On Monday March 31 in New York ,the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, the oldest and foremost ultra orthodox rabbinic organization in the Western Hemisphere, issued an unprecedented declaration declaring that Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism are not religious Judaism at all, asserting that these heresies alter, distort, and misrepresent true Judaism. The authors of the statement are a unique blend of both Hasidic and non-Hasidic, scholarly and charismatic, Orthodox rabbis from the US, Canada, Australia, England and Italy. Rabbi David Hollander of the association's executive board says that Conservative and Reform "teach things contrary to the Torah" (NY Times, March 24, l997).
The proclamation will urge the American Jews, ninety percent of whom identify with Reform and Conservative, to withdraw from their heretical temples and clergy. It will be timed to counter efforts by Reform and Conservative to gain official recognition for their movements in Israel.
Previously, a similar decree read like this:
1. "...Worthless and wanton men...have deserted the Jewish group and have set up a so called place of worship for themselves...they worship in a most insane fashion following a different ritual which does not conform to the religion of our holy Torah, and they tread a path which our fathers have never trod...All of their writings are opposed to our holy Torah and they contain misleading interpretations.
2. "...We order that a fast and public prayer be instituted... in all communities. ( The purpose of this prayer and fast was to avert the evils of heresy.)
3. "...All possible measures are to be adopted to put an end to the prayer meetings of the heretics in all communities, so that they will be deprived of the possibility of common assembly.
4. "...Careful watch is to be maintained that no on should study their literature, and search is to be made with this purpose in mind.
5. "...The ritual slaughterers' kill (kosher meat) may not be eaten.
6. "...No one is to shelter any member of this sect.
7. "...No community may permit any one of them to hold a position as cantor or rabbi, and it goes without saying that no one of them may teach our children. We, the undersigned are unanimous with respect to all these measures. Shklov, Sunday, the 10th of Tevet, 5547 (December 31, 1786), Moses son of Rabbi Yudel, etc.( The Jew in the Medieval World, Jacob Marcus, editor, pp.276-278.)
This statement of excommunication was issued in 1786 by a prominent contingent of Orthodox rabbis, under the influence of the greatest rabbinic scholar of the time, Elijah of Vilna, in Shklov , Moghilef, White Russia, against a second contingent of Orthodox Jews, the Hasidim. The excommunicating rabbis were alarmed by the rapid growth of their competitors, and their changes in religious services and theology.
Is it any wonder that ultra Orthodox rabbis who declared each others' Judaism to be excommunicated in 1796 will again declare fellow Jews' Judaism to be excommunicated in l997?
Fundamentalist intolerance breeds its own successors.
Who knows? Perhaps in 2097 a similar group of rabbis will excommunicate itself!