I Am A Second Class Jew

I am a Jew. When I was eight days old I was circumcised. A few weeks after my 13^th birthday I made my first aaliyah to the bimah to read from the Torah. After my Bar Mitzvah I continued attending Hebrew school and received my confirmation when I was 16. I don’t eat pork, or shell fish. I fast on Yom Kippur, keep strictly kosher during Passover, throw bread in the water for Tashlich, say the Shema every night, and light candles on Shabbat.

Yet according to MK David Azoulay I am not a Jew, or at the very least a sinner. Why? Because I am a Reform Jew. Last week Minister Azoulay stated “as soon as a Reform Jew stops following the religion of Israel, I can’t allow myself to say that such a person is a Jew.” He later clarified his statement asserting “all Jews, even though they sin, are Jews” but supplemented his initial remarks by adding “it is with great pain that we view the damage caused by Reform Judaism, which has brought the greatest danger to the Jewish people: the danger of assimilation.” In other words Reform Jews either or not really Jews or are Jews who sin.

Reform Judaism may not strictly employ Talmudic teachings or enforce Halakah law but that doesn’t mean that Reform Jews aren’t Jews. I abide by the Torah and its laws to the point in which I believe they are logical and consistent with my religion and the advancement of technology and society. Does that make me a Christian, or a Muslim? It definitely doesn't make me a Hindu or a Buddhist. I cannot be an Atheist since I believe in a single omnipotent deity. The fact is out of the seven billion plus people living on this planet only a small percentage of the approximately 14 million strong worldwide Jewish community would see me as anything but a Jew. 

Am I sinner? I have sinned, but being a Reform Jew and adhering to the religious practices of the Reform movement is not one of them. My observance of Judaism may not conform to a single standard which may appease MK Azoulay, but I have arrived at this destination by taking the teachings of many Rabbis from different movements and different periods in history compiling them into an amalgamation which I feel comfortable practicing.

Yes I eat dairy and meat together because I choose to follow the Kashrut laws which are forbidden by the Torah and not those which are Rabbinically prohibited, or have been given an overly broad interpretation. When my cheese comes from upstate New York and my meat from Texas I don’t think there’s a chance that I will violate the biblical tenant not to cook “a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Yes I drive and use electronics on the Sabbath. While G-d may have been able to take a day to rest I am neither omnipotent nor omnipresent which means I lack the opportunity to take a full 24 to 26 hour break from the real world. And no I don’t add an extra day to biblical holidays even though I am in the diaspora. I am pretty sure time keeping and solar records have advanced significantly enough for us to be sure that we have observed the holiday for the necessary time, as specified in the Torah, even though we don’t actually live in Israel.

While I may not strictly observe every aspect of my religion I am every bit as much a member of the Jewish community as the Orthodox, both ultra and modern. That communal connection is why I cooked latkes on the floor of my friend’s dorm room, held Havdalah services on my quad, and affixed a mezuzah to my room’s doorframe during my undergraduate collegiate years. It’s that same connection which compelled me to wake up at 4am in the morning to travel across Beijing to the Chabad synagogue so that there would be enough men for a minyan in the morning, even though I would show up to work late and have to stay a few hours later each day to make up for the lost time.

That connection has also inextricably linked me to the only Jewish state, the State of Israel. When I was in high school I lobbied my congressman to support Israel politically and financially. I continued to stress that point when I ended up working for him my senior year. I confronted angry protesters at a pro-Palestinian rally on my undergraduate campus and successfully challenged them on the many  weaknesses and inconsistencies in their allegations. As an international legal fellow, I have constantly used my knowledge of international law to analyze and counter erroneous legal arguments asserted by those opposed to the existence of the Jewish state and Israeli policy both foreign and domestic.

Azoulay’s remarks aren’t new or something out of the blue. Unfortunately I am used to receiving disapproving looks, which border on stares of disgust and utter contempt, from members of the Orthodox community, the Satmars in particular. But Azoulay is a member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and serves as the Minister of Religious Services in Israel. As such his statements represent not only his own beliefs and positions but are imputed upon Israel’s government itself. Which begs the question: why should I continue to support the Jewish state when it doesn’t consider me to be a Jew, sees me as a sinner, and doesn’t support my views or my freedom to have my own views of Judaism?

This anti-Reform Jewish sentiment in Israel cuts deeper than Azoulay or Shas, the ultra-orthodox Israeli party Azoulay is a member of. The Reform and Conservative Jewish movements are not represented on Israel’s Chief Rabbinate council and therefore does not have a say in that body’s strict control over Jewish weddings, divorces, or conversions in Israel. As a Reform Jew I cannot get married in Israel because the Rabbi I would want to officiate my wedding is a Reform Rabbi.,Even tough he is the same Rabbi who presided over my Bar Mitzvah and instructed me on the Torah and Talmud he is not allowed to wed two Jews in Israel. Under the current Chief Rabbinate Jewish weddings officiated by Reform Rabbis are not recognized in Israel. Reform and Conservative Jews (the secular denominations) are considered and treated like second class Jews in the very country established because Jews of all denominations were treated as second class citizens, and all too often worse, by the gentile governments of Europe, Asia and Africa.

I am aware that Azoulay’s psition is not representative of the entire country or of the entire government. I am also awareo of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements rebuking Minister Azoulay’s assertions. However, Azoulay continues to occupy a key ministerial post in the Knesset and the newly formed coalition government continues to rollback many of the domestic reforms instituted to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into Israeli society. Rather the policies which have recently been adopted show a clear intent to provide discriminatory privileges to the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community at the detriment of Israel’s secular Jewish community which includes Reform and Conservative Jews. The current coalition government shows a clearly negative legislative animus towards secular Jews while Azoulay’s continued occupation as Minister of Religious Services is strong circumstantial evidence of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s tacit support for his statements.

I have been steadfast in my political and financial support of Israel, even though I haven’t always agreed with Israeli policy, but I cannot support a government which not only marginalizes those within its own borders who share similar approaches to our shared religion but also seeks to extraterritorially diminish my own faith, heritage, and Jewishness.  

Alienating an entire section of a religious community is never a moral or prudent thing to do but the timing of this political excommunication can be perilous to Israel. Considering the current international animosity towards Israel and the gaining momentum of the BDS (Boycott Divest and Sanction) movement towards Israeli products and companies, Israel needs all the friends it can find abroad. That includes members of the Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism. Israel doesn’t have to buy our allegiance but it does have to respect us if it desires our continued support.

It should be noted that Azoulay did touch upon one important issue during his condescending statements. Assimilation is a problem in the Jewish community as a whole but it is more pronounced in the Reform and Conservative communities than it is in the Orthodox. Resistance to assimilation is not futile, as Captains Picard and Janeway show us on Star Trek, but it is exacerbated by the hostile approach many in the Orthodox community take towards secular Jews (i.e. Reform and Conservative Jews). A perfect example is the plain fact that I feel more comfortable walking in the streets of South Jamaica, Queens and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn than I do walking in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens or Williamsburg, Brooklyn (both neighborhoods have a high volume ultra-Orthodox Jewish population). As the Orthodox claim to represent the entire Jewish religion and then shun its secular members it is no wonder that many prefer to convert or become non-affiliated.

One of the Hasidic dynasties, Chabad, has adopted a more open and conciliatory approach towards secular Jews. They provide services and reach out to members of the entire Jewish community, secular or Orthodox, and accept Reform and Conservative Jews  without the condescending or dismissive tone that are held by many of their peers. I can honestly say that without their guidance and insight during college and my residency in China I may very well have lost faith in my faith and would most likely have become estranged from Jewish roots. Acceptance, not rejection, is the answer to combat assimilation in the Jewish community, a truth which Azoulay, Shas, and the Israeli government seem not to understand.

Assimilation is a threat to Judaism, more so than any other world religion, but the greatest threat is and has always been our unique propensity to fight among ourselves. After miraculously defeating an invading Roman legion at the Battle of Beth Horon in 66 CE, the victorious Jews returned to Jerusalem. Instead of consolidating governance and preparing the country’s defenses for the Romans’ next military offensive the different sects and divisions of first century Jewish society began to fight openly, both politically and physically, among themselves. Facing an uncoordinated resistance on their second attempted invasion, the Romans were able to lay siege to Jerusalem, burn the Second temple, and quell the Jewish revolt, setting in motion the Jewish Diaspora and alienation from our homeland. Thankfully, we have been given a second chance to have a state of our own in our ancestral homeland in the face of continual and growing opposition. Yet, there are those who are entrusted with the governance of that state who have clearly missed a crucial historical lesson.  

The biggest threat to Judaism and Israel isn’t Reform Judaism but rather it is the contempt and hostility held by many in the Orthodox community towards Reform and Conservative Jews which Knesset Member Azoulay has publicly displayed.