Judaism: Reformers in Zion

Enormous posters appeared on the walls of Jerusalem's Orthodox Jewish quarters. "This must not happen!" the signs warned. "It is a desecration. Come by the thousands to the Holy Wall." Task forces of black-frocked, black-hatted rabbis and students took turns guarding the city's Wailing Wall, while more than 1,000 Jerusalem policemen stood on the alert to prevent violence.

Another Arab invasion? Hardly. The emergency was an attempt by Reform Jews to hold a worship service with men and women praying together at the sacred Wailing Wall, the only remaining ruin of Judaism's Second Temple. Such a mixed service would defy an Orthodox rule that men and women must worship separately. Dissuaded from approaching the Wall by Orthodox protests, the Reform Jews suspended their service. The crisis over the Wall was the high point of the first conference in Jerusalem of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, an organization of Reform and Liberal congregations with a combined membership of 1,100,000 (nearly 90% in the U.S. and Canada). The Union hopes eventually to break Orthodoxy's monopoly as the single form of Judaism recognized in the Jewish homeland.

One People. Increasing concern over Israel among Reform Jews represents a change in their tradition. Born in Germany during the Enlightenment, Reform Judaism rejected many restrictions imposed by Halakah, the rigid code of Jewish religious law. Whereas Orthodoxy maintained that Halakah is divinely inspired and cannot be altered, Reform contended that Jews have the right to adapt their religious laws to changing conditions.

The reformers later rejected the Zionist notion that the only home for the Jew is Israel, arguing that Zion is anywhere a Jew prays. But because of the need of a national home for Hitler's victims, Reform Jews came to accept Israel. Says Rabbi William Rosenthall, the World Union's executive director:

"Israel is the greatest Jewish undertaking of our age. Every Jew should feel duty-bound to participate, for we are one people."

Alternative for Agnostics? The five-day Reform conference in Jerusalem, which concluded last week, gave the progressives a solid stake in Israel. While not abandoning their conviction that a Jew should be at home anywhere, the delegates wanted to achieve greater Reform influence in Judaism's traditional homeland. One of Reform's main arguments is that Orthodoxy—implanted in Israel by its post-World War II settlers—is unacceptable to perhaps as much as 70% of the country's Jewish population because of its rigid anachronisms.

Progressive leaders met with Premier Levi Eshkol, petitioned the government to grant Reform Judaism wider legal status in Israel, demanding that 1) Reform rabbis be permitted to officiate at weddings and funerals, 2) conversions to Judaism carried out by Reform rabbis be legally recognized, and 3) the government provide financial aid to Reform groups, as it does to Orthodox congregations.