Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Where Did We Lose Our Knowledgeable Jews?

I belong to a Conservative Temple. Its members are highly supportive of Israel. They love going to New York City to participate in the Israeli Day Parade.

How then was the following conversation possible? In this conversation, I mentioned to a lady from my temple that I was disturbed that a leader of the umbrella organization for Conservative Synagogues had been quoted as saying he applauded Rick Jacob's appointment to head the Reform movement.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, for starters," I explained, "he serves on J Street's board of directors."

"So why is that bad? I know a college kid in California who worked for J Street," she said. "She never had anything bad to say about them."

But, it gets worse; much worse. I met two old guys from my synagogue at a cantorial concert. (I guess I shouldn't refer to them as "old" in light of my own advanced years.) These fellows are also highly supportive of Israel. During the intermission, I described my recent conversation with the lady, as just mentioned above.

I was met with silence. Then, one of them asked, "Who's J Street?"

I was floored. But, then, the more I thought of it, it occurred to me that maybe this wasn't so bad after all.


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