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| Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism |
There is little doubt that we are in the midst of a cultural war pitting religious values over social values. Rabbis of liberal denominations tend to promote their progressive values as Jewish ones. Which is often not the case. Many of those values are in fact the exact opposite of Jewish values.
As I often say, Jewish values begin with Halacha. Which means Jewish law as defined by the Torah and interpreted by the leading sages of every generation throughout Jewish history. Any value that contradicts that – is clearly not a Jewish value. And yet virtually all rabbis of liberal denominations will make that claim without ever being challenged. I hear it all the time.
That not only promotes an anti Halachic agenda - it leaves a misleading impression to the world about what Jewish values really are. Castro’s illustrates this point with the following:
I remember being derided in a Jewish social media community when I claimed that one can defend LGBTIQ marriages on many grounds, but not by claiming that the Torah defends them. My interlocutors had every reason to be perplexed: In Reform circles and liberal Jewish milieus it is 'orthodoxy' to claim that progressive causes represent core Jewish values.
When this attitude is instilled in impressionable but idealistic Jewish Youth who have little to no Jewish background, the results can be devastating. Imagine a group of young Jewish students at a university being addressed at a rally by the leader of a liberal denomination saying that the progressive values of our time are core Jewish values. That will surely motivate these young Jews who maight actually care about Judaism (without really understanding it) to promote those causes believing that progressive values equal Jewish values! Clearly promoting a gay lifestyle (to cite one example) as a core Jewish value is gross characterization of Jewish law. The exact opposite is true.
Is this the kind of ‘Judaism’ that the future holds? Is this how young Jewish students with little to no background will be indoctrinated to believe is authentic? Is this how non Jewish youth will identify Judaism?
I hope not. Orthodox Jewish leaders need to speak up. We can ill afford to stay silent. We need to publicly challenge that narrative every time we hear it if we have any hope that the few non Orthodox Jews that will survive the massive attrition out of it – will understand what Judaism is really all about. Here is how Castro puts it:
It is high-time that Jewish youngsters and the non-Jewish world realize that supporting Planned Parenthood, Jewish Voices for Peace or Palestinian independence is an expression of many values, except the Jewish values progressive milieus claim to champion.
This is the reason Torah-loving Jews need to reclaim the mantle of “Jewish values”. To fail to do so paves the way for over three thousand years of ethical and spiritual traditions to be conflated with ideological fads that undermine the Jewish people and the message God wishes humanity to hear from Jews.
Could not agree more!