Latest / In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch / Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism: Clarity, Courage, and Moral Leadership

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Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism: Clarity, Courage, and Moral Leadership · In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch

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I'm Rabbi Ammi Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York and
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you're listening to IN THESE TIMES.
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On May 27th and 28th, we welcomed more than 350 rabbis, cantors,
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educators, synagogue presidents and board members, and other activists
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from across the Reform movement and around the world
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to our synagogue — the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
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Over two days, we addressed the urgent challenges facing liberal
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American Jewry and continued some of the most important conversations
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happening in our movement today.
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So today I want to do something a little bit different.
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Instead of an expert guest, you'll be hearing more of me — my
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keynote from the third Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism conference.
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Welcome to the Third Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conference!
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Welcome to New York City! Welcome to the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue!
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It is our honor to host you.
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Thank you for taking the time to spend these two days together, especially
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those of you from out-of-town.
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You may have followed the news that much has changed in New York since
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we last convened two years ago, not all of it for the better.
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Nonetheless, there are still some interesting and fun things to
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do in the city, and it is a joy to see each other again,
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and spend time together.
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A special thanks to my friend and partner, Mark Anshan, who, for
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decades, has participated in, and led, many North American and international
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bodies of the Reform movement.
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He is a talented lay leader, committed to the success and
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wellbeing of our movement, and is an intensely hard worker, more than
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justifying the enormous salary we pay him!
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I also want to express our collective gratitude to our philanthropic
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partners, individuals and foundations, many of whom are with us today,
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who support us, push us, press us and encourage us to succeed.
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They are my kind of Jews!
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Whether they consider themselves Reform or not — they all recognize
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the immense challenges we face. They all understand that we are at an
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inflection point in Jewish history.
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They model for us what commitment to Jewish peoplehood means:
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the recognition that urgent times
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require setting aside whatever controversies we can for another day,
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and joining forces to confront the much greater challenges that threaten us all. We have
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come a long way in three years!
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From the initial effort to convene several dozen Reform activists who
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were increasingly worried about the direction of the Reform movement,
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we have since built a nation-wide network of many hundreds of Reform
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rabbis, cantors, educators, other Jewish professionals, and lay leaders.
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Our accomplishments in the past three years are, themselves, testament
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to what we have always emphasized:
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Open your eyes.
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There is a growing crisis within the Reform movement, and we must
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respond with vision and vigor.”
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Many more of us have now taken up that mantle.
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The most important and long-lasting achievement of any leadership generation
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in any vocation is to raise disciples; to inspire the next generation.
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At this Re-CHARGING Conference, you will meet many of our future
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professional and lay leaders. What an amazing group of people.
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We are in very good hands if we can figure out how to produce, and
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empower, more of them.
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The Reform Rabbinic Fellowship is currently in its third cohort.
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By now, 59 early-career Reform rabbis have spent an intensive year with us.
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Some of them are here today;
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make sure to speak with, and get to know, these terrific rabbis.
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We have had outstanding success in reinvigorating Birthright Israel in
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the Reform movement, leading hundreds of Reform Jews to Israel in the past
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few years, even during days of war.
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RAFI — the Reform Movement Alumnae for Israel — our effort to engage young
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adults — has expanded into eleven cities, reaching over 650 Reform alumnae.
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We are collaborating with the Tell Institute on developing a new curriculum
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for Jewish youth and adults, and will hear from Dr. Dara Horn and
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SWFS member, Jessica Levin, about new approaches to Jewish education
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in this era of pervasive hostility towards Jews and the Jewish state.
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Our ideas and opinions, expressed through podcasts and conventional and social
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media, have gained widespread traction.
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We meet all the time with visiting Israeli delegations of mayors and other
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politicians, journalists, influencers, IDF commanders and educators.
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As you saw a few minutes ago, Israeli leadership at the highest
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levels of government wants to help us.
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President Herzog telephoned me several weeks ago just to say that the State
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of Israel follows the work of Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism and Amplify Israel, and
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he asked how he, personally, can help.
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We have had numerous productive meetings with the Ministry of Diaspora
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Affairs, which is eager to support us.
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I want to take a moment to recognize the brilliant architect of all these
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efforts, Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz.
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My
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life
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changed — and so
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did yours — when she joined our team.
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From the outset, we emphasized that we are of the Reform movement, by the Reform
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movement, and for the Reform movement.
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Most of us grew up in the movement, and we feel deep affection and loyalty
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to the institutions that educated and trained us, providing us the
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opportunity to devote ourselves fully to this marvelous vocation that has
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given immense meaning to our lives.
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It is love for Reform Judaism that generates our disappointment, pain and concern over
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what seems to many of us a loss of will to define
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and defend the values we uphold, at a time that urgently calls for moral
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clarity and institutional vigor.
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Among the most important initiatives of this Conference is the
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introduction of four resolutions.
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We will debate them today, and vote tomorrow.
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These resolutions put our convictions on the record, and state our expectations that
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the national institutions of our movement recognize, reflect, represent and
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implement the principles stated therein — all well-established ideological pillars
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anchoring Reform Judaism for decades.
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I want to thank the dozens of leaders who worked on the four resolutions addressing
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the centrality of Jewish peoplehood; the reinvigoration of spirituality, prayer
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and Jewish practice; innovative models of communal leadership; and the cultivation
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of Jewish learning and literacy. For
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the remainder of my time, I will devote myself principally to the
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resolution to strengthen Jewish peoplehood in the North American Reform movement.
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The 21st century will increasingly be defined by ideological commitment
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and communal loyalty to the centrality of Jewish peoplehood.
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In the words of the proposed resolution: “Judaism finds its fullest and most
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authentic expression through a vibrant and lived commitment to Jewish peoplehood.”
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While different approaches to halakha will continue to constitute
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a natural ideological divide between the Orthodox world and the rest
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of us who comprise the vast majority of the North American Jewish community - in reality, even
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these distinctions are diminishing and will continue to do so, due to the
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growing threats and challenges we face.
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For example, I can tell you that in the leadup to the New York City mayoral
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elections, those of us from Orthodox to Reform who defended Israel in the face
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of an onslaught of obnoxious opprobrium, found much more common ground — worked
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much more closely with each other — and felt much greater affinity one
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with the other — than with those in our own movements who promoted the
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anti-Zionist mayor of New York City.
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And what we often forget
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but ignore at our peril, is while our movement is a religious body, committed
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to God and Torah, much of the Jewish world expresses their Jewish identity in
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secular form through a fierce commitment to the Jewish people and the State of
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Israel, the most eloquent expression of Jewish peoplehood in our times.
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Many of these Jews are members of our synagogues.
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The religious teachings of Judaism do not exhaust the full
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content of Jewish civilization.
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It is the Jewish people that keeps Jewish civilization alive.
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If there are no Jews there is no Torah.
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The Jews do not derive their authority from rabbis.
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It is the opposite
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rabbis derive our authority from the Jews.
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We are under such immense ideological, political and communal pressure
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from both outside and within the Jewish community, that, in the words
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of the proposed resolution, there is an “urgency for clarity, courage
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and moral leadership regarding Reform Judaism’s enduring commitment
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to Zionism and Jewish peoplehood.”
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We cannot give in to those who would take us back to the days when our
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movement stripped all vestiges of Jewish peoplehood from Reform Judaism.
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We cannot succumb to those who preach a false philosophy of Jewish universalism
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that camouflages disdain for Jewish particularism under the guise of a
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sometimes sweeping, self-righteous, sanctimonious and suffocating
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misunderstanding of tikkun olam.
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Judaism is a blend of universalism and particularism
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eescha le’goy gadol — I will make of you a great nation — ve’nivrechu
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vecha kol mishpechot ha’a’dama — and all the families of the earth
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shall bless themselves through you.
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Judaism’s distinctive genius is in the balance — a kind of particular
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universalism, unique in religious thought.
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It is both the clarion call of Amos — “let justice roll down like water
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and righteousness like a mighty stream — and the clarion call of Amos
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I will restore My people, Israel.
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They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them…
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and I shall plant them on their own soil, nevermore to be uprooted
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from the land I have given them.”
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Have you been following developments at the
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Brooklyn Park Slope Food Cooperative?
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This is a years-long effort on
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the part of liberal New Yorkers to help the needy and food insecure.
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It has been heavily supported and led by Jews — including our
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own Reform rabbinic colleagues.
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Yesterday — by a vote of 2:1 — the Cooperative voted to
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boycott Israeli food products.
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What should be our response?
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Looking back at the past years, can we say that we did everything we could in
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our interactions with Progressive partners to thwart the Boycott
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Divestment and Sanctions movement?
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And isn’t defending Israel and Judaism, itself — also tikkun olam?
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It is true that we are seeing worrying signs of a narrowing
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particularism in some quarters of the Jewish world and the Jewish state.
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Those elements of the Israeli government that represent a closed-minded
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chauvinistic particularism are an embarrassment to Israel and world Jewry.
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And the hooligans who violently assault Palestinians on the
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West Bank are a disgrace.
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It is Israel’s responsibility to thwart them, on pain of imprisonment, and
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it is our responsibility to say so.
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At the same time,
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while we may convince ourselves that the main problem in the Jewish
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world is a narrowing particularism
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the opposite may constitute an even greater challenge in the Diaspora:
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An expanding universalism threatening to eclipse Judaism’s
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fundamental command of ahavat Yisrael — love for the Jewish people.
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A universalism unmoored from particularism is not Jewish universalism.
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It is just universalism, of the non-Jewish kind.
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As Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver asserted in a classic address to the CCAR:
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In the case of Christianity, it was [Paul’s] insistence upon a religious
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creed entirely divorced from nation, [people], land or language…that finally
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placed the movement outside the sphere of Jewish life.”
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The anti-peoplehood philosophy of 20th century Reform Judaism threatened
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to do the same, Silver emphasized.
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We should heed this warning well.
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Given the growing hostility to Israel, especially in our circles, liberal and
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progressive spaces, it is not enough for us to proclaim our Zionist bona fides every
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now and again, often expressed defensively, and with so many qualifications,
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stipulations and modifications, that our enthusiasm for Zionism is buried
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under an avalanche of provisos.
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It is not enough to issue occasional press releases, or tweets, that
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we are a Zionist movement.
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We are the leaders.
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We must lead.
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We must be proactive.
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It is harder now.
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These are times that try our souls and test our convictions.
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Israel has been at war for two and half years.
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It is a war of self-defense, imposed upon Israel against its will,
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but no armed conflict, even the most justified, can be
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waged with complete precision.
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There has been widespread death, dislocation, and suffering
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throughout the Middle East.
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This, too, is a legitimate part of the story of the past two and a half years.
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Every loss of innocent life is a moral tragedy.
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Still, the reaction to October 7, and every day since, revealed the rot
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inside our most cherished Western institutions, moldering and spreading
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for years, infecting previously-healthy organs of our body politic.
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It is more than the disappointment we feel at the hypocrisy or moral failure
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of this or that university president — or head of school — or student union — or
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media personality — or religious or social justice leader, or squad of politicians.
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It is the entire philosophy of Western liberalism that is under assault.
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Increasingly we are living a surreal reality.
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More Jews are massacred in one day than any other day since the Holocaust — and
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immediately protests erupt against Jews!
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Israel is accused of genocide — an ancient blood libel dressed up
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for modern consumption - and the genocidal forces that launched
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this war are forgiven or forgotten.
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What these assassins did to our brothers and sisters, children, uncles and aunts,
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cousins, grandparents and friends in Israel, is what they would do to all
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of us if they only had the capability.
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The reason that 1200 innocent Israelis were slaughtered on that
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day, and not 12,000 or 120,000 — was not because of intent — but capacity.
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Their intent was to murder every Jew they could get their hands on.
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This was a bloodletting of savage and primordial rage — as bad and
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as wicked as the worst of the pogroms inflicted on our people.
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And had we found ourselves in those southern settlements on
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Simchat Torah morning, our liberalism would not have saved us.
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Lifelong peace activists were murdered and taken hostage.
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No one asked them what were their views.
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And therefore - we — especially we — liberals — must respond with clarity,
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courage and moral leadership.
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If not us, then who?
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It is harder now.
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These are times that try our souls and test our convictions.
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Israel has been ruled for most of the past 25 years by right-wing governments
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supported by ultra-Orthodox parties.
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For young American Jews, these governments are the only ones they know.
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And here in America, the Democratic party that two-thirds to three-quarters
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of American Jews have supported since the days of FDR, is turning against us.
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According to a recent NBC poll, two-thirds of Democratic voters sympathize more
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with Palestinians than with Israel.
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And according to a recent Harvard/Harris poll, nearly half of young
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Americans between the ages of 18-24 favor Hamas over Israel.
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Hamas!
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But precisely because it is harder now - we — especially we — liberals
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must respond with clarity, courage and moral leadership.
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If not us, then who?
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We cannot, ourselves, give credence to gaslighting efforts on the part
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of people who are not even Jewish — sometimes supported, wittingly
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or not, by fellow Jews — who seek to sever Zionism from Judaism.
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Precisely because it is harder now to contend with anti-Israel forces,
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and because much of the deterioration is expanding in our circles, liberal and
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progressive spaces, we have an obligation to summon all of our reservoirs of
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clarity, courage and moral leadership.
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In the words of the proposed resolution: “We call upon the Religious Action Center
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of Reform Judaism and all arms of Reform institutional life to ensure that their
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public advocacy, partnerships, and policy positions reflect and advance
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the movement’s enduring commitment to Zionism and Jewish peoplehood.”
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And “be it further resolved, that we affirm that our movement ensures
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that the pursuit of justice also includes the defense of our people — and that
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these commitments walk hand in hand.”
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It is not enough to say to each other, “look, see, we are a Zionist seminary,
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our students spend their first year in Israel, but our commitment to
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liberal education requires us to ordain anti-Zionists.” Under
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what theory of liberal education are we required to accept outcomes we
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did not intend, and do not want? It is not enough to
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say to each other, “we are a Zionist
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seminary,
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but liberal education requires us to accept bi-nationalism as a legitimate
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expression of Zionist thought.”
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Even the bi-nationalists would be offended by our
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including them on the spectrum of Zionism. It is not enough to say to each other, “we are a Zionist seminary but there
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is a distinction in our minds between self-determination and sovereignty”
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as if given the condition of the Jews there can be self-determination
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in the absence of sovereignty.
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Under what theory of liberal education is there a requirement on our part to even
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accept, let alone ordain, candidates for the rabbinate and cantorate who do
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not believe what our movement believes?
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Ours is a seminary, a sacred ordination,
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not a university graduate degree.
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It is not that they do not have the right to such beliefs, or that a community of
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Jews that seeks to hire such communal leaders does not have that right.
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This is America.
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Do what you want and God bless you.
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But why our movement?
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It is not what we believe.
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Over the course of the past three years, I have received queries regarding the
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authority of the Re-CHARGING Conference:
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On whose authority,” I am asked, “do we even convene, let alone, write
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papers, and now pass resolutions?”
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To clarify:
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this gathering has no constitutional authority over any institution of the Reform
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movement. But we are flesh of its flesh and bone of its bone.
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And therefore, I would reverse the question and ask: “On whose authority
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does our seminary, change decades of Reform theology, as expressed in numerous
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platforms and resolutions that do have constitutional authority, accepting,
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let alone, ordaining, anti-Zionists?”
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And therefore, I hope that tomorrow we approve the resolution:
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Be it resolved
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that we call upon HUC-JIR to cultivate and expect a deep, informed and
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lived engagement with, and commitment to, Jewish peoplehood, Zionism and
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the State of Israel among all those pursuing ordination and professional
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leadership within the Reform movement.”
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And be it further resolved
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that “we expect that all candidates for HUC-JIR’s educational programs
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rabbinical, cantorial, educational and nonprofit management — will be
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committed to a Zionism that echoes the commitments of Reform Zionism.”
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These are decades-long commitments on our part.
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Do we still agree with them or not?
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If we do, then in these perilous times we should express our beliefs with “clarity,
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courage and moral leadership regarding Reform Judaism’s enduring commitment
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to Zionism and Jewish peoplehood” — and enforce our beliefs across the board.
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If we do not agree,
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explain why you disagree, why you think we should now change our decades-long
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hard-won values and commitments - and let us debate and reexamine our principles.
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But remember:
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we have already engaged in a fierce fifty-year debate about Zionism and
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peoplehood in the 20th century, that almost ruptured the movement and
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led to the establishment of a competing liberal seminary next door — the
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Jewish Institute of Religion. History
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has already established
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that an anti-Zionist philosophy is not only catastrophic for the Jewish
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people — an abysmal misreading of history - but will be emphatically
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rejected by the vast majority of the world’s Jews.
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We must be careful not to overly-intellectualize our approach.
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We must feel the heart, the spirit, the pulse of our people.
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And besides, intellectuals are often wrong.
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In 2021, the American Jewish Archives published a fascinating article about the
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two great historians of the 20th century, Jacob Rader Marcus and Salo Baron.
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Marcus was described as “the dean of American Jewish historians.”
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He authored more than 300 books and articles.
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And Salo Baron was described as “the greatest Jewish
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historian of the 20th century.”
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Both knew everything.
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Alas, both were wrong about Germany.
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Both advised German Jews to stay and wait out the Nazis.
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They both thought as intellectuals.
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Baron wrote: “There is no reason to despair of the survival of German Jewry.”
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Marcus wrote that “the Jewish genius for survival” will
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manifest itself in Germany.”
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Liberalism is still alive even in the lands of fascist and national socialist control.
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A new age will dawn for Central Europe where the Jew will be
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accepted as an equal, as a simple human being among his fellowmen.”
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Asked in 1981 to comment on his earlier views, Marcus responded:
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all that was proved wrong was one paragraph
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three lines.
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All the rest was correct.”
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Okay, maybe…
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but even so
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those three lines were pretty important, wouldn’t you say?
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This I believe:
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The third Jewish state will be the last.
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Israel’s destruction would lead to our disappearance as well.
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The Jewish people cannot survive a Middle East Holocaust less than a
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century after the European Holocaust.
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Even now, more than eighty years later, we have still not
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recovered our pre-War numbers.
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There are fewer Jews living in the world today than on September 1, 1939.
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Anti-Zionism is a monstrous ideology of destruction that contravenes every
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principle of liberalism we hold dear.
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Of course, we have an obligation to discuss what we mean by Zionism.
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We have an interest to establish the biggest possible tent.
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I am a liberal pluralist, and I believe in big tents.
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But even liberal pluralists have boundaries.
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If you believe everything, you believe nothing.
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If the North American Reform movement, in word or in deed, by action or silence,
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becomes, in fact, or even in perception, an anti-Zionist, anti-particularistic movement
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that cares only, or mostly, about universal concerns, unanchored in, and unmoored from,
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the centrality of Jewish peoplehood - most American Jews will abandon us — as they
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would have in the 20th century had history not forced us to come to our senses.
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A diaspora community
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that disengages from Israel, where half of the remnants of
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our people lives, has no future.
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Such a community will eventually wither away and, at best, constitute a footnote
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in the annals of Jewish civilization.
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Any seminary that either in word or deed — in principle or impression
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acquires the reputation of being hostile to Zionism — a seminary
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that ordains anti-Zionist clergy — has no future in America.
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If we marginalize ourselves from the mainstream of our people, the
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Jewish people and the Jewish state will continue without us, and it
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is we who will be remembered only in books and learned articles, a
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testament to a good idea gone awry, a haunting psalm to what might have been.
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At the beginning of the Book of Exodus, before Moses was called to leadership,
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the Torah describes this prince of Egypt’s first encounter with Hebrew slaves:
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Va’yigdal Moshe — and Moses grew up
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va’yetze el echav — and he went out unto his brethren
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va’yar be’sivlotam — and he saw their suffering.
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The preeminent commentator, Rashi, effectively asked: “If he went out to
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his brethren do we need to be told that he saw their suffering? Since he had
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eyes — obviously, he saw their suffering.”
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Rashi responded: “He directed his heart and eyes towards them so
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that he would suffer along with them.”
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We, the leaders of the North American Reform movement, have an
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obligation to teach our congregants and our students — with clarity,
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courage and moral leadership:
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Direct your hearts and your eyes towards your people.
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Feel their spirit,
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their pulse, their soul.
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If they rejoice, rejoice with them.
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And if they are suffering — suffer with them. Mourn with them.
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Support them. Help them. Free them.
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Redeem them.
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What you heard was just the beginning of the discussion.
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If you're interested in hearing more, video from the conference is posted
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on our website at SWFS dot ORG slash watch.
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And in the coming months, we hope that the resolutions we passed will begin to
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impact on our movement and beyond…
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Until next time, this is IN THESE TIMES…