MAKING ISRAEL UNLOVABLE:

This past week was exhausting, but not in the way I've become accustomed to as the father of three children in a demanding profession.

It began with the uplifting gala of the Masorti Foundation and a conference celebrating 30 years of women's ordination, but was immediately followed by the soul-draining news that the ultra-Orthodox mayor of Rehovot, Israel, decided to cancel the b'nei mitzvah ceremony of children with disabilities because it was to be held in a Conservative synagogue. [...]

The Rehovot incident is merely the latest in a string of insults against non-Orthodox Jews in Israel. Although Rabbi Tucker can preach movingly about the necessity of promoting the Zionism of love, we are being confronted with the Zionism of fear and prejudice, a Zionism that has been hijacked by an extremist, coercive and inflexible rabbinate.

To be a committed Conservative or Masorti Jew in Israel is to be subjected to a series of assaults against your religious freedom. Some are physical, as evidenced by last month's shocking attack by haredi Orthodox men at the Western Wall, where a dear friend had his chest and head pounded. Others are to human dignity, as in this past week's case.

I cannot help loving Israel, but lately it seems that Israel simply does not love me back.

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