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NEWS
Reform Movement Cancels its Youth Summer Trips to Israel;
The Amounts are Trivial
by Mordecai Plaut
According to a report in the Jerusalem Post the U.S.
Reform Judaism movement has cancelled its entire youth
program to Israel for this summer because of concerns about
the security situation in Israel. The UAHC (Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, the synagogue organization of
the Reform) movement, which claims a membership of over 1.5
million, "generally sends some 1,500 teenagers to Israel on
a variety of programs each summer," according to the
Jerusalem Post and according to their published
reports. The amount is trivial in comparison with the
movement's claimed membership, and also very small in the
context of the general youth programs in Israel from North
America.
"The bombing certainly had an impact," Emily Grotta,
communications director for the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, but "we
had been wrestling with this for some time."
If the Reform movement's membership claims are accurate,
then it means a participation of less than 0.1 percent in
the programs. This is an extremely low rate and it provides
an indication either that the membership rates are
exaggerated or that membership signifies an extremely low
rate of true involvement in the movement or both.
A similar indication was given by the Reform movement's
strong campaign to dominate the American delegation to the
World Zionist Congress. After an intensive campaign that
lasted many months and required nothing more than signing on
to be counted in support of the Reform delegation to the
Congress, the Reform delegates received about 50,000 votes.
For a movement that claims a membership of 30 to 40 times
that amount it is a poor showing, although it made up about
half of all the votes cast in America to elect the Zionist
delegation.
Birthright Israel trips, sponsored by the Jewish charities
in America, are proceeding, though there are
cancellations.
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