An idea – but first, a touch of context: As we all know by now, one of Israel’s core demands in the sputtering negotiations with its adversaries is that it be recognized as “a Jewish state.” At first blush, and even at second, this seems strange and even a tad pathetic. Countries are not recognized by their modifiers. So far as I know, Malaysia is Malaysia, and it neither asks for nor receives formal recognition as “a Moslem state,” even though its Moslemism is enshrined in law. England, though it is in formal ways a Christian country, is not “recognized” as such by others in any official way.

But Israel, it is said, has good reason to depart from the norm: If it is formally recognized (whatever that unprecedented term may here mean) as Jewish then the Right of Return can readily be blocked.

Well, that is far from a slam dunk. Those who today insist on a Palestinian right of return will not so easily be denied. They are quite aware that Israel is, indeed, a Jewish state – that is, a state where a majority of the population is Jewish, where the safety of Jews and the preservation of Judaism (however defined) are key raisons d’etre. To ask, beg or demand that others validate the demographic and cultural reality suggests that you are yourself insecure in that reality.

So now the idea: Why not insist that if it is desirable for, say, Saudi Arabia to acknowledge Israel’s Jewishness. it is even more desirable for the Orthodox rabbinate of Israel to acknowledge the Jewishness of the Reform and Conservative movements?

Note: The rabbinate does not deny that Jews who belong to the Reform movement are Jews. But it does assert that Reform rabbis are not rabbis, that Conservative synagogues are not synagogues and so forth. (Several years back, and, so far as I know, until today, a Jew who fulfills the mitzvah of hearing the blast of the shofar during the High Holidays is not deemed to have fulfilled the mitzvah if he has heard the shofar blown in a Conservative synagogue.) You will recall that President Katzav refused to address Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, as “Rabbi.”

This vexing problem has more immediate consequence than Saudi Arabia’s refusal to do what Israel deems the right thing, to call the rose a rose. It immediately and effectively affects budgets, power, even law, well beyond the essential meaninglessness of the Saudi inaction. Hence it cannot be said of the “upstart” movements that they don’t need formal recognition from the Orthodox rabbinate – which, obviously, sees itself not as “the Orthodox rabbinate” but as The Rabbinate.

It might be an interesting exercise to inquire of those affluent Jews, themselves members of Reform and Conservative synagogues (or of none), who happily send large contributions to Habad institutions how they justify their support of a movement that regards them as deviants. (It would be interesting to ask Habad, too; perhaps it refrains from biting the hand that feeds it.)

Well, we’ve talked this through in earlier posts; many months ago, the matter of the hijacking of Judaism in Israel by a group of learned and not-so-learned yahoos occupied center stage here. I don’t mean now to return to that already well-traveled road. I intend merely a modest exercise of the “what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander” variety.