Special to the JTA an Historic Conference

Leaders of four major national groups–Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform and Orthodox–were among the featured speakers at a two-day conference here this week on the subject “Will There Be One Jewish People by the Year 2000?” Each addressed the issues of Jewish unity and diversity.

Some observers termed the conference “historic” not only because of the stature of the participants in a conference dealing with Jewish pluralism, but because of the conciliatory tone of the speeches.

The featured speakers were Rabbi Gerson Cohen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Conservative); Ira Silverman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform); and Rabbi Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University (Orthodox).

The conference was sponsored by the National Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) in cooperation with the UJA-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York and the United Jewish Federation of Metro West, New Jersey. Approximately 300 people from 31 states participated in the meeting March 16-17 at the Scanticon Executive Conference Center.

Other speakers included Elie Wiesel, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; Charles Siberman, author of the current best-selling book, “A Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today”; and Rabbi Irving Greenberg, president of CLAL. The gathering was chaired by Sol Kimerling of Birmingham, Alabama.

STRESSES ‘PLURALISM WITHIN HALACHA’

Stressing his acceptance of “pluralism within halacha,” Lamm declared that no Orthodox Jew is true to the Jewish tradition if he refuses to recognize non-observant Jews as Jewish. He said that it is an “egregious error, fatuous and self-defeating” for Orthodox Jews to seek to legitimize all other Jews.

Although a similar attempt by Prof. Saul Lieberman of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik failed some 30 years ago, Lamm recommended “new attempts to establish a national Beit Din” to rule on cases of “gittin” and “mamzerim” (divorces and children born from unions considered “illegitimate” by halacha). He said branches of the rabbinic courts could be set up throughout the country, and in his opinion rabbis who observed halacha personally (even if non-Orthodox) could serve on such courts.

Lamm asserted that Orthodox leaders as well as Conservative and Reform spokespersons ought to become “more civil in their rhetoric” and “eliminate stridency” in their public pronouncements.

SOME SELF-CRITICISM BY SCHINDLER

Schindler voiced some self-criticism. “In my volleys with Orthodoxy,” he said, “I have in the heat of response to what I saw as attack more than once indulged in the anger of the outcast, using words and invoking images and bitter analogies which I now regret.” And, apparently referring to the issue of patrilineal descent, the Reform leader added:

“I confess, too, that there were times when I did not take into account the halachic difficulties that certain Reform innovations present to Orthodox Jews. I have responded in kind to the intransigence and zeal of Orthodoxy’s most extreme spokespersons, using their scorn as an excuse for not truly striving to lessen the pain of others.”

Schindler stressed, however, that his self-criticism should not be interpreted as a “retreat from any of the steps taken by Reform Judaism this past decade–only that these steps may have seemed less precipitous and threatening had we achieved a higher level of dialogue in advance of public pronouncement.”

He lashed out at what he termed “religious triumphalism,” which, he said, “must be banished from our table… That Orthodoxy which I was taught to revere as a young man, manifested a good deal of modesty. It did not lay claim to an all-exclusive authenticity. It did not presume to know with a certainty what the Holy One, blessed be He, demanded, and whom He deemed acceptable in His eyes. It did not wear armor in the name of righteousness or wield the sword to trim the beards of other Jews.”

Schindler asked for the “emergence and amplification of more Orthodox voices such as those of Yitz Greenberg and Emanuel Rackman and Eliezer Berkovits. … The genius of these men,” he said, “is in building bridges, not citadels of intolerance.”

CALLS FOR JOINT COMMITTEE AND STANDARDS

Cohen asserted that “behind the scenes, the religious leadership of this Jewish community is bound by friendship,” and he voiced the need for a “joint and long-standing committee to meet behind closed doors.” It should include Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionists and secularists, he said, “but don’t expect the approval of the Israeli religious establishment. It will depend on the will of the Jewish laity.”

Silverman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College for the past five years, said: “We have to overcome what divides us,” and he called for the creation of “joint standards for conversion and divorce.”

In his keynote address to the conference, Wiesel recalled the “destructive mood that reigned in Jerusalem before its destruction,” and he asked: “Are we approaching an era of gratuitous hate?”

Wiesel said that “fanaticism inspires fear” in him. “What we Jews need most now,” he said, is “awareness and understanding” of the positions of other Jews.

SAYS PRIORITIES ARE WRONG

Reiterating his belief that there is a “serious risk of a split in the Jewish people by the year 2000,” Greenberg said 90 percent of the Jewish people don’t want a split. Unfortunately, he added, “what they want is the next victory,” and he described “the splitting forces” as getting stronger. “We have the wrong priorities,” he said, “We’re spending $10 million a year on relations with Christians and only a small fraction of that amount on relations among ourselves. We must spend enough energy getting to know other Jews.”

Greenberg, the founder of CLAL (previously known as the National Jewish Resource Center), claimed that the level of intra-Jewish dialogue is less than our dialogue with Christians 50 years ago. He said that “philanthropy has funded the growth of the extreme right” in Jewish life. “It should fund outreach among ourselves,” and he stressed “the pressure of lay people” as having “a crucial role to play in the process.”

Messages of encouragement from Israel’s President Chaim Herzog and Prime Minister Shimon Peres were read to conference participants.

The goals of the conference, as articulated by Klara Silverstein of New York, one of the co-chairpersons, were “to mobilize Jewish leaders to take a stand against polarization; to open up dialogue between all groups of Jewish leaders; and to locate and develop techniques which will help us heal the hemorrhaging which threatens our community.”