We Failed Zuckerberg - Forward - Jewish Ideas Daily

We Failed Zuckerberg - Forward - Jewish Ideas Daily

I am admittedly ignorant of the practices and ideology of Reform Judaism, though I feel its pain over stories like Mark Zuckerberg's. However, just from reading the inclusive, overly tolerant words of the reform rabbi/author of this opinion piece, I am forced to ask whether  a key problem faced by Reform Judaism concerns its ideological commitment, seemingly at every juncture, to NOT be judgmental and to therefore apparently stand for preciously little to its adherents.

As a traditional Jew  I know (in my heart) that there are certain things that I do that are wrong, religiously, but I do them anyway. My rabbi probably knows I do them and does not condone them or seek to explain them away out of pluralistic tolerance. The sense of shame that I have in breaking rules keeps me focussed on right and wrong even when I stray, like eating non-Kosher outside the home. Perhaps it keeps me from mixing milk and meat, and perhaps it helps me convey the concept of religious  commitment  to my kids, regardless of my apparent hypocracy. I would argue that Reform (and Conservative) Jews need to have a sense of shame when they violate their sect's rules, not be condoned. People wish to belong to something that stands for something, and doesn't just explain away "anything goes".

Indeed, after explaining away several times the desire not to condemn religiously violative acts or be judgmental,  the Rabbi concludes himself,

"We failed Zuckerberg and will continue to fail young people like him because the pluralistic theologies of Reform Judaism articulated since the 1960s make it difficult to grasp what we Reform Jews believe on any given issue. Our faith is too amorphous. Math and science nerds, in particular, may be the type most likely to bolt. This is ironic because one of the raisons d’être of Reform Judaism was to create an approach to Judaism that would be scholarly and scientific. But we have lost our way, ignoring scholarship in favor of any type of “spirituality,” no matter how vacuous."

As Jews, of whatever stripe, we should pray that Mark Zuckerberg and the Reform Jewish movement finds its way, beyond that of being a waiting room to non-affiliation.