Judaic Scholar Urges Jews to Stop Feuding over Doctrinal Differences

A leading Judaic scholar today called on Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews in both Israel and the diaspora to cease “feuding” with each other over doctrinal differences and to seek instead to “build Jewish unity and dignity so we can preserve our people and our heritage.”

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, president of Barman University in Israel, made his remarks at a session of the American Jewish Committee’s annual meeting, which continues through Sunday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here.

Warning that disagreements among the various Jewish movements could lead to “disastrous civil strife” in Israel and elsewhere, Rackman contended that at least some of the “warring” stemmed from misunderstanding.

For example, he said, many Conservative and Reform Jews in the United States feel resentment because of their “mistaken belief that Israel does not regard non-Orthodox Jews as Jews.” Stressing that this belief was based on a “false impression,” Rackman said that Israel “does not regard as Jews only those who have not been converted by Orthodox standards, which are quite minimal today.”

However, Rackman pointed out, since much of the ill feeling among Jewish groups springs from disagreements over the validity of certain conversion, “it is essential if we are to retain any unity that we agree on standards of conversion that are acceptable to all.”

But still more important, he emphasized, Jews “must cease these futile debates” over issues that separate them and focus instead on the positive accomplishments of the respective movements and the “common grounds that bind us all together.”

Before moving to Israel in 1977, Rackman was rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York City and professor of Jewish Studies at the City University of New York. He had also been president of the New York Board of Rabbis and of the Rabbinical Council of America.