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March 5, 1999/17 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 23
Let's let pluralism happen
R. BERNARD MANN
The Jewish Outlook
The Israeli conversion controversy is much more than a turf war, promulgated by Orthodox Jews who want to keep their power - and the donations that flow with conversions. It calls the far more compelling question, Who is a Jew? that engenders real soul-searching.
It deals with the contention that the Reform and Conservative movements are lax in their acceptance of outsiders into the Jewish fold, with the implication that outsiders dilute and weaken the Jewish people and its commitment to Torah and God. Then there is the fear that assimilation will be at work as well, with Reform and Conservative tenets leading the way into a loss of Jewish identity within the non-Jewish majority.
Let's take the outsiders question first. Intermarriage has always been a troubling issue for our people, small in numbers and subject to adversities throughout history. There is the potential for disregard of Jewish values and pride in the intermarried family - and for its separation and loss from the people as a whole. The Bible tells us of Solomon's foreign wives and Ahab's Jezebel, who brought their idols with them to their married homes. If these women were the standard - particularly in the case of the exceedingly cruel Jezebel - intermarriage is a sad story, indeed.
But the truth is that there are far more numerous examples of intermarriages that not only failed to weaken Jewish tradition, but energized and strengthened it. Consider Joseph, who married an Egyptian princess. Their children, Ephraim and Menashe, grew to be the largest of the Hebrew populations in ancient Israel. Moses married Tsippora, a Midianite. Consider Ruth, the Moabite, great-grandmother of David, whose genes surely contributed one eighth part of the sweet psalmist's monumental talents.
And what of modern-day intermarriages? I have no statistics at hand, but I have known some wonderful examples of individuals, born of other faiths who married into Jewish families and converted to Judaism, who have contributed tremendously to the Jewish community and its faith. A woman who converted to Judaism on her first marriage, became a bat-mitzvah even after that marriage failed, and edited a Jewish newspaper for years. A Lebanese Maronite Christian who converted to Judaism upon marrying his Jewish bride and has contributed ever since to encouraging young people throughout the Jewish community to learn and practice Jewish values. A man who was born Christian, converted to Judaism upon marriage, and has been a pillar of a Conservative congregation.
One thinks back to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, combing through the ruins of Solomon's Temple, destroyed so absolutely 50 years before, wondering how to ensure that nothing would again be done to displease God so earthshakingly, and concluding that every Judahite ought to abandon his non-Jewish wife. How absolutely cruel and misled. These women would have contributed much to the posterity of the Jewish people. They would have added strength in numbers and the qualities of Ruth. And the assumption on which this madness was based - the theodical premise that God creates calamities for the Jewish people because the Jewish people has done something wrong - is far worse than an unjustified guilt-trip. It is a suggestion that all the atrocities and martyrdoms that Jews have suffered over the centuries were brought upon our forebears because of the insufficiency of their piety and God's displeasure.
This is not only misguided thinking, it is simply not good Judaism. Not part of and not consistent with the Jewish concept of a just, compassionate, loving, and forgiving God. Not in tune with the basic rationality of Abraham that concluded that evil spirits and gods-under-the-rocks could not possibly exist, that there could only be a single God of goodness that strove to create a harmonious world. The guilt-trip ridden path of theodicy is essentially at great odds with Judaism's core values.
Then there's that assimilation charge. "Clearly, this ruling ... means that there will be assimilation in the State of Israel, just as the Reform and Conservative caused the terrible assimilation in the United States." So predicted one of Israel's two chief rabbis, R' Eliahu Bakshi Doron, upon receiving news of the Jerusalem district court's decision.
But isn't there something amiss here, too? First of all, the majority of Israel's Jews - well, let's say from the very young to the forties-something - are already "terribly assimilated", from Orthodoxy's own perspective, into the country's flesh-pot and fresh-pop society. They exercise no religious expression other than participation in family Passovers and national Purims and Chanukot. Would Reform and Conservative congregations in Israel worsen the situation? I believe they would better it, for there would be a greater diversity of voices in the wilderness - and some of the lost hearts and souls might begin to listen to Judaism's teachings, heard from newer bimot.
Secondly, the American Reform and Conservative - together with Reconstructionist and other latter day movements - far from fostering assimilation, have fashioned the parachutes and life-rafts that have allowed millions of Jews to stay, happily and creatively as modernists, under the broad mantle of Judaism. What is more, they have attracted new men and women to Judaism is 4,000 year old tradition. Had Orthodoxy been the only Jewish alternative, America's Jewish population would only be a fraction of what it is today.
Pluralism within Judaism will have great value for the Jewish community of the future, both within Israel and in the Diaspora. Let's let it happen. And water it with good measures of tolerance, justice, love, and compassion.
R. Bernard Mann writes for the Jewish Outlook in Austin, TX.
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