One line connects the synagogue massacres in Pittsburgh on Saturday and Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood in 2014. In both cases, the murderers took no pains to distinguish between Conservative and Orthodox Jews. For them, all their victims were Jews, pure and simple. Many people don't need this reminder to understand the time has come for serious efforts to knock down, or at least lower the walls of division separating the different Jewish denominations. On the other hand, too many people, mainly on the Orthodox side, do need this reminder.
The fact that men and women pray together at Conservative and Reform congregations across the United States, play musical instruments on Shabbat, allow women to read from the Torah and let them serve as cantors and rabbis – still doesn't make them non-Jews. Those who accept completely secular Israelis as Jews and say about them – "a Jew, even though they have sinned, is still a Jew" – must at a minimum also apply this principle to their brethren in the United States, who are often far more attached to Jewish tradition and heritage than many secular Israelis.
The discourse to bridge the denominations has to focus on the conversion issue – the main sticking point preventing Israel's Orthodox establishment from recognizing Reform and Conservative Jews. No one should be trying to change their fellow man; the goal should be mutual recognition, not alteration.
The Orthodox are right to argue that one cannot become Jewish simply because one feels Jewish, without any commitment to Jewish practice and life. We can also understand the liberal streams in the U.S., fighting to buck the trend of 70% intermarriage rates by trying to connect the non-Jewish partners in these marriages to Judaism in ways that perhaps somewhat circumvent strict Jewish law. There's room for discourse between both approaches, for mutual understanding and disagreement; but not for excommunication.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who also holds the Diaspora affairs portfolio, isn't the only one who should talk to U.S. Jews. The rabbis, too, particularly the chief rabbis, are obligated to engage. No one will accuse them of recognizing the non-Orthodox streams, even if they visit their institutions, schools and synagogues and speak with their rabbis. If chief rabbis can speak with Muslim and Christian religious leaders, they are most certainly duty-bound to true and honest discourse with their Jewish brothers who observe Judaism differently.
Such discourse would be aided by separating diplomatic and political issues from religious issues. Many Jewish leaders in the U.S. conflate these matters. The fate of the settlements or the creation of a Palestinian state pertains to security, worldview and domestic existential questions. The money donated by U.S. Jews doesn't buy them the right to decide or intervene in these matters. U.S. Jews don't live here, don't serve in the IDF, aren't exposed to terror, and don't experience the hardships of life here. If they want to influence these things, they should move here.
On the other hand, issues such as non-Orthodox conversions, the Western Wall prayer plaza and assimilation are decidedly matters of concern for U.S. Jews. For example, Conservative Jews are right that loose ties to Judaism are better than severed ties. Likewise, Orthodox Jews have a point that weak ties are destined to break. The path forward must include open dialogue between leaders and rabbis; the mutual withdrawal and apathy we see today isn't the answer.
