S. Anshan of Toronto, the lay organizer of the Conference.

There were significant figures from Israel as well such as Anna Kislanski, head of the Israel Movement for Reform Judaism (IMPJ) and her former Deputy, David Bernstein, Yaron Shavit, Deputy Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Rabbi Meir Azari, Senior Rabbi of the Beit Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism in Israel, among others. Plus we heard from Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States and Yaakov Hagoel, Chair of the World Zionist Organization. Clearly an influential, if not official, part of Judaism.

Post conference publicity has made much of the debate between Rabbi Hirsch and HUC President Rehfeld about whether the Hebrew Union College should ordain as Reform Rabbis anti Zionists who do not support the existence of a Jewish state in Israel. While important, this debate did not actually define this rather impressive conference. Our purpose, as reflected in the four adopted conference Resolutions, lay in strengthening the Reform Movement. The actual outcome of the conference thus focused on Reform’s commitment to Jewish Peoplehood throughout the world, to improving Jewish education, enhancing spiritual depth of Reform Congregations, and finding innovative ways of getting more Reform Jews to participate in synagogue life. Not headline grabbing but critical to the success of North America’s largest by far denomination of Judaism.

I myself am a member of the Governing Board of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. I am also a member of the Union for Reform Judaism Commission on Social Action. So for me and others, the emphasis in this conference had to focus on the common bonds of Jewish peoplehood between Progressive Jewish movements in North America and in Israel. We are brethren, we need each other. Rabbi Hirsch’s father, Rabbi Richard Hirsh, z”l., moved the headquarters of the international Reform Movement (WUPJ) to Jerusalem in 1973 because he felt that Reform, which started out denying Jewish peoplehood, would not thrive in North America in the long run unless it also had roots in Israel as well.

In furtherance of this belief, David Bernstein, formerly of IMPJ, and I obtained the agreement of the conference organizing team to let us have a session on how to support Israel at a time when its government is seriously misbehaving. It is allowing rogue settlers free reign to oppress Palestinian farmers in the West Bank, attacking the Israeli Supreme Court, which is the only check on the plenary power of the Knesset to extinguish democracy in Israel, allowing assaults on our progressive brethren in Israel to go unpunished, and giving more and more power over Israeli life to the regressive Chief Rabbinate. Plus, we have the additional insults of cabinet officials Smotrich and Ben- Gvir who give support to those who attack Israel as genocidal.

I moderated the panel which was otherwise all Israeli, including Rabbi Azeri, Deputy Director Shavit, and IMPJ leaders Kislanski and Bernstein. We showed our 50 or so attendees that while we in the Reform Movement had to be together,  Zionism did not mean supporting this government. We cannot be deterred by those who hate our Jewish state unconditionally and anti semitically but we liberal Jews have to work together, here and in Israel and throughout the world, to restore the vision of the Israel Declaration of Independence of Israel and indeed our Torah as a source of Justice and a light to the Nations.

The path ahead is not easy. The recent New York elections supposedly show that the space for Reform Zionism has narrowed. But a few elections in Manhattan cannot end the effort to secure Israeli existence and protect our fellow Jewish Israelis from the genocidal objectives of Hamas and Hezbollah while opposing much of what its government does. We must and will persist. Reform Zionism is badly needed to heal the world. We will heal as we Recharge Reform Judaism. The two are inextricably linked.