A recent week was exhausting, but not in the way I’ve become accustomed to as the father of three children in a demanding profession.
It began with the uplifting gala of the Masorti Foundation on April 27 and a conference celebrating 30 years of women’s ordination.
It was immediately followed by the soul-draining news that the haredi Orthodox mayor of Rehovot, Israel, decided to cancel the April 30 b’nei mitzvah ceremony of children with disabilities because it was to be held in a Conservative synagogue.
At the Masorti event, Rabbi Gordon Tucker spoke about the Zionism of love, a new relationship paradigm for the times we find ourselves in. This Zionism is built upon the tenets of any good relationship — quid pro quo, reciprocity and symbiosis. It receives, honors and returns the love it is given.
Yet what took place in Israel is the hallmark of a toxic or abusive relationship. The response to our love was a smack in the face.
For the past 25 years, the Masorti Foundation has been the sole provider of bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies to children with disabilities, a distinction of which we are proud. Such events are a kiddush Hashem, an act that sanctifies God’s name.
At the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, we have a deep commitment to the mitzvah of inclusivity. Funded by the Ruderman Foundation, one of our initiatives is to make our kehillot accessible to every worshipper regardless of ability or need.
The shocking ruling by Mayor Rahamim Malul struck a deep blow; its cynicism and heartlessness was felt around the world. It was the essence of a chilul Hashem, or desecration of God’s name. It left me personally heartbroken.
The Rehovot incident is merely the latest in a string of insults against non-Orthodox Jews in Israel. Although Tucker can preach about promoting the Zionism of love, we are being confronted with the Zionism of fear and prejudice, a Zionism hijacked by an extremist, coercive and inflexible rabbinate.
To be a committed Conservative or Masorti Jew in Israel is to be subjected to assaults against your religious freedom. Some are physical, as evidenced by an attack by haredi men at the Western Wall in April, where a friend had his chest and head pounded. Others are to human dignity, as in the Rehovot case.
I cannot help loving Israel, but lately it seems that Israel does not love me back.
Israel doesn’t want our rabbis, synagogues, schools, camps or, evidently, our brand of pluralistic Judaism. We have to beg for funding at every turn.
Yet if the campaign against non-Orthodox Judaism in Israel is old news, why keep kvetching about it? Why even try to build our communities there?
It is not for my personal sake, nor even my children’s sake — they’re all girls, so the stakes are high.
It is for for the viability of Israel herself. The Zionism of fear and prejudice leads us to a dark and narrow place, obscures the horizon, cuts off the blood supply to the heart of the Holy Land, hastens the expiration date of Herzl’s dream.
I sat in shul during a recent Shabbat marveling at the relevance of the Torah’s teaching. We read the well-known verse that so beautifully encapsulates Judaism’s ethic of kavod ha’briot — respect and dignity for God’s creatures:
“You shall not curse the deaf and you shall not place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God; I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:14).
This is one of a number of instances where God takes the position of personal advocate of the vulnerable individual, reminding the reader that their actions are being observed and overseen.
I wondered how Mayor Malul might trample upon the eight months of intense preparation undertaken by Rabbi Mikie Goldstein of Congregation Adat Shalom-Emanuel, the children, their families and a variety of volunteers, and then attend synagogue on the Shabbat where we are commanded to protect and respect the deaf and blind.
Did he hear the Torah’s message? Is it possible that he is blind to the chilul hashem that he committed, deaf to the disappointment of the children and their families?
For the sake of Zion, I cannot be quiet. I insist on an Israel where all Jews are treated equally before the government.
I insist on an Israel that returns the love that I feel for her, that loves me and mine back with the same passion and commitment.
I worry that the incident in Rehovot, the assaults on non-Orthodox Jews at the Western Wall, the denigration of Conservative and Masorti rabbis and other events, are rapidly becoming the new normal. We cannot allow this.
We have changed the face of contemporary Judaism. Now we must change the face of contemporary Israeli society.
Rabbi Steven C. Wernick is CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
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