Israel Matzav: Why be a reform Jew when you can be a Democrat?

Why be a reform Jew when you can be a Democrat?

This is off topic, but David Bernstein has an interesting comment on the attacks on Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) (pictured with his wife Hadassah) that claim that he isn't a good Jew because he opposes Obamacare.

This, in a nutshell, explains why Reform Judaism (with which I have some sympathy theologically) is dying a slow long-term death (estimates are something like 8 Reform Jewish great-grandparents will produce slightly over 1 Jewish great-grandchild–Reform has received a temporary boost because it, unlike its Conservative rival, which is undergoing its own identity crisis over the issue of homosexual rabbis, accepts children of Jewish fathers); its leaders can find a mandate in “Jewish texts” for nationalizing the American health care industry, which has nothing to do with Judasim, but not for Sabbath or kashruth observance, which have been central to Judaism for 3,000 years.

To be fair, some of Reform’s leaders recognize the problem and are trying hard to change the dynamic, at least on the side of tradition, if not on the side of trying to wean establishment Reform away from identification with political liberalism. But to the extent Reform Judaism offers its constituents the New Deal as its Torah and Barack Obama as its prophet, it’s hard to see why someone should bother being involved in Reform Judaism as opposed to, say, the Democratic Party.

Indeed.

Israel Matzav: Why be a reform Jew when you can be a Democrat?