Outgoing Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky is quoted as saying that many Israelis including non-orthodox view the American reform movement as a" hostile sect".
I believe it is much worse than that. It has become a totally different religion, whose future in the not too distant future will bear even less resemblance to classic Judaism than today.
What are the basic elements that have kept us alive as a people despite exile and persecution . It has been our Torah handed down in both the written and oral forms that we have attempted successfully with great difficulty to pass from generation to generation.
The concept of a JUDIASM based solely on Tikun Olam devoid of our traditional 613 mitzvoth is unheard in our long history. In the works of our sages such as Maimonides and Nachmanides, Tikkun Olam as a stand alone ideology ( social action ) does not merit the role that has been assigned to it by the reform.
Let us look at their way of life
there is no Shabbat observance
there is no kashrut observance
there is no mikveh-family purity
there is no serious Jewish education for the next generation
There is intermarriage-above 50% and in some regions much-much higher
a "clergy" who often come from intermarried families
But the proof is not in mere statistics , for we already know the 20 plus year studies that show when you take 100 secular or reform Jews and follow them for 3 or 4 generations, you are left with but a handful of Jews.
Studies also show that the progeny of intermarried couple , despite much effort to bring them back into the community-marry outside the faith
Were it not for the Haredim and the modern orthodox communities, there would be no future for Jews in America. I predict that in the next survey , orthodox Jews will now count for 15% of the community and each year it will continue to rise.
I will save my thoughts about Conservative Jews and the Women of the Wall for another blog.
I write these words with sadness not with smugness- I have written and been involved in the pluralism controversy throughout my leadership days at the Union and the Sochnut ( Jewish Agency)
I see only a worsening of the problem.
One final thought for the leaders of reform etc who decry their role ( and treatment) in Israel.
A- even to the secular Israeli, the practices ( or lack of them) of the reform bear little relationship to traditional Judaism'
B- There is no Reform constituency in Israel-no reform political party-absent massive reform aliya the situation will not change. The secular-traditional non-orthodox Israeli who belong to no synagogue, desires his child to have a kosher circumcision, a bar mitzvah in a kosher shul, a wedding by a synagogue rabbi, and a burial in a traditonal Jewish manner.
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