Prof. Marshal Breger tells a story relating to his tenure as assistant to President Reagan in charge of the Jewish desk.
The leadership of the Reform movement had an appointment with the President,scheduled for a limited period of time.During the meeting the leadership discussion was primarily focused on Aid to Dependent Children.Thus, when the meeting was over little or no time was spent on Israel or other "Jewish" topics.When the group left, the President turned to Breger and said "I didn't know that ADC was of such importance to the Jewish community."
That story came back to me when I read page 1 of the Forward which announced that the Reform and Conservative movements will be investigating the working conditions of the workers in the hotels where their conventions are planned to be held.They have subscribed to a program sponsored by the NAACP,Sierra Club and others so that the choice of hotels will "align with our Jewish values."
Of course,any student of those two movements (especially the Reform) understands that they have become a religion of social activism(it doesn't hurt to attack Bush,the war on terror, wiretapping Al-Queda in the name of liberalism and civil rights.)
That's fine and fair in our democracy!
Just one wish-WOULDN'T IT BE NICE if the same in-depth analysis was used on the the Kashruth standards,shabbat observance standards,family purity standards,Jewish knowledge (or illiteracy) standards,intermarriage and so on,of their members and friends, as they plan to do to make sure the Marriotts or Hiltons are treating their workers fairly.
Liberalism is interesting and topical,but falls far short of Torah from Sinai.
