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Posted on July 05, 2018.
By Rabbi Dow Marmur
Rabbi Dow Marmur
SAN DIEGO – According to the Infamous False, The Protocols of the Elders of Sion and D & # 39; countless other antisemitic leaflets, the Jews rule the world. According to Yinon Azulay, member of the Knesset on behalf of the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox political party Shas the Reformed Jews are worse in his eyes than he himself is in the eyes of the haters Jews
. a debate in the Knesset about the extension of the Kotel facilities the Western Wall, to the unorthodox Jews, he evoked this week's earthquake in northern Israel as a proof of 39, a seismic reaction to the question under discussion. The earthquake was minor, maybe just a warning to the Knesset. Imagine what would happen if politicians approved the extension!
Azulai claims to have impeccable authority over the fact that God has reacted against the potential harm of giving Reformed Jews the same rights as others. As far as he is concerned and in his own words, the Reformed Jews are not even Jewish. Of course, his connection between the Knesset debate and the earthquake could also be interpreted, according to the same distorted logic, as a sign of divine wrath if the Knesset does not enact the law, but – Surprise, surprise – it may not have come to him in the spirit.
Choosing to see Reform Jews as non-Jews also resonates with secular Israelis. This is perhaps why the very secular ministers of Netanyahu government Miri Regev and Ayelet Shaked did not want to be badociated with the adoption of the law. Ms. Regev admitted that she had met Reformed Jews in Argentina but that she hoped, as she said, that they would stay there and not come to Israel.
In a typically simplistic and erroneous manner – and unlike the Zionists She echoed the view of many Israelis that non-Orthodox Judaism only concerns the diaspora. I came across many visiting Israelis who were moved by the Reformed services they followed overseas but who would not dream of returning to a reformed synagogue in Israel.
Israeli politicians, sometimes even the prime minister, rise high Canard that reformist and conservative Jews are not really Jewish. They would like to point out the high rate of intermarriage among them, which implies that they are about to step out of the fold and, therefore, can happily be thrown under the proverbial bus if that is appropriate.
It seems impossible to persuade the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public that non-Orthodox religious currents in Judaism abroad are the most effective bulwark against badimilation . If they had not existed, the majority of Jews could now have been lost to Judaism. It is ridiculous to think that they would have joined the Orthodox congregations and remained observers.
One of the reasons why many Israelis, religious and otherwise, harbor such opinions is that they believe that the more extreme a religion is, the more authentic it must be. That is why, as the saying goes, most Israelis do not go to the synagogue must be orthodox.
Reform and conservative Judaism in Israel are fighting on two fronts: against the fanatical orthodox of the Azulai and against and indifferent by the uninformed and ostensibly secular Jews of Regev and Shaked. Given these stumbling blocks, it is remarkable how reformist Judaism is making its way to Israel, even though it still has a long way to go before it becomes a reality. force on earth
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Rabbi Marmur is the spiritual leader of the Holy Flower Temple in Toronto, Canada. Now resident of Israel, he can be contacted via [email protected]
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