Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch sees no future for Reform Judaism without Israel ties
With rabbinical students accusing Israel of apartheid, this top New York rabbi fears a split over whether or not Jewish peoplehood is a central priority
By Zvika Klein

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch (Shahar Azron)
It was, for Israel, a painful awakening, served up by those who are supposed to be its dearest friends. The 100 names at the bottom of the letter published during the latest round of fighting between Israel and Gaza aren’t well known in Israel or the United States, but they are the future leadership of the American Jewish community: Reform and Conservative rabbinical students, those attending seminaries in the hopes of being ordained or becoming a cantor.
“So many of us ignore the day-to-day indignity that the Israeli military and police forces enact on Palestinians, and sit idly by as Israel upholds two separate legal systems for the same region,” the aspiring Jewish leaders wrote in their “Rabbinical and Cantorial Students Appeal to the Heart of the Jewish Community.”



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