Special Interview Israel’s Two Chief Rabbis Say Reform and Conservative Movements Are Creating a Div

Israel’s two Chief Rabbis — Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu — said that the Reform and Conservative movements in America “are creating a new Torah that can divide the Jewish people. They must not change halacha (Jewish religious law) and must stop converting to Judaism according to their new laws,” the two rabbis said.

In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the Israel Consulate here, Eliyahu said: “The Jewish people is not a race, it is a religion. The halacha sets the rules of conversion. The Reform and Conservative (movements) want to create a new Torah and they want us to recognize their new religion. By their new laws, they encourage assimilation. They want to force their opinion on us and change halacha.”

Shapira added: “The Reform and Conservative rabbis want to convert goyim and make them Jews against halacha. How can you make a goy a Jew when part of the Jewish people (the Orthodox) doesn’t want him?

“The point of controversy is not ‘Who is a Jew’ The struggle is against the Reform and Conservative way of conversion. We are not against the four or five million Reform and Conservative Jews in America. They will always be Jews. The point of contention are the some 5,000 people whom the Reform and Conservative converted, not according to halacha.”

Eliyahu, in a direct appeal to Reform and Conservative Jews, said: “We ask of you, don’t divide the Jewish people. Our task is to unite the nation, but you create a new Torah that can divide the Jewish people.”

SECULAR-RELIGIOUS TENSIONS IN ISRAEL

The Chief Rabbis, who were in New York on a five-day visit to attend Yeshiva University’s 100th anniversary, were asked about the escalation of tensions between secular and religious Jews in Israel.

“There are extremists on both sides,” Eliyahu replied. “In our opinion, the majority of the Israeli people are sympathetic to religion and keep the traditions of the Jewish people. But there are groups who are creating the escalation because they do not accept the fact that most of the people favor religion.”

Shapira noted that the Chief Rabbinate has been working to build bridges between religious and secular Jews in Israel. “Escalation (of tension) is not good for the people of Israel. We, therefore, are organizing meetings between secular and religious groups to promote understanding and friendly relations.”

Shapira contended that since the establishment of the State of Israel there has been a “consensus” regarding the character of the Jewish State. “The consensus has been that, as a State, the character of Israel will always remain Jewish, while inside one’s home every person can do as he pleases.” Now, however, Shapira charged, “there are elements who want to break the consensus.” He cited the opening of movie theatres in Israeli cities and towns on Friday nights as an example of “breaking the consensus.”

IMPERATIVE NEED FOR JEWISH EDUCATION

Turning to the issue of Jewish education in the diaspora, the two religious leaders warned that lack of Jewish education is the major factor in the growing assimilation of the young Jewish generation. “Without Jewish education there will be more and more assimilation,” Shapira said. Eliyahu added: “The Jewish community must mobilize itself and support Jewish education and make it available to those who can’t afford it. This must be done to preserve the future of the Jewish people.”

ISSUE OF ETHIOPIAN JEWS IN ISRAEL

Eliyahu and Shapira, who were both born in Jerusalem, expressed the hope that the Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel last year will be fully integrated into Israeli society. They said that the Chief Rabbinate recognized them as Jews but that in order to remove any doubt, the Rabbinate asks for ritual immersion in individual cases.

“The newly-arrived Ethiopian Jews are incited by certain elements among them,” Shapira and Eliyahu said. “We recognize them as Jews, as a group, but because in certain individual cases there might be a doubt, we ask that they undergo ritual immersion,” Eliyahu said.