Scholastic will correct a publication on Israel that
suggests that the fervently Orthodox do not regard as Jews adherents of the
Reform and Conservative streams.
“They believe that Reform and Conservative Jews are not
really Jews at all because they are not strict in their observance of all the
religious laws,” says the text in the Israel title in the Enchantment of the
World series, which is geared for middle schools.
Agudath Israel of America brought the error to the
attention of the giant educational publisher. While some Orthodox assert, Aguda
wrote, “that converts whose conversions were overseen by non-Orthodox
Jewish movements” should not automatically receive Israeli citizenship,
“no Orthodox Jew of any stripe considers anyone born of a Jewish mother or
halachically converted, regardless of his or her affiliation or beliefs, to be
anything other than a Jew.”
