It was too good to last. The post-attack-on-America spirit of
unity and good will, the inspiring altruism and powerful
heroism, were all real and are still apparent. But we have
now, sadly, seen some very different things as well.
In the Jewish world, the proverbial cake was handily taken by
Rabbi Uri Regev, leader of the Reform movement's Israeli
presence, the Israel Religion Action Center. He decided to co-
opt the tragedy that was September 11 for use in his ongoing
political battle with those who seek to preserve the Jewish
religious tradition in the Jewish State.
In a recent Sabbath sermon at a temple in Cleveland, Rabbi
Regev drew an astonishing comparison between what a reporter
for the Cleveland Jewish News characterized as the
"intolerance and hatred which drove Islamic terrorists to
attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon" and, in the
rabbi's words, "our own [i.e. Jewish] religious extremists
who feel they have the right to rule other people's lives,
spreading the venom of religious fundamentalism."
Rabbi Regev went on to quote Muslim religious leaders who
demand that Jews "must be butchered and killed," and to
insinuate that similar sentiments are a feature of the
chareidi, Jewish world. Chareidim, he declared, feel they
have "license to get rid of infidels."
His evidence, according to the report, is apparently chareidi
opposition to Israel's endorsement of American-style "Jewish
religious pluralism." "Israel," the rabbi asserted, "is the
only country in the free world where Jews are denied their
religious identity. We need to band together to fight
religious zealots . . . "
And then, in case his listeners somehow missed the insinuated
imputation of violence, he added "If we don't learn from the
September 11 loss of human lives, we haven't learned
anything."
The rabbi, of course, knows that Israel's religious citizens
advance their interests through such mechanisms as making
their cases to the public and participating in Israel's
democratic system, not by engaging in violence against their
opponents. They express their ideals through prayer, Torah-
study, observance of mitzvos, religious outreach and acts of
kindness toward others. He knows that they do not seek world
domination and do not engage in terrorism.
He knows too, moreover, that no Jew in Israel is prevented in
any way from living as a Reform Jew -- or as a secular Jew,
or as a Zen Buddhist. And he knows well that the Reform and
Conservative movements are entirely free to try to attract
Israelis to their theologies and practices and have made
great efforts to do so.
What irks him, though, is only that when it comes to issues
of Jewish personal status -- marriage, divorce, conversion --
Israel has always recognized a single set of Jewish
standards: those of the Jewish religious tradition that lies
at the roots of all Jews.
Most of Israel's Orthodox community and a sizable portion of
its less religiously observant populace maintain that only a
single Jewish standard for such things can ensure future
Jewish unity, and that the standard should be the one that
has served the Jewish people for several millennia. That, as
it happens, is the very purpose of the "religious status
quo," Israel's embrace of certain central Jewish values,
which has served Israel since the time (and with the support
of) the Jewish State's decidedly non-Orthodox founding
father, David Ben-Gurion.
Rabbi Regev is entitled, of course, to oppose the religious
status quo in Israel, even to disagree with an important part
of Israel's body politic. He also has the right -- though it
would hardly seem to befit someone presenting himself as a
religious leader -- to be incensed at the fact that others
might dare to have a different vision from his. But he is not
welcome to vilify other Jews with whom he disagrees. By doing
so, to the point even of equating them with bloodthirsty
terrorists, he places himself decidedly beyond the pale.
Can we dare hope that all Jews of good will, regardless of
their affiliations or levels of Jewish observance, will be
deeply saddened and outraged by his words and -- even more --
by the feelings that lie behind them?
AM ECHAD RESOURCES
[Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath
Israel of America.]
