Is Rabbi David Saperstein kidding? (“Spreading The Message Of Religious Tolerance,” March 13.)
He is working for religious tolerance all over the world, but he conveniently omits Israel. I hope he knows that the U.S. State Department publishes an annual document on the state of religious freedom around the world and always includes a description of Israel’s discrimination against liberal Judaism.
I am told that this discrimination is the responsibility of the Orthodox in Israel. It is not. The Orthodox in Israel are a minority there. Minorities do not control public policy in democracies. The problem in Israel is the responsibility of the majority of (non-Orthodox) Jews there, who evidently think that it’s fine to accept the support of American Jewry, the majority of whom are non-Orthodox, but to discriminate against those same Jews’ religious rights.
Yes, I know that the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, which the rabbi headed for many years, works against this discrimination, but that’s hardly adequate. Perhaps he can spend some of his time at least adding his voice to those of us who want Israel to treat us as well as the United States does.
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