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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The American denominations of
Conservative Jews (see Glossary)
and
Reform Jews (see Glossary),
although they have enrolled between
them the vast majority of affiliated American Jews, have achieved
a very modest presence in Israel. Neither Reform nor Conservative
rabbinical ordination is recognized by the Israeli chief rabbinate;
thus, these rabbis are generally forbidden to perform weddings or
authorize divorces. (In the mid-1980s a few Conservative rabbis
were granted the right, on an ad hoc basis, to perform weddings.)
In the early 1980s, there were twelve Reform congregations in
Israel and about 900 members--almost 90 percent of whom were born
outside the country. During the same period there were more than
twenty Conservative congregations with more than 1,500 members;
only about 14 percent were native-born Israelis (and, as in the
case of Reform, the great majority of these were of Ashkenazi
descent).
Although both Reform and Conservative movements dated their
presence in Israel to the 1930s, they experienced real growth, the
Conservative movement in particular, only in the late 1960s to
mid-1970s. During this period, relatively large numbers of American
Jews immigrated--more than 36,000 between 1968 and 1975.
Nevertheless, the opposition of the Israeli Orthodox establishment
to recognizing Conservative and (particularly) Reform Judaism as
legitimate was strong, and it continued to be unwilling to share
power and patronage with these movements. Neither of the newer
movements has attracted native-born Israelis in significant
numbers. The importance of the non-Orthodox movements in Israel in
the late 1980s mainly reflects the influence they have wielded in
the American and West European Diaspora.
Data as of December 1988
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