Rosner's Domain: More on Conservative Judaism, Israel and Tikkun Olam

Follow Rosner's Domain on Twitter!!!

Of the many responses to the Q&A with rabbi Samuels on the state of conservative Judaism,, I dug these two that I thought were more interesting than other.

First, my friend Seymour of Berkeley:

What I found most interesting in Samuel's responses to Shmuel's questions is not a single word about the centrality of the state of Israel in Jewish thinking -- a real life, struggling pluralistic state. We can get so caught up in ideologies of universalism and tikkun olaming we fail to attend to what makes Jews and Judaism uniquely different and set apart and why Israel as a secure Jewish homeland requires our top priority of active attention and support.

Second, this sarcastic response:

I think everything is fine and dandy in the conservative movement/ Last week I performed burial ceremonies for 10 Jews and in the last 6 months I performed burial ceremonies for 250 Jews. Also in the last year I performed 1 marriage ceremony and 2 yrs ago I attended a bris. So you see everything is going as planned.

Just to make sure I'm understood: I do not agree with the second comment, and not sure about the first one. You can read more about American Jews and Israel in my dialogue with Jack Wertheimer, but it isn't dealing specifically with conservative Jews. Here's a paragraph from previous dialogue dealing with conservative Jews. Quite outdated (it's from 2006), but I'm not sure much had changed. Background: the Q&A was on the Conservative movement's decision to "enable homosexuals to serve as rabbis and cantors" and to "allow rabbis to conduct commitment ceremonies of gay couples". Here's rabbi Jerome Epstein:

Although some observers of Jewish life have assumed that the recent decisions of the Law Committee were influenced by desires by some to stimulate growth in the Conservative Movement, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather the decision was made in response to the pain of gay and lesbian Jews --- based on interpretations of Jewish sources. Many lesbians and gays are seeking to play a more complete role in Jewish life with heightened commitment. They are inspired by halakha and are seeking a way to live within its framework. Some, within the Conservative movement have found a path to provide that means.

Follow Rosner's Domain on Twitter!!!