פלורליזם בציון: בין התנועה הרפורמית הישראלית לאמריקנית

Abstract

This article deals with the attempts of the American Reform Movement to negotiate the constant tensions between the desire to mold a pluralistic Jewish identity in Israel in its own image, and its reservations about the possible ramifications of Jewish nationalism and the establishment of the State of Israel vis-à-vis American Jewry as an autonomous religious community. The Israeli Reform Movement, in contrast, has tried to balance the American sources that inspired its evolution by investing them with Zionist values with the creation of a Reform Hebrew culture. The dialectics between the American and Israeli Reform Movements explored here address the patrilineal descent decision of the American movement in 1983 and the response of the Israeli Movement. The ongoing tensions between the American and Israeli Movements hinge on the aspiration of both to seek legitimacy through the existence of the other while continuing to develop in accordance with their respective circumstances. Their relations have also been subjected to political and economic power dynamics, in which each side attempts to leverage actual or symbolic capital in order to promote its particular view of collective Jewish existence.