by
NJJN Israel Correspondent

JERUSALEM — A delegation of leaders from United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey helped make history last week by participating in Israel’s largest-ever conference on religious pluralism.

Fifty-five religious leaders representing very different ways of promoting the agenda of Jewish identity gathered March 23 at the Samueli Center for Progressive (Reform) Judaism in Ra’anana for the MetroWest Convention on Jewish Pluralism.

Organized by Amir Shacham, representative in Israel for UJC MetroWest, the conference featured joint study sessions, conversations, and workshops on “identity, opportunity, and empathy.” The immediate result of the event will be the formation of a steering committee under the Ra’anana municipality whose members will be in charge of planning and implementing pluralism enrichment in the city, which could serve as a model for other towns.

Participants included 11 lay leaders and three staff members of the UJC MetroWest religious pluralism committee, as well as Rabbi Fred Hollander from the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America; Rabbi Einat Ramon, the dean of the Conservative Schechter Rabbinical Seminary; Rabbi Tamar Kohlberg of the Reform synagogue that hosted the event; and secular Ra’anana Mayor Nahum Hofree.

“For me, it was very emotional to see them all together,” Shacham said. “They were all there because they wanted to be there. I am glad that the religious pluralism committee got to experience this.”

The conference was a high point for the MetroWest pluralism committee, which started in 1998 during a flare-up in Israel of the “Who is a Jew?” controversy. At the time, many American Jews began to question their relationship with the Jewish state. Committee chair Gary Aidekman said the committee was intended to respond to the dispute in a positive way.

“It’s important that the MetroWest community appreciate how crucial pluralism is for Israel,” Aidekman said. “A lot of people question whether this is something American Jews should be pushing. But it’s not just something we did so that we could have a synagogue to go to when we come here that we are comfortable with. It’s not American-driven. It’s an Israel phenomenon, home-grown. I have found that the seeds have been planted by Israelis, and they just needed a little assistance.”

Aidekman said he was glad to see so many representatives of diverse denominations come together in one place to share ideas and discuss opportunities for cooperation.

“From time to time, they may get together, but seeing that many in one room was remarkable,” Aidekman said. “People held distinct positions but they respected each other’s views.”

In her closing remarks to the crowd, Kohlberg said the challenge facing all the participants was to create a joint Israeli Jewish leadership who would face the Israeli public as a unified force speaking out loudly and courageously for pluralism and showing how it can be achieved through partnerships.

“We need to bond as a group of leaders,” Kohlberg said. “We are informal delegates of many Israelis who are looking for change in this area of Jewish identity, Jewish learning, and Jewish lifestyles. Perhaps it is time for us to speak up and become the voice of these people who turn to us with these needs.”

Kohlberg said she believes that Israel — where the Orthodox rabbinate has a near-monopoly on marriage, conversion, and other ritual matters — will eventually become a more pluralistic society. The process, she said, would have to start at the grassroots level and go from the bottom up.

Rabbi Dr. Doniel Hartman, who is Orthodox and the president of Jerusalem’s Shalom Hartman Institute, said in his keynote address at the conference that pluralism was needed to save the Jewish people.

‘A romance with the city’

The pluralism delegation also visited Modi’in, where the results of that kind of grassroots activism could be seen.

Modi’in, a new city built half-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, has drawn a relatively affluent, largely liberal population. A year ago, the pluralism committee visited the Reform Yozma Congregation in the city and attended a meeting between congregation members and the city’s mayor, Moshe Spector.

At the meeting, congregants and mission participants urged the mayor to spend public funds on a building for the synagogue, as it had for six Orthodox synagogues financed by taxpayers. Tempers flared, and Spector left the event clearly shaken.

Since that event, the change in the city’s outlook has been dramatic. Modi’in not only provided land and money for building the Reform synagogue, the city also gave Yozma two other parcels of land for its kindergartens, allocated a facility for a Yozma elementary school, and approved its after-school program, supported by MetroWest funding, for 70 secular elementary school children who come for hot lunches and classes in Judaism.

Modi’in even allowed Yozma to hold a symposium for International Tolerance Day in the auditorium of its city hall, something that would be unthinkable for a Reform congregation in other cities that have Orthodox representatives in the governing coalition of their city councils.

“The night that MetroWest came was not trivial in the life of our community,” Yozma director-general Yossi Aud said. “It started a process that developed into a romance with the city. They received the message that we have Jewish needs, and now we are finding a lot of understanding and respect from the city. There are still problems, but we are on the way to getting everything we wanted.”

In return for the city’s help, Yozma ended a six-year court battle against Modi’in that had resulted in a court-issued restraining order preventing the city from funding Orthodox synagogues until Yozma was given its own piece of land.

“Because of MetroWest, the mayor understands better that Yozma has the support of a majority of the Jewish world,” Shacham said. “The changes all happened after our visit — not necessarily because of our visit — but it probably had something to do with it.”

Visiting Modi’in, the pluralism committee met with figures who have made changes in Israel’s religious pluralism landscape.

One such individual was Rebecca Sullum, a 24-year-old youth director at the Conservative Noam youth group. Sullum, who appears younger than her age, does not look like a revolutionary, but she succeeded in breaking a barrier that had unofficially barred egalitarian prayer at synagogues on IDF bases.

Six years ago, a riot nearly ensued in such a synagogue when she and her friends put on tefillin during a service. The male soldiers reacted angrily and tried to push a mehitza, or divider, between the men and women.

“We ran out scared and complained to our officers,” Sullum recalled. “He put us in touch with the rabbi of the base, who said that what we did was provocative and we should have taken into account the feelings of the men.”

Following some bad publicity in the press, the rabbi apologized and offered the young women their own synagogue to pray in. The Masorti, or Conservative, movement later tried to pass a law to guarantee egalitarian prayer in the IDF.

The pluralism group also visited Kehillat Mevasseret Zion, a synagogue in the Mevasseret Zion community outside Jerusalem, where the Reform Harel Congregation inaugurated its new building overlooking the capital. It is led by Rabbi Maya Leibovich, the first Israeli-born woman rabbi. UJC MetroWest assisted when the congregation’s old facility was set on fire by extremists a decade ago. High school-aged tutors in the synagogue’s MetroWest-funded b’nei mitzva program met with members of the pluralism committee and thanked them for their help in making the Jewish training of secular Israeli children meaningful.

“Bar and bat mitzvas in Israel are rare outside the Orthodox community,” Aidekman said. “In the secular community, there may be a party and little more. Often, if they go to a synagogue, they just get an aliya at the Torah and that’s it. We want to encourage boys and especially girls to take an active stand and claim their right to a meaningful ceremony that promotes their Jewish identity. The liberal streams in Israel are beginning to address this need.”

Near the end of the trip, the group visited Tzipori, an ancient town in northern Israel where Rabbi Judah the Prince edited the books of the Mishna. The town, which had an active theater even during the heyday of the mishnaic era, proved an apt site to learn about the history of religious pluralism in Israel.

Shacham praised the religious pluralism committee for its understanding of religion and state issues in Israel.

“I have never seen such deep understanding of the core issues of Jewish identity in Israel,” Shacham said. “They are ambassadors of the message of why we have to continue supporting the development of pluralism in Israel. It’s an investment in the health and strength of Israeli society in the long run.”

UJC lay leaders attending the conference are Gary Aidekman, Daniel and Barbara Drench, Martin and Muriel Fox, Joyce Goldstein, Ava Kleinman, Maxine Myers, Marvin Rosenblum, Jane Susswein, and Rabbi Mary Zamore. UJC MetroWest staff members attending are Mandy Kaiser-Blueth and associate executive vice president Arthur Sandman.