What do 50%ers want?
Jul. 17th, 2010 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavendersparkleI have a friend who's going to become a priest. He's a liberal on issues of gender and sexuality. He believes that women should be ordained including to the episcopate. All the same, he's glad that he's going to get ordained before the first female bishop is finally consecrated within the Church of England, long after the majority of its members decided that such a thing could be G@d's will. He's glad because it means that he can have his cake and eat it. He can support the ordination of women and feel good about that but at the same time his ordination will be seen as valid by all of those who disagree with him on that issue. If he were ordained at some point in the future when he could have a female diocesan bishop, his ordination might be seen as no more valid than that of his female colleagues.
I mention this because I think a similar thinking runs through a lot of non-Orthodox Jews. Whilst they don't believe in Torah min HaShamayim and may scoff at some of the beliefs and practices of Orthodoxy, but they like to know that the Orthodox establishment views them as one of the tribe. They may even take measures to protect this recognition, such as marrying in an Orthodox ceremony so there's an Orthodox ketubah to act as a pass for their children into Orthodox institutions.
This reassuring confidence that we'll be accepted has allowed non-Orthodox Jewish communities to be dependent upon Orthodoxy. Who writes our Torah scrolls and mezuzot? Who bakes our matzahs? Who runs most of the British Jewish state schools? Who ensures that there's somewhere Jewish students can go for Shabbat dinner? Who inspects for kosher certification? Who circumcises our children? This works fine and dandy for most non-Orthodox Jews because they're Jewish by Orthodox standards and the Orthodox are willing to cooperate, either for the money or the sake of ahavat Israel.
A bigger problem comes from those of us who can't ride on Orthodoxy's coat tails. People who have to find a mohel willing to circumcise a baby with a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. People who want to give their children a Jewish education which won't teach them that their mother's conversion isn't valid. People who want to immerse in a mikvah to purify themselves for their non-Jewish spouse.
I think if we want the conversation about how the Jewish community can serve Jews in interfaith families to move beyond talk of welcoming or performing weddings, we need to actually notice the things we take for granted which are inaccessible to a larger and larger proportion of our communities.
I mention this because I think a similar thinking runs through a lot of non-Orthodox Jews. Whilst they don't believe in Torah min HaShamayim and may scoff at some of the beliefs and practices of Orthodoxy, but they like to know that the Orthodox establishment views them as one of the tribe. They may even take measures to protect this recognition, such as marrying in an Orthodox ceremony so there's an Orthodox ketubah to act as a pass for their children into Orthodox institutions.
This reassuring confidence that we'll be accepted has allowed non-Orthodox Jewish communities to be dependent upon Orthodoxy. Who writes our Torah scrolls and mezuzot? Who bakes our matzahs? Who runs most of the British Jewish state schools? Who ensures that there's somewhere Jewish students can go for Shabbat dinner? Who inspects for kosher certification? Who circumcises our children? This works fine and dandy for most non-Orthodox Jews because they're Jewish by Orthodox standards and the Orthodox are willing to cooperate, either for the money or the sake of ahavat Israel.
A bigger problem comes from those of us who can't ride on Orthodoxy's coat tails. People who have to find a mohel willing to circumcise a baby with a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. People who want to give their children a Jewish education which won't teach them that their mother's conversion isn't valid. People who want to immerse in a mikvah to purify themselves for their non-Jewish spouse.
I think if we want the conversation about how the Jewish community can serve Jews in interfaith families to move beyond talk of welcoming or performing weddings, we need to actually notice the things we take for granted which are inaccessible to a larger and larger proportion of our communities.