Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1986 Page: 2 of 20
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TEXAS JEWISH POST THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1986 PAGE 2
the CUttinQ 0dQ0 Accord
spokesman is Uri Regev who was raised secular,
but who adopted the Reform denomination after
visiting the U.S. "Only when I saw Reform
Judaism in America,” recalls Regev, "did I
realize there were more than two options for a
Jew: religious and secular. Among the Reform in
America, I saw a vitality and intensity among
children and adults alike. I was immediately
drawn to it.”
Regev was typical of the masses of Israelis who
national scouting movement,” says Sperber,
"the Tel Aviv Municipality simply declared we
could not exist. They refused to let us sit on the
regional scouting board, and when we showed
up for meetings, they said we couldn’t enter the
room.” Shortly thereafter, the Reform Scouts
were evicted from the community center they
had been working in for over a year.
Zev Zivan, national director of Israeli Scouting,
confirmed the problem in Tel Aviv, but expressed
'He called us evil, corrupt and a
whorehouse.'
— Rabbi Weiman-Kellman
"I was unaccustomed to seeing men
and women dancing together, and danc-
ing with the Torah.”
— Rabbi Abergil
have been effectively forced away from religion
in the Jewish State by an ultra-Orthodox
minority. Faced with the choice of all or nothing,
many Israelis are compelled to choose
"nothing,” But when Regev tried, as many other
Israeli families have, to follow Reform traditions,
he found religious discrimination. Ironically,
such discrimination is only directed against Jews
and not against the myriad of other religious
groups populating Israel.
"All clergy in Israel are recognized and fun-
ded,” explains Rabbi Weiman-Kellman, "In-
cluding Christians and Moslem — but not
Reform. We're the only ones not recognized.”
More than simply lack of recognition, the Israeli
hope "that this family dispute will soon be over.
It will take negotiation. In Israel, everything that
is Reform takes negotiation.”
Even in death, the Reform find themselves
isolated. When one Orthodox group discovered a
Reform rabbi buried in a Jerusalem cemetery,
they constructed a wall around his grave to
isolate him from other Jews.
Unwilling to accept the situation, Regev, an at-
torney, filed a lawsuit four years ago against the
Rabbinate seeking to overturn its prohibition on
Reform marriage ceremonies and other Reform
practices. But that controversial litigation, still
in Israeli courts, has a tortuous future before any
denouement.
. . . in-
"All clergy in Israel are recognized and funded,
eluding Christians and Moslem — but not Reform. We're the
only ones not recognized.” -Rabbi Weiman-Kellman
"It isn't that we don't recognize Reform Jews as Jews, that
is people born Jewish who later joined the Reform movement,”
. . . “We just don't recognize their rabbis, nor their halachic
actions. How can they be rabbis when they don't believe in the
Ten Commandments, when they drive to schul on shabbas,
when they eat hazer (pork). If they want to start a new religion,
and not call themselves Jews, they can do it. Fine. But in that
case, a new religion needs no recognition from us anyway.”
— Rabbi Zalman Quittner
BY EDWIN BLACK
An explosive situation was defused this week
when Rabbi Eliahu Abergil, the ultra-Orthodox
chief rabbi of Jerusalem’s Baka district, signed
an accord with Israel’s Reform movement which
in essence recognized Reform Judaism's right to
exist — at least in Baka. In exchange, Reform
Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kellman agreed to drop
criminal charges against Rabbi Abergil lodged
when the chief rabbi led a violent raid against
Weiman-Kellman’s Reform synagogue on Sim-
chat Torah eve.
Rabbi Abergil’s handwritten declaration con-
demned violence, apologized to the Reform
congregants, welcomed all Jews to Israel regar-
dless of their "different opinions,” and pledged
"not to interfere” with Reform services in Baka.
By agreement, copies will be distributed "to
every mailbox in the neighborhood.”
The latest chapter in Israeli civil discord erup-
ted suddenly on Simchat Torah as Reform Rabbi
Levi Weiman-Kellman was leading his
congregation of men and women in traditional
joyous dancing with the Torah. Weiman-
Kellman's Congregation Kol Haneshama, com-
prised of some 50 families drawn from south
Jerusalem, is temporarily located in the gym of
the Baka community center in south Jerusalem.
Rabbi Abergil, Baka's chief rabbi, an official of
the Chief Rabbinate, has long agitated against
Kol Flaneshama, according to congregation of-
ficials.
The climax to the strife came last Friday night.
Rabbi Abergil rallied his own ultra-Orthodox
congregants in Baka to demonstrate at what he
called "the whorehouse.” He then led a group of
some 25 followers to Kol Haneshama for the con-
frontation. "Abergil just suddenly interrupted as we
were dancing and demanded to speak,” recounts
Rabbi Weiman-Kellman. "He called us evil,
corrupt and a whorehouse.” Rabbi Abergil ex-
plains, "I was unaccustomed to seeing men and
women dancing together, and dancing with the
Torah.”
•x
At one point, "a young man tried to grab the
Torah away,” remembers Rabbi Weiman-
Kellman, "and when he couldn't, he and I
struggled, and he let go of the Torah to kick me
in the balls. I was still holding onto the Torah, to
prevent it falling to the ground, while he was
still kicking me in the balls.” Later, the police
were summoned, and Rabbi Abergil was charged
with felonious interference with a worship ser-
vice and acts of violence.
The incident might have remained just another
act of civil violence in Israel had Sephardic Chief
Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu himself not commented
on the affair over Israel Radio by noting that
there is "no freedom of worship” in Israel. For-
mer Ashkenaz Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren added
that there might be no problem at all if "Refor-
ms would not insist on calling themselves Jews.”
And Zevulun Hammer, Minister of Religion, tried
to dismiss the incident as "unimportant”
because there weren’t enough Reform Jews in
Israel to matter.
Forces on both sides quickly began escalating
their rhetoric and their determination to either
persevere or obstruct future Reform services.
Telegrams of condemnation of the Orthodox
violence came in from around the world, Or-
thodox activists vowed to step up their cam-
paign, and police protection was stationed
around Kol Haneshama. The Dybbyk of Israeli
civil violence was about to re-appear in a new
form: this time it was not religious vs. secular,
but religious vs. religious.
Bake suddenly became the new war-cry of
those seeking a more democratic Israel, in-
cluding the freedom to worship. Spearheading
the drive is the fledgling Israel Movement for
Progressive Judaism, the Reform movement in
Israel. Five thousand members strong, their
bureaucracy, under pressure from the powerful
religious factions, systematically forces Reform
Jews out of Israeli life.
For example, Reform congregations — there
are 19 of them countrywide — are regularly evic-
ted from their premises, especially when the
property is owned by a governmental or political
entity. Kol Haneshama itself was evicted from a
clubhouse in Baka owned by the Labor Party,
which is why it is now temporarily domiciled in a
gym. Ostracism is even directed toward children,
who are often segregated in schools.
The animus has even reached the Boy Scouts.
Kibbutznik Matthew Sperber, 31, director of the
Reform Scout movement tells of harassment
even in a city as secular as Tel Aviv. "Although
we are a member in good standing of the
Regardless of any civil ruling, however, the
ultra-Orthodox community here will never accept
Reform Judaism. Rabbi Zalman Quittner, per-
sonal assistant to Ashkenaz Chief Rabbi Avraham
Shapira, expressed the Orthodox view. "It isn’t
that we don't recognize Reform Jews as Jews,
that is people born Jewish who later joined the
Reform movement,” explain Rabbi Quittner.
"We just don’t recognize their rabbis, nor their
halachic actions. How can they be rabbis when
they don’t believe in the Ten Commandments,
when they drive to schul on shabbas, when they
eat hazer (pork). If they want to start a new
religion, and not call themselves Jews, they can
do it. Fine. But in that case, a new religions
needs no recognition from us anyway.”
When verbalized, Orthodox intolerance can of-
ten seem repugnant. But from the Orthodox
view, the Jewish people spent centuries striving
to maintain and adhere to Judaic beliefs. To do
so required perseverance over dispersion, oc-
cupation, assimilation, and extermination. The
price was not cheap, and is measured in blood
among the generations. Now the faithful have
come to the wellspring, to Israel. If it is indeed a
Jewish State — even nominally, in their view — it
is a disavowal of Jewish history to recast Judaism
as a mere shadow of its former sense, which is
what critics assert Reform Judaism seeks to do.
In a more contemporary context, Israel's Or-
thodox see Reform Judaism as "false adver-
tising,” as one Mea Shearim storeowner called
it. "If I said that 'pork is kosher,’ this would be
false advertising and should be stopped. To say
that this new form of religion is Judaism is also
false. It is something, yes, but it is not
Judaism.”
After all, Reform Judaism, only emerged about
a century ago as compromise between German
Jews drifting into Lutheranism, and those hoping
to retain the salient aspects of their Mosaic
heritage. Since then, Reform Judaism has
become a major alternative for American Jewry,
struggling to maintain their identify in a society
that breeds assimilation like a disease. "This
movement is well-established in America,” con-
cedes Rabbi Quittner. "In Israel, however, it is
new. All these questions will take time.”
But Reform Jewry is tired of waiting. And Or-
thodoxy believes never is too soon. Consequently,
the Baka incident set the stage for a long
awaited confrontation, just as did the Petah Tik-
va cinemas operating on Friday and the sabbath
drivers on the road to Ramot.
Unwilling to see their quiet neighborhood
pulled into a religious battle, community
organizers from the essentially easy-going
Sephardic Baka district worked tirelessly to
defuse the conflict. Rabbi Weiman-Kellman and
Rabbi Agergil both agreed to attend a closed
door negotiating session. The press was bared,
but this reporter was allowed to attend.
Seated around a small table in the basement
of the Baka community center, were the two
rabbis: Abergil dressed in traditional black hat
and coat. Weiman-Kellman wearing a floppy
shortsleeved white shirt and a knitted kepah.
Two community leaders acted as intermediaries,
and Meir Azarit sat in as the director of the
Reform movement. The meeting itself was
precedent setting. Observers here could not
recall when Reform and Orthodox even agreed to
discuss issues. From the outset, the participants
clearly acknowledged the new ground they had
created.
But they also understood that the future of the m
next communal crisis in Israel was in their han- 9
ds, or more precisely dependent upon the words ■
to be written on a piece of paper positioned in
front of Rabbi Abergil. There was no dictating of
language. The community leaders merely
suggested three principles to agree on: 1) an
apology for the Simchat Torah violence; 2) a
promise not to do it again; 3) a declaration con- m
ceding the right of co-existence with Reform 9
Jewry. It was up to Rabbi Abergil to frame the 9
language.
The chief rabbi of Baka started writing in
Hebrew, studying each word, occasionally
crossing out a sentence and starting over again.
Weiman-Kellman could not help but glance _
downward periodically to monitor the slow. 9
plodding progress. Rabbi Abergil was clearly un- 9
See Cutting Edge Page 18
”These Reform twist everything about Jewish law,” . . . "There is
no room for them in the Land of Israel. The rabbi who negotiated it was
naive, with the mind of a child. That agreement isn't worth the paper
it's written on. Watch and see.” -McheRabinowiti
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1986, newspaper, November 13, 1986; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753541/m1/2/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .