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March 19, 1999/2 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 25
Jews worldwide follow pluralism debate
AVI MACHLIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - After Friday night services conclude at Congregation Israelita Paulista in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and some 1,000 members of the Reform temple mill about and socialize, conversation often turns to the latest news about the pluralism conflict in Israel.
"There is a lot of talk about the issues in Israel, especially over the past few months," says Rabbi Henry Sobel, who heads Latin America's biggest synagogue. "People want to hear what the rabbis have to say. Even though the reality is very far from Israel, Brazilian Jews feel tremendously affected. What sustains Jews in the Third World is Israel and Israeli society."
Sobel was among the group of Reform rabbis from around the world who gathered in Jerusalem last week for the World Union for Progressive Judaism's 29th international convention. The pluralism battle in Israel topped the agenda at the meeting of the Reform movement's world body and dominated talk in the corridors, especially issues such as the recognition of liberal conversions and the right of non-Orthodox Israelis to serve on municipal religious councils - topics that have been straining Israel-Diaspora relations.
In Great Britain, Reform Jews - who make up about 25 percent of the country's Jewish population of 200,000, are also closely monitoring the pluralism debate. Like Jews in the United States, British Jews feel insulted by the way Israel's Orthodox establishment is treating liberal Jews. In Europe and Britain, "people are increasingly disturbed by what they read in the papers," according to Dr. Leo Hepner, a London Reform Jew and the chairman of the European region of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
"Reform Jews in Britain are very proud of their status," he says. "They have followed liberal and progressive Judaism for many generations, and the implication by the Orthodox establishment in Israel that Reform Judaism is a synthetic form of Judaism and an import from the West is insulting."
"The average man in the synagogue is so worried that he tends now to say, 'If my donations are used for this kind of thing, I would rather keep my funds at home,' "says Hepner.
In South Africa, Reform Jews are keeping in touch with what goes on in Israel, but they are somewhat less concerned about the issue because the transition from apartheid has led to enormous domestic turmoil and a sharp upswing in violent crime.
Rabbi Hillel Avidan, a pulpit rabbi at a Reform synagogue in Johannesburg and chairman of the Southern African Association of Progressive Rabbis, says domestic turmoil and an affirmative action program that is making it difficult for whites to find jobs is causing many of South Africa's 80,000 Jews to emigrate. Last year, some 2,000 Jews left the country, mostly to Australia for economic reasons. Only a small percentage chose Israel.
Even in Hong Kong, the community of 3,000 Jews - mostly expatriate businessmen, journalists and academics from North America - cannot ignore the pluralism debate. Rabbi Jordan Cohen, from the United Jewish Congregation of Hong Kong, says the community's interest in the issue stems from its own internal struggles.
"There is a lot of tension between us," he says, adding that the Orthodox and Reform Jews find themselves competing for space in the local Jewish community center.
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