Will the Knesset sever ties with Diaspora Jewry?

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Sunday July 18, 2010


Will the Knesset sever ties with Diaspora Jewry?

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Posted by Rabbi Andrew Sacks


It was all smiles last week as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and
US President Barack Obama reminded us all of the unbreakable,
eternal, bond that links the two countries. It was just a short time
ago that relations seems strained and everyone did his/her best to
put on a happy face.

But if only the Jewish people could crow about this sense of unity.
If only we could feel confident that Israel is seen as a high
priority in the North American Jewish community.

But the facts, quite sadly, point to frightening trends. Many younger
Jews, often educated Jews, do not place a Israel at the center of
their Jewish identity. Most have never visited. Fewer today support
Israel financially.

Some who support Israel through more liberal Zionist organizations
(e.g. JStreet, Americans for Peace Now, The New Israel Fund) are,
quite sadly, dismissed as self-haters.

The Jewish Agency, which many have come to see as having outlived its
usefulness - primarily as an organization concerned with Aliyah - has
now started to focus on helping to build a new Jewish/Zionist
identity, through education and experiential programs

I am a believer of our need to build a Zion that is compatible with
our dreams. Herzl saw the establishment of a Jewish state not as the
completion of the Zionist dream. He wrote:
Zionism, as I understand it, is not solely about the desire to
acquire a legally secure piece of real estate for our downtrodden
people, after all, but also about the desire to grow towards moral
and spiritual perfection."

It is for this reason the Diaspora Jewry has not only the right, but
even the obligation, to become actively involved in the rebuilding of
our Zionist dream. This dream has been largely hijacked by the
minority of non (or anti) Zionist Zealously Orthodox, who are
undermining the Zionist dream by their control of so much of life in Israel.

Some two weeks back Netanyahu sent a letter to the leaders of the
non-Orthodox movements declaring his firm support for their
importance, and his determination that the various denominations not
be harmed by any legislation brought before the Knesset. He received
a rousing reception at the AIPAC meetings.

But that was then and this is now.

Yesterday the Knesset Law Committee passed a conversion bill that has
the potential to undo years of court victories which demanded the
recognition by the State of Israel of Masorti/Conservative and Reform
conversions. This new bill is worded so that the Chief Rabbinate (who
has been a source of trouble with regard to woman's rights, marriage,
divorce issues, matters of kashrut, and burial) will be handed carte
blanche now in nearly all matters related to conversion.

The idea behind this conversion legislation is praiseworthy. It was
conceived to open up the doors to conversion before the hundreds of
thousands of Israeli citizens who live here as Jews (under the Law of
Return) but are not regarded as Jewish by halacha (Jewish law). But
the bill as written will bring in so very few new converts to
Judaism. Tinkering around the edges just will not bring the change
that we need and for which halacha allows.

Far more serious is that the bill is a severe slap in the face at the
majority of affiliated Jews in North America. Who among us does not
have a family member or close friend who is a Jew by Choice?

While it may be so that most Americans care little about internal
Israeli politics - conversion is an area very much on the minds of
the members of the Diaspora leaders and the rank and file. MK Rotem,
author of the Conversion bill, has poked a finger directly into the
eye of Jews abroad and then announced that he does not care if they
withhold support for his bill. He has cast aside so many of us in
order to make a deal with his non-Zionist haredi friends.

He promised, just two weeks ago, a committee to work out the language
that was problematic while preserving the ideal of his bill. He has
now broken that promise.

Today's headlines proclaimed that Netanyahu did not believe that the
conversion bill would come up for a vote before the full Knesset. As
reassuring as this may sound, I have one simple question: The bill
passed in committee by a vote of 5-4. How many Likud MKs were present
to vote against the bill in that committee meeting? Exactly ZERO. If
Bibi wanted this bill to die in committee only one member of Likud
would have been required to show up and vote no.

So are we to believe that the bill is dead? It may be that owing to
all of the letters sent by members of the non-Orthodox, and even the
more liberal Orthodox, that Netanyahu has had a light bulb moment. Or
he may just be stalling for time as we are on the verge of a three
month Knesset break.

In my view, postponing, delaying or even killing the bill is far from
sufficient. Netanyahu must realize that he is more than the head of a
small body of 120 Knesset Members. In many ways he serves as a head
of the Jewish world.

Now is the time for our Prime Minister to say "Enough to politics and
religion. Enough to kowtowing to the non-Zionists. We accept that
there are many ways to live a fully Jewish life, and the Zionist
dream will be fully realized only when we dream of the possible
rather than live in the dark."