Receding shore

One would do well to juxtapose Gil Troy’s Pollyannaish “What can your country do for you?” (Center Field, April 5), his thoughts on “how Israelis can bridge the gap with the Diaspora,” and Hal Ostrow’s cri de couer “Union for Reform Judaism practices intolerance in pursuit of social justice” (Comment & Opinion, April 5).

As Ostrow makes abundantly clear, liberal Judaism is willfully detaching itself both practically and emotionally from Israel’s needs and reality in order to maintain Democratic/progressive/ liberal bona fides that might keep an evaporating congregation from falling off the roster entirely. To the extent that this works at all, it does not work as a factor in fostering or maintaining a Diaspora commitment to Israel.

If anything, the opposite is true: The near-term survival of Reform Judaism and its dying ability to attract or maintain members requires it to move ever deeper into an anti-Zionist posture.

Troy’s outdated stereotype of the “aliya guilt trip,” whereby heavily-accented, pot-bellied Israeli war veterans insult Diaspora Jews, reveals the extent to which he is detached from reality. The fact is no one, not even the start-up nation, can build a bridge when the other shore keeps receding. Liberal Jews have made it abundantly clear where their values and priorities lie – and these are not under the wedding canopy, in the synagogue pew or in the maternity ward, and certainly not in anything to do with Israel,