Officials of the Association of Reform Zionists of America said they had adopted, on behalf of the American Reform movement, a resolution taking issue with a resolution approved by the Conservative rabbinate, which declared 51 Knesset members unwelcome as speakers to American Conservative synagogues.
The action by members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the association of Reform rabbis, was adopted in response to those Knesset members, mainly from Likud and the National Religious Party voted recently in support of changes of the Law of Return which would have discredited the validity of Conservative and Reform conversions of Jews planning to settle in Israel. The Knesset again rejected that proposal last January.
The ARZA resolution said there was a need “to educate Knesset members about America’s non-Orthodox community” and that this would not be possible if the Knesset members were “excluded from American synagogues.”
The ARZA position, adopted at an executive committee meeting, said most Knesset members “have little or no understanding of non-Orthodox Judaism or about the anger which Reform Jews feel towards efforts to deligitimize their movement.”
The ARZA officials also declared that “progressive movements committed to pluralism cannot in good conscience support boycotts or blacklists against individuals because of a vote they have cast; most one-issue boycotts are wrong in principle and ineffective in practice.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
