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Jewish World Review March 26, 2001 / 2 Nissan, 5761
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
JUST over two years ago, Commentary published an article by Rabbi Clifford Librach entitled
"Does Conservative Judaism Have a Future?" Rabbi Librach predicted the gradual merger of the
Conservative and Reform movements.
That process, he argued, was made possible by a Conservative movement tumbling down a
slippery slope "away from the norms of law and tradition, according to an agenda increasingly
dictated by an unlearned laity, and by greater receptivity within Reform to aspects of traditional
ritual."
Rabbi Librach pointed to the decision by Gerson Cohen, former chancellor of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, to fully involve the laity in the 1983 decision to ordain women as an
example of the former trend. He noted that many observers expect the Conservative movement to
follow Reform, "after a lag of years for decency's sake, on such issues as the ordination of
homosexuals, sanctification of homosexual marriage, and growing tolerance of intermarriage."
A handful of letter writers challenged Rabbi Librach's thesis on intellectual grounds. No one called
him a hater of Jews or resorted to ad hominem attacks. In fact, the president of the Conservative
movement's Rabbinical Assembly cited the article as a subject for continuing review and debate.
Rabbi Shafran argued that the Conservative movement cannot be called, halachic (based on
Jewish law) for two reasons. The first is that Conservative legal standards are too frequently
outcome-determined and designed to legitimize the practices of the laity.
Supra-halachic principles, citations to modernity, and policy considerations result in, responsa
diametrically opposed to the codified Halacha, or Jewish religious law, such as the decision to permit driving to
synagogue on, Shabbes, the Sabbath. Already in 1955, Marshall Sklare, the leading sociologist of American
Jewry, wrote, "Conservative rabbis now recognize that they are not making decisions or writing
responsa, but merely taking a poll of their membership."
Rabbi Shafran's second point was that Conservative Judaism has failed to instill its followers with
any awareness of Halachah as a binding system of law. He cited the Conservative movement's
own statistics on the very low levels of observance (even according to Conservative standards) of
even the most basic, mitzvos — e.g., observing the Sabbath and the laws of mikvah, and keeping kosher.
Howard Singer, who left the Conservative pulpit for the world of public relations, explained the
extremely high rates of job disaffection among his former colleagues: "If we talk of G-d or Jewish
law, [our congregants] act as if we breached a tacit understanding" ("Rabbis and Their
Discontents,"Commentary, May 1985). His attitude toward Halachah as non-binding has
apparently infected rabbinical students at JTS as well, only half of whom view halachic observance
as central to their role as a Conservative rabbi.
The number and vehemence of the responses to Rabbi Shafran's article was unprecedented in
Moment's history.
In stark contrast to the response to Rabbi Librach, none of Rabbi Shafran's critics treated him as
having made an intellectual argument. Rather Rabbi Shafran himself became the subject. He was
denounced as a fundamentalist troglodyte and a nasty hater of Jews.
Ironically, the venom spewed at Rabbi Shafran proved one of the points that both he and Rabbi
Librach made: the growing congruence between Reform and Conservative. What explains the
different response to Rabbis Shafran and Librach? Only that Rabbi Shafran is Orthodox and
Rabbi Librach Reform.
Conservative leaders and laymen treated Rabbi Librach as someone on their side of the fence,
while Rabbi Shafran was by definition the "other."
The charge of not loving his fellow Jews cannot stand against Rabbi Shafran. He was scrupulous,
as always, to confine his criticism to an ideology.
I know Avi Shafran well, and there is no one who better exemplifies, ahavas Yisrael in word or
deed. He once worked alone under a blazing sun to place the final earth over a Reform rabbi with
whom he was friendly rather than leave the task to an earthmover. His book, "Migrant
Soul,"describes his long relationship with an intermarried, interracial couple.
Reading a letter in a Reform publication from an 11-year-old girl wondering why the Orthodox
hate her, he called the girl personally on the phone to disabuse her of that idea. (Unsuccessfully, as
it happens, her rabbis had taught her the opposite.) This month, when a pluralistic high school near
Philadelphia made it a class project to blast his article on the Moment Internet site, he wrote
offering to come speak to them. The students were eager, but the administrators vetoed the idea.
Rabbi Avi Shafran's criticism of Conservative Judaism only echoed that of some Conservative
leaders.
Even pluralism has its
Of Jewish "haters" and self-hating Jews
By Jonathan Rosenblum
Last month, Moment magazine published an article by Rabbi Avi Shafran, whose work appears here regularly, entitled "The
Conservative Lie." (The title was forced on the author by the editors of Moment; his choice was
"Time to Come Home.") The article included many of the arguments previously raised by Rabbi
Librach from a different perspective.
JWR contributor Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and Israeli director of Am Echad. He can be reached by clicking here.
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