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100 Years of Reform Jewry in America Children of Kayin a Chief Rabbtfor IE 100 Years of Reform Jewry in America A centennial not to celebrate; not to ignore Children of Kayin A search for seeds of deviationism A Chief Rabbtfor New York City The tragic tale of Rabbi Jacob Joseph On War and Mobilization The Te/she Rosh Hayeshivah on current crises Index for Volume 1x Subjects and authors Letters ~ "ij' (and responses) THE JEWISH QBSERVER in this issue ... ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF REFORM JEWRY IN AMERICA, Nisson Wolpin ................................................ 3 CHILDREN OF KA YIN, Sender Goldberg............................ 9 ON WAR AND MOBILIZATION, H orav M ordechai Gifter. ... .. ... ... ... ....... .. ... ... .. .. ... ... .. l 2 A CHIEF RABBI FOR NEW YORK CITY, Shmuel Singer.................................................................. l 6 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published Regarding: Career guidance in yeshivas; monthly, except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of Amercia, preparation for inevitable exposure; secular sources 5 Beekman St., New York, N. Y. 10038. Second class postage paid for Judaic insight; JO as a critic ofothers only .. .. .. ... .. 22 at New York, N. Y. Subscription: $6.50 per year; Two years, $11.00; Three years $15.00; outside of the United States $7.50 per year. Single copy sixty~five cents. Photographs on Pages 34, 35 by Zelman Studios Printed in the U.S.A. RABBI NISSON WOLPIN Editor GIVE A SPECIAL GIFT TO SOMEONE SPECIAL Editorial Board DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER THE JEWISH OBSERVER Chairman 5 Beekman Street / New York, N. Y. 10038 RABBI NATHAN BULMAN RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS DONE YEAR, $6.50 0 TWO YEARS, a $13 value, only $II JOSEPH FRIEDENSON 0 THREE YEARS: a $19.50 "-alue, only $15 RABBI YAAKOV JACOBS RABBI MOSHE SHERER Send Magazine to: Fro1n: Na1nc........... ...................................... Name..... THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Address ...................................................... Address. Kashrus of any product or service ndvertised in its pages. City................... State............ Zi p ............ " City................... State.......... Zip............. [] Enclose gift card O Enclosed: $ ....................... MAY, 1974 VOL.X, No. l D Bill me: $ ....................... Typography by Compo-Scribe at ArtScro// Sludios Nissan Wolpin 100 Years of Reform Jewry in America Reform Jewry is celebrating a centennial, which many would prefer to ignore. But Reform is a nagging presence-by virtue of obstructionism, deviation, and some signs of return. While we will certainly refrain from celebrating its first hundred years, we cannot ignore them. TI5.) EFORM JUDAISM IN AMERICA has been celebrating almost alone among Jewish organizations2 in actually ~a hundredth birthday: in the summer of 1873, the submitting an amicus curae brief to the Supreme Court Union of American Hebrew (Reform) in support of the University of Washington in the recent Congregations was formed in Cincinnati. De Funis case. Marco De Funis (a Sephardic Jew) was a The media has been taking note of this centennial: Phi Betta Kappa and a Magna Cum Laude graduate The Fall convention of the UAHC was covered from the University of Washington's undergraduate prominently by the N.Y. Times ("Reform Jews college. Yet he had been barred from entering the Reclaiming Tradition They Once Rejected"), and its University's Law School even though, by the Univer­ hundred years of activity were the subject of the lead es­ sity's own standards, only one of the 376 Blacks and say in the '73 American Jewish Year Book. But to the Chicanos who were admitted to the Law School scored Jew of Torah orientation, it could well be an anniversary better than he did. So De Funis claimed to be suffering to ignore. After all, Reform paved a tragic road away discrimination, but the UAHC backed the University's from Judaism within the formal confines of Jewry. To granting preferential treatment to minorities at De leave Torah Judaism, it had once been necessary to sever Funis's expense. one's connection with the Jewish People. Not so after What is shocking is not simply that should the the advent of Reform; it offered the self-concious Jew UAHC's point of view prevail, a good many junior the means of performing a nose-job on his soul - UAHC congregants will find themselves displaced from fleshing out of his assimilation fantasies without change the classrooms of their choice by students of lesser of name. The end result, predictably, was change-of­ qualifications. Of much greater concern - the entire name as well - full assimilation, along with inter­ basis for the Jew's economic independence and upward marriage and baptism.' So the less attention heaped on mobility in America is the merit system: if a man· is Reform Judaism's celebration, the better. qualified he can expect to be hired, admitted, or ad­ Yet, it is difficult to ignore a movement that has gone vanced regardless of his national or ethnic origin. If this beyond philosophical deviation to actual obstructionism is replaced by a subjective system that operates against in the more concrete world of legislation, government Jewish applicants, openings in schools, the professions, policies, and simple economics. government service - even in the business world - will The Social Commission of the (Reform) UAHC was be stacked against the Jewish applicant. Whatever prompted the Reform Movement to take such I. It is not necessary to refer to the grandfather of Reform, Moses a self-defeating stand? Mendelssohn - an observant Jew whose children converted to Christianity, and whose grandchildren were baptized as infants; one In Israel, early this year, under the shadows of enemy can simply point to a recent inquiry among Reform rabbis and cannons and missiles, Mrs. Meir took over seven weeks laymen, commissiori"ect by the Central Conference of American Rab­ bis, which concluded: "More than one in three congregants, aged 20- 2. - with only the National Council of Jewish Women for com­ 24, is now married to a spouse who was born non-Jewish, One in four pany. Among those takin'g the de Fun is or single standard position of this age group is married to a spouse who has not converted .... On were the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, every issue of Jewish identity on which they were queried, Reform the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, and COLPA, each filing a youth seem to be more detached from Judaism and Jewishness than separate brief. The Supreme Court dropped the case on April 23, their parents." (Theodore I. Lenn and Associates, Rabbi and because it found it no longer relevant; De Funis is graduating from Synagogue in Refonn ludaisrn, New York Central Conference of Lav.- School this June. But the principle has not been settled, and the American Rabbis, 1972, pp. 395, 400.) Reform stand on this case is thus still relevant. The Jewish Observer / May, J974 J to pull together a majority government. One major fac­ tor was the religious parties' unwillingness to join Reform fews without guarantees that only halachic conversions would be recognized in Israel. And one major snag was the insistence of Reform (and Conservative) spokesmen Reclaiming Tradition that their conversions indeed be recognized. Rabbi Robert Kahn, president of the Central Conference of American (Reform) Rabbis announced in Jerusalem last They Once Rejected March, that even if an agreed conversion procedure would be determined, "it would be unthinkable" to in­ validate past conversions, such as the "40 persons he converted without halachic requirements of circumci­ sion and ritual immersion." (quoted in Jerusalem Post, March 19) Reform Judaism has, willy-nilly, become a viable presence in the Holy Land. There has been evidence of deep-seated misgivings in the Reform Movement with its historic departure from tradition. The N. Y. Times article (mentioned earlier) found strong evidence of "return to tradition ... [with] growing support for the drafting of a Reform halacha; Rabbi David Polish arguing that ... Judaism is a religion of mitzvoth." Can one take an optimistic view of Reform's return to tradition? Sefton Temkin (professor of Judaic Studies in State Univ. of N.Y., Albany), in his essay in the American Jewish Year Book, finds little worth holding over from Reform Judaism's past: The antiseptic, heavily organized Reform temple was much more the expression of superficial urban living, which had ignored social decay, and against which youth was said to be in rebellion; and UAHC was dependent on that constituency .... Their espousal of civil rights evoked little response from the black community. Interfaith work ... seemed to have yielded little. Leaving the impression that the approach was superficial and too much aim­ ed at instant results in terms of personal or in­ stitutional reclame .... In truth, predicting the future course of Reform can be a difficult sort of guessing game. -After all, in its adherence to a dogma of non-permanence, it can res­ pond to the vicissitudes of life not only with outward Linda Slonim cutting challah, or twisted bread, for Sabbath services, change, but it can also alter rituals, priorities, and beliefs which the Slonims began celebrating when she came home from school as the whim strikes. one day singing,"Jesus Lo~es :\1e." Thus, one can be quick in decrying the inestimable :V. Y Times. :Vor. !2.'13 damage being inflicted by the Reform Movement on its adherents as well as on the general Jewish populace; eager in waving home those Reformers who return (a la the N.Y. Times); and properly
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