Jerusalem is a special city

Jerusalem is a special city. If you ever doubt this, try staying away for a little while. True, many Israelis have become so practiced in the art of staying away from Jerusalem that this has been elevated from simple aversion to full-blown abhorrence. True, many of us who bring up children in this city know that our offspring are preparing to spring off and leave as soon as the opportunity presents itself. True, increasingly Jewish visitors from abroad are becoming inured to the blandishments of the holy city, and developing a marked preference for the lure of Tel Aviv (The Big Pineapple) or Haifa (The Bahai Chapel) or even Hadera (the Big Falafel), over Jerusalem - the Big Grapple.

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Reports of 'death' exaggerated

I have been absent from this column for months, working hard to deal with the challenges facing my institution, which is struggling along with just about every other institution in the world in the current economic atmosphere. What might have sparked me back into life in the blogosphere were the reported comments of Rabbi Norman Lamm, predicting the imminent demise of the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism.

I have no idea, incidentally, if the very venerable Rabbi Lamm really said the things attributed to him in the Jerusalem Post article. Whoever did concoct the notion that non-Orthodox Judaism is on its last legs is guilty of an extreme case of wishful thinking. The truth is that there is ample and powerful evidence that a Judaism of meaning aimed at those for whom Orthodoxy is untenable, unpalatable or impossible is more urgently in demand today than ever before.

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Whose Hannukah is it anyway?

Both of my regular readers will have noticed that I have been silent for the last couple of months. I have not been away, nor has there been a shortage of events worthy of comment. In fact, the problem has been mine: I have been struck by the uneasy sense that nothing I write can make any difference. No difference to the inhabitants of Sderot and the settlements closest to the Gaza Strip. No difference to the drivers of Israel as we engage in our relentless cull of pedestrians and passengers. No difference to the recipients of hundreds of millions of philanthropic dollars which have been lost in the greatest con trick in the history of Wall Street. No difference to the confused voters of Israel, caught between mediocrity and demagoguery, platitude and posturing.

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Reform's 'tude' problems

In June an article about Reform Judaism was published in Commentary Magazine. Those interested in Prof. Jack Wertheimer's analysis in all its glory would do well to locate the original. I'll give you the short version - he suggests that Reform Judaism is a failure.

As a Reform insider, I'm here to tell you that Prof. Wertheimer is right. The more you know about a religious denomination, the more reason you should have to be concerned about its omissions and disasters, about the gulf between what it avers and what it achieves. Reform is a failure, and I hope it continues to be so in the future.

I want to outline some of our major problems, and then I want to tell you why I'm happy to stick around and grapple with these failures, rather than go off in search of a whole set of new ones. I also want to suggest that most of the traditional claims against Reform Judaism are misguided or mean. If you're looking for the real failures and challenges of our movement, you might consider sticking with an insider for the real scoop. The picture of air-headed ignoramuses misleading the masses is a fake, and if that picture titillates you, you may need help. The real story is a little more complex. So here goes:

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Reform Judaism should not enter Israeli politics

Elections are in the air. The Israeli public is reeling from the bad odor emanating from the Prime Minister's good cigars, and we are all wondering how he will manage to conduct his defense while conducting affairs of state. His key political opponents, perhaps incensed at the thought that Olmert will reserve the best first-class seat on the next flight, are working on their impersonation of righteous indignation. Observers of the geopolitical scene from Left and Right are wondering how Israel's interests can be well served when a negotiation on territorial compromise is taking place in between plea bargains and legal consultations.

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Inspiration from the Haredi community

Although they will not thank me for the endorsement, I have decided to come out in favor of the Haredi community in Jerusalem. Many in the Ultra-Orthodox world are disgusted by the decision of the courts, supported by the Attorney General, not to force businesses in Jerusalem to refrain from selling chametz during the festival of Passover this year. Following the decision of the court, representatives of the edah charedit  have sent letters to some sixty businesses and outlets pleading with them not to sell leavened products during Pessach in the City of Gold.

I like this response. By turning to these fellow Jerusalemites and asking them to reconsider their decision, these Haredi representatives are playing according to the rules of a modern liberal democracy. It remains to be seen if some within the community escalate their opposition to the dreaded chametz, and move from words to sticks and stones. But so long as the opposition is reasoned, respectful and peaceful, it should be supported.

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Remembering and forgetting

Last Shabbat I was in Vienna. The Shabbat before I was in New York. It is a great relief and a great distress to be back home in Jerusalem. The relief is understandable: this is where the people I love most in the world live, and in any case I regard it as a rare privilege to be part of this city and this country. The distress, of course, is a direct result of the horrific events Jerusalem has witnessed in the last few days.

In New York there were only two subjects on everyone's lips, and between them they managed to push Obama/Clinton into a distant third place. The first issue is the state of the American economy, the sense of an impending recession, perhaps even a crash. The second is of a quite different nature. It relates to the spectacular decline of the Governor of the State of New York, a man who until a few days was a paragon of virtue, a fearless legislator devoted to rooting out corruption and prostitution.

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To be a Jerusalemite

My municipal tax bill arrived this week, and on its envelope an unforgettable slogan: it pays to be a Jerusalemite.

My first response was to laugh out loud: the contents of the envelope made it abundantly clear that one has to pay a significant amount of cash in order to be a Jerusalemite - or at least one of that increasingly besieged species: Jerusalemites who pay any taxes at all.

The City of Jerusalem can be a demanding hostess. Only one thing could be more concerning than taking a brief look at its economic prospects - namely, taking a long look at those prospects. Destruction and construction are to be found strewn across the city in equal measure. The ultra-rich are displacing the working poor and also just regular folks from certain neighborhoods. To put the icing on the cake, this week I find myself banished from my own office due to the presence in this city of George W. Bush and the 8000 police personnel on duty here.

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Impressionists and Realists

Earlier last week history was made in Jerusalem. In a city in which history has been a cottage industry for three millennia, this is in itself not too much of a surprise. But the kind of history I am referring to is worthy of note in any case.

The first ever serious academic conference on Reform Judaism in Israel took place. The Van Leer Institute, a highly prestigious center of research and public debate, initiated and hosted the conference, which attracted leading scholars from around the world - or at least from Israel and from the United States (the next conference of this kind will need to spend more time on the local varieties of this species to be found in South America, South Africa, Australasia, and Europe. And by the end of the century, we will no doubt be holding interplanetary seminars).

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My Hanukka, Your Hanukka

Mai Hanukka? What is Hanukka? These words are to be found in the classic discussion of the festival in Tractate Shabbat of the Babylonian Talmud. The question is not without reason: in Talmudic times it was a relatively new celebration, and there was no telling it was going to catch on any more successfully than some which didn't stand the test of time ? just think, if things had worked out differently we might have been shopping for gifts for Nicanor Day.

What is Hanukka? How are we to understand its significance? In an excellent article published this week in a major Israeli daily, my colleague Rabbi Gilad Kariv, a brilliant young Israeli Reform rabbi, offers a compelling and relevant reading. Gilad, like others who espouse a liberal philosophy of Judaism, is not threatened by the notion that there is historical change within Judaism, or that our culture is constantly soaking in influences from outside. On the contrary: far from being threatened by this fact, he is emboldened and inspired by it.