Reform Programs Aims To Spark ‘Dialogue Not Debate’ on Israel
Image by Haaretz
By Naomi Zeveloff February 25, 2016
Reform Rabbis in America scratching their heads over how to handle the Israel debates roiling their synagogues will soon get some guidance.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the largest American rabbinic organization, is creating a program to aimed to foster civil discourse in Reform congregations.
Steven Fox, the chief executive of CCAR, described the program, slated to begin August 2016, in an interview while he was in Israel for CCAR’s annual convention this week.
He said that the program, many months in the works, is aimed at “creating dialogue and not debate” in Reform synagogues. Fox named the breakdown in civil discourse over Israel a “grave concern” in his most recent annual report, he said.
Fox would not reveal any details about the program except to say that “phase one” will be “working with Rabbis to enhance skillsets of conversation.”
The program will be modeled on CCAR’s 2008 project to facilitate healthy dialogue between rabbis on the contentious issue of intermarriage. Over the past several years more and more Reform Rabbis have been performing marriages between Jews and non-Jews.
CCAR officially supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the CCAR convention, Reform rabbis met with settlers in Hebron as well as activists from Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli soldiers who testify about Israeli human rights violations in the occupied territories.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected] or on Twitter @NaomiZeveloff
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
