“Conservative Judaism is what Israelis have been waiting for all along. We didn’t have to give it to them. All we had to do was be here.” This remark, expressed during the recent 12th International Convention of the World Council of Synagogues (Conservative) in Jerusalem, aptly sums up the sentiments of the leaders of the newly-formed Conservative movement in Israel.
Unlike the decades-old movement of the U.S. or Canada, Israeli Conservative Jewry–as a national organized movement–is a mere eight years old. Calling itself the “Movement for M’sorati (traditional) Judaism in Israel,” it has secured steadily-growing public support since its founding in 1970. Twenty-five congregations have been established, two of them by second-generation members, and three more are presently being set up. Together they boast a membership of 2000 families, two-thirds of them Israeli-born.
In the last few years, the movement has established a center for Conservative Judaism in Jerusalem, 19 local youth chapters and three day camps, and in at least one city, it is responsible for third-grade Jewish content programming in the public school system. Future plans include opening an overnight camp and two additional day camps, establishing a M’sorati high school, developing a national youth movement, publishing Hebrew editions of M’sorati liturgical materials and, in general, enhancing the movement in the eyes of the Israeli public.
These accomplishments, however, were only realized against a background of numerous obstacles. A minimal budget–until last year, $30,000 annually–and shortage of both rabbinical and lay leadership characterize the movement even today. However, the most overriding barrier to its legitimate acceptance within Israel is the ideological one.
A decade ago, most Israelis had never heard of Conservative Jewry, or if they had, they were quick to denigrate its legitimacy. “Israeli society is polarized in terms of religion,” contends Yehuda Mor, executive member of the United Synagogue of Israel. “There are two camps—Orthodox and secular”–and a dominant all-or-nothing approach to Judaism is practiced by most of the public.
THE REAL CHALLENGE
The Orthodox establishment, even today, refuses to formally permit Conservative rabbis to officiate at Jewish functions, and in only a few cases have the local rabbis managed to gain legitimacy in the eyes of their Orthodox colleagues. Yet many of the movement’s leaders see the rabbinate as ultimately a product of society, and contend that once public support for the movement has grown, the rabbinate will have to adopt a more pluralistic approach to religious observance.
The real challenge, they contend, is in reaching this public and making it aware of the movement’s character Rabbi Michael Graetz, the Israeli movement’s executive director, likens this task to changing the image of the American Black in the 1950s. “We must launch an assault on established stereotypes that claim there is only one way of being Jewish,” he says. “Only then will people open up and listen to what we have to say.”
Rabbi Philip Spector, spiritual head of the highly successful model M’sorati community in Ashkelon, explains the movement’s attraction as a question of timing. “The Israeli today has a lot of Yiddishkeit. He just doesn’t have a spiritual hook to hang it on,” he contends, adding that the movement is needed here because its open-ended approach Judaism can withstand the characteristic tensions of Israeli society.
“On the other hand, the Conservative movement, as a whole, needs the Israeli desperately,” he adds. “We need his vigor because we are tired. When on Israeli sets foot into a synagogue, it is not because he is running away. He is looking for values and a spiritual uplift. The healthiest thing the Israeli can do for us is show us how to develop without the need to be a haven from assimilation.”
In that light, movement heads maintain that M’sorati Judaism in Israel must differ from that practiced in other countries. Of the 75 member families in his community of Omer, near Beersheva, Graetz notes that 40 “are serious about their Judaism. I foresee a more traditional movement here,” he says, “one in which people really try to live out the ideology.”
SERIES OF PROBLEMS CITED
For all the energy exhibited by the local leadership, the movement still faces a series of problems. Only two congregations–in Ashkelon and Netanya–have their own buildings. Due to lack of money, all 6thers meet in rented quarters that are not always available during the week.
Hopefully, this situation will soon improve to a degree. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America recently agreed to donate $50,000 to the movement annually, in addition to $36,000 a year recently promised by the World Council of Synagogues. A fund-raising tour is now being conducted in the U.S. and Graetz hopes to raise some $250,000 through various Israeli ministries and institutions.
Manpower also still constitutes a problem. While over 80 ordained Conservative rabbis presently reside in Israel, only 10–all of them recent immigrants–are employed by the movement, and only five of them on a full-time basis. “We must develop a cadre of indigenous leaders, of good consistent rabbinical leadership,” observed Rabbi Moshe Cohen, director of the United Synagogue of Israel. The movement intends to actively attract local people to the rabbinate and hopes to eventually open a local branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Movement leaders maintain that greater understanding of the M’sorati movement must be exhibited by Conservative Jewry throughout the world. Pointing to the poor American response to a recent request that communities abroad adopt synagogues here, Graetz notes that more efforts to educate constituencies abroad must be made.
David Zucker, international president of the World Council of Synagogues, has pledged backing of such an objective. “We fully support-the M’sorati movement and its philosophy,” he says. “And we want this support to follow the European conception of Kehilla, in which the Israeli section of the World Council of Synagogues will help each local community to gain administrative autonomy. With the aid of a central institution, we can build and create both synagogues and educational and cultural centers throughout Israel.” All agree that, with assistance, the M’sorati movement could become a force for real change in Israeli society.
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.
