The Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh has turned public attention to the question of the Jewishness of those who are not recognized as such by the Orthodox establishment in Israel.
Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett, who is also the minister for Diaspora affairs, traveled to Pittsburgh to mourn with the stunned community and found it appropriate to announce upon his departure that "in my eyes, they are all Jews." But the fact that an Israeli minister even had to make such a statement underscores the fact that the religious establishment in Israel questions the Jewishness of American Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jews.
In the wake of the shooting, messages of sympathy and condolences poured in from all over the world, from Germany to Saudi Arabia, with world and community leaders denouncing anti-Semitism and the murder of Jews for the sole reason that they were Jews. Only in Israel did the establishment see fit to emphasize the generosity afforded to the victims, who were posthumously recognized as Jews.
I am not familiar with the personal stories of all the victims, but one thing is clear: If there was a rabbi among them, he could not serve as a rabbi in Israel because according to the state-recognized religious establishment, only Orthodox rabbis fit the bill.
In Israel, the married couples among the victims would be recognized as such only as a result of a High Court of Justice ruling, as the state would not allow them to marry in a civil ceremony, which we don't have, or a Conservative one, which is not recognized as valid.
If any of the victims converted to Judaism via a Conservative process, Israel would have to list them as Jewish – again, because of a High Court ruling – but they would not be recognized as Jews in any other way, including for the purpose of marriage.
Perhaps this horrific massacre will jolt someone here enough to internalize the need for unity and recognition of all streams of Judaism. Perhaps, in the wake of this horror, the establishment will do some soul-searching that will lead to the recognition of Jews who are just as devout – even if they drive to synagogue and do not exile their mothers, wives and daughters to pray in a walled-off gallery.
The heinous murderer who gunned down innocent worshippers on Shabbat did not set out to target specifically a Conservative synagogue but rather any synagogue. This Jew-hater sought a distinctly Jewish target and one was easy to find. Could the common fate of all Jews be any clearer?
Just as the Law of Return is an answer to the abominable Nuremberg Laws and thus gives anyone with a Jewish grandparent the right to immigrate to Israel, we must devise the appropriate Israeli Jewish response to anti-Semitic acts worldwide: All those who define themselves as Jews should be recognized as such by Israel. If the Chief Rabbinate is unwilling to see them in this way, the state will have to allow them to marry within its borders and recognize their rabbis. This is simply something we must do.
