Liberal Judaism Is Dedicated to Identity Formation, Not a Religious Worldview

When it comes to understanding the sometimes fraught relationship between Jewish communities, American and Israeli, Orthodox and liberal, few possess the perspective of Daniel Gordis. All the more so when the matter at hand is so existentially loaded.

American born and American educated, Gordis threw his lot in with Israel by age forty and he has written extensively about Jews, their dilemmas, and their achievements in both countries. A penetrating observer—simultaneously a lover and critic—he is a bridge between the two primary centers of contemporary Jewish life. Before the current shutdown, few shuttled between Israel and North America as often and fruitfully as Gordis did.

And now Gordis has made a provocative claim about the relative resilience of Israeli and traditionally religious Jews, on the one hand, and their non-Orthodox, American co-religionists on the other. There is merit to his critique. And I say this as a Reform-ordained rabbi who has served in liberal synagogues in the U.S. and Canada for decades.