Are We Headed For A Split In Orthodoxy?

by Marc B. Shapiro
Special To The Jewish Week

Israel’s Supreme Rabbinic Court has recently cast into doubt the legitimacy of hundreds, if not thousands, of conversions carried out by religious Zionist dayanim [religious court judges] under the direction of Rabbi Chaim Druckman, who headed the government’s official conversion authority. This has again brought the issue of haredi involvement in the official Israeli rabbinate to the fore. It should also show the shortsightedness of the Rabbinical Council of America’s recent decision to play ball with the Chief Rabbinate and accept the body’s authority in matters of conversion.
The reason this is shortsighted is because this isn’t simply a conflict between the haredi (or ultra-Orthodox) rabbinic leadership and some liberal Orthodox rabbis with regard to this issue. Rather, the haredi leadership rejects the entire

notion that there can be Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist halachic authorities and dayanim, and indeed has attempted to keep non-haredim off the religious courts.
Accepting the legitimacy of a Modern Orthodox or Religious Zionist posek (decisor) is in their eyes an oxymoron. This explains how the haredi Supreme Rabbinic Court could call into question so many conversions without even meeting with the individuals concerned and investigating the people whose lives they have just damaged.
We have finally reached the point in Israel, and to a lesser extent in the United States, where the non-haredi rabbinate must make a choice. Until recently the haredi world shunned the official Israeli rabbinate, but now the haredi leadership sees it as their obligation to take it over. The haredi community survives due to Israeli government subsidies, but this community has no connection to the average citizen and its members do not serve in the army. How can dayanim rule for a population when the judges inhabit a completely different world, not merely oblivious to general Israeli society, but opposed to the national values found there?
At present, the haredi leadership is attempting to entirely uproot any vestige of a Religious Zionist stamp on official religious life in Israel.
The Chief Rabbinate’s new stringent approach on conversion has the effect of uprooting the rulings of previous chief rabbis, in particular Rabbis Benzion Uziel, Isser Yehuda Unterman and Shlomo Goren. It is incredible that the RCA has agreed to a situation in which conversions carried out using the standards of previous chief rabbis are now to be regarded as invalid. In truth, one does not need to urge the Religious Zionist population in Israel to disengage from the Chief Rabbinate. The Chief Rabbinate itself has already disengaged from the population at large.
It should be obvious that there are two very different types of Orthodoxy being practiced in Israel, and to a lesser extent here. The haredim realized this long ago and have done everything in their power to make sure that only their form of Orthodoxy survives, and that any other approach is moved to the dustbin of history. Any successes in this effort (and there have been many) were only possible due to the massive financial support of both the Israeli government and the American non-haredi Orthodox community.
The Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist world should not seek to delegitimize the haredi form of Orthodoxy. But basic pride in one’s ideology would suggest that the Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist world should not feel the need to follow the haredim and adapt its own practices in order that there be “one standard.” Whenever people urge the adoption of one standard, you can be sure it will always be the haredi standard, and this applies to conversion, kashrut supervision and any other matter you can imagine. In other words, as long as “one standard” becomes the goal, there is no longer a need for Modern Orthodox halachic authorities. Halachic matters can be left to the haredi world, all in the interest of preserving “Orthodox unity.”
Yet isn’t it time to ask why the Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist world doesn’t model itself on the haredi world in at least one area? The haredi world follows its own authorities without regard for the non-haredi rabbinate. Isn’t it time for the Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist world to do the same?
This would mean a complete break with the haredi halachic authorities and the establishment of religious courts that share at least some of the values and worldview of the community in which they serve. (I was struck by how, in his lengthy ruling attacking Rabbi Druckman’s conversions, the haredi dayan relies on the halachic decisions of a well-known posek who serves the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit. In other words, the writings of one who believes that the creation of the State of Israel was a terrible sin — and who clearly has no sympathy with the goal of helping ease the conversion of sincere non-Jewish immigrants — is helping guide the decisions of a dayan who works for the Israeli government and is supposed to have the best interests of the State at heart.)
I am sure some readers will protest that it goes against Orthodox unity to advocate this approach. Yet with such a step the Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist world would only be acknowledging the situation that the haredim have created, and are now pursuing with a vengeance.
There are hundreds of thousands of non-Jews in Israel, many of whom are interested in conversion. There is also an enormous intermarriage rate in the United States, and there are many non-Jewish partners who are also willing to convert. Yet before solving the problem of who will be a Jew, we must solve the problem of who is a dayan and who is a halachic authority. The haredim have already given their answer to this question. One would that think that the Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionists would take the hint and realize that the time has come to go their own way. n
Marc B. Shapiro holds the Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton.