Welcoming Reform Jews Into Israel!
I came across this interesting and uplifting story earlier today about Israeli efforts to promote aliyah among Reform Jews. It focuses on the work of Liran Avisar, who is the Jewish Agency for Israel’s first shlichat aliyah to the Reform movement.
Here is a snippet.
“You are stockholders of this huge investment of the Jewish people,” Gazit said, adding, “we share the ownership of Israel.”
She explained that while the past 60 years have been spent trying to build the Jewish state in terms of infrastructure — homes, roads and government agencies — Zionism now means connecting Israel with American Jewry. And her new job is to convince Reform Jews in particular to make aliyah and help diversify Israeli society. “After 60 years,” she insisted, “we have to change the face of Israel.”
This, she stated, is what Zionism is all about today.
While Orthodoxy and secularism once provided Israeli citizens with the principle forms of Jewish identity open to them, Conservative Judaism and the Reform movement have sought a growing presence in the country over the past several decades.
In case of the latter, this is apparent in the growth of Reform kibbutzim and in the city of Modi’in, the ancient home of the Maccabees, whose mayor has welcomed Reform Jews there.
You can read the rest here.
I have no idea if this is just a blip on the screen but as a Jew by choice who’s status in Israel is intrinsically tied to movements like the Reform’s AZRA, I take it as a hopeful and encouraging sign of things to come.
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