| | | | | | | | | | Exactly 12 hours before sirens sounded across the country early Friday morning announcing that Israel was at war with Iran, my colleague Allison Kaplan-Sommer and I were busy taping a podcast with Knesset Member Gilad Kariv. After being kicked out of a Knesset committee and told that as a member of the Reform movement, he was not a "real Jew," Kariv – a rabbi and member of the left-leaning Democrats party – had become one of the big newsmakers of the week.
We had a great conversation with Kariv, but before we had time to drop the podcast, a much much bigger story had broken. Israel's war with Iran, rather than its internal religious wars, had taken over the news cycle.
How progressive forms of Judaism are treated (or mistreated) in Israel is not an issue that will go away easily. Indeed, it is here with us to stay. And when the missile strikes stop, and normal life resumes – hopefully, the sooner the better – members of Israel's Orthodox-dominated governing coalition will likely return to their old practices of knocking and mocking Jews who interpret Judaism differently from them.
Having served as head of the Reform movement in Israel for many years, Kariv had grown accustomed to taking abuse from his religious opponents. Still, he says in this oped, there was something different about what happened in the Knesset last week. And it has given him cause for even more concern.
Weighing in on the matter in this guest essay, Rabbi David Sperber sets out to explain what's behind the animosity of many Israelis, even secular ones, to Reform Judaism. | | |
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