I Reject
The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America just made it official: they are banning women from rabbinic positions. Oh hum.
The Israeli religious public school curriculum is raising a generation of Jews to believe that sacrificing animals in a rebuilt Temple is the pinnacle of Judaism and Zionism. Yeah, whatever.
Women still lack complete access to the Western Wall. Sure, what did you expect?
Israel Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzure published The King’s Torah justifying the killing of Palestinian children to prevent them from growing up and killing Jews. Yawn. So, what else is new?
While I’m inundated with petitions calling upon imams to reject extremist Islam, and swamped by claims from these same imams that extremist Islam isn’t really Islam, I have yet to hear a call for liberal rabbis to denounce extremist rabbis and the Judaisms they profess. At what point do we liberal and largely secular Jews stop excusing the madness of Medieval Judaisms and publically declare them illegitimate? After all, medieval Judaisms reject Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal, Polydox, Humanistic, and even other Orthodox Judaisms as unJewish. Why can’t we liberal Jews do the same in reverse?
I’m tired of the “big tent” argument. I’m tired of excusing Medieval Judaisms and pretending that misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, and Iron Age mores have any place in the 21st century. I’m tired of bending over backward to meet their standards of kashrut and Shabbos observance in order to make them feel comfortable at community-wide Jewish events only to have them refuse to eat, pray, and love with the rest of us anyway. I’m tired of trying to widen the Jewish tent to accommodate those among us who reject most of us. So:
I reject as unJewish any Judaism that rejects women rabbis and the full enfranchisement of women. I reject as unJewish any Judaism that rejects LGBTQ rabbis and the full enfranchisement of the LGBTQ community. I reject as UnJewish any Judaism that tells a rabbi whom to love. I reject as unJewish any Judaism that wants to rebuild the Temple and reinstitute animal sacrifice. I reject as unJewish any Judaism that rejects science, critical thinking, and rational thought. I reject as unJewish any Judaism that sanctions apartheid and excuses the oppression of Palestinians. I reject as unJewish any Judaism that worships the Land rather than God. I reject as unJewish any Judaism that, contra Abraham Joshua Heschel, makes Judaism a religion of space rather than time. *
It is time to say “no” to the madness of medievalism regardless of which religion it proclaims.
*Yes, I realize that the only Jews left after my blanket rejections are Jews like me, and I’m cool with that. After all, that’s the whole point of rejecting people in the first place.