I should have known that a trip advertised on the side of my Facebook page would not be what it seemed, but it just looked so enticing. How could I not take advantage of a trip to New York (everything but the flight) for only two hundred dollars? I decided to apply for the Women’s’ Future Jewish Enterprisers two-week trip in New York.
One day later, after sending in my resume and background information to Aish HaTorah New York, I got a call back informing me that I had been accepted and should book my flight. I did just that, and one week later, I was on my way to Newark Airport, excited and ready to meet important Jewish business people.
I did meet important Jewish business people, such as William Lauder, Jill Granoff, Neil Cole, Robert Hormats, and many more, but these introductions came with information I did not necessarily want. I understood that this was a Jewish trip, and I was excited to get in touch with my Judaism again, but I definitely did not want to hear about Orthodox Judaism day in and day out. I am a Reform Jew, and I appreciate the denominational diversity of the Jewish people, but I was informed at the beginning of the trip that Aish HaTorah does not have any affiliation with any particular denomination of Judaism, so I was less than thrilled when bombarded with Orthodox Jewish opinions.
I did have a good time, and I learned a lot, but I reached my breaking point when sitting down to lunch on Shabbat with a host family. We began discussing Jewish rights of passage, and I told them that I was confirmed and that it was a very meaningful ceremony and process for me. My heartfelt expression was immediately rebutted with a verse from a Jewish text stating that Jews should not take traditions from other religions and that confirmation was really not a Jewish event. Now, I know that confirmation has Christian origins, but it was a very Jewish experience for me, and to have someone discount that, a fellow Jew at that, was heartbreaking. If this statement had come from the mouth of someone who was not Jewish, it may not have hurt so deeply, but to find out that an experience that I considered so genuine and so Jewish, was wrong in the eyes of another Jew burned.
I could not stop thinking about this conversation, and I still cannot stop thinking about it, but as the new week started with Havdallah that night, I became increasingly steadfast in my belief in Reform Judaism as the right Jewish path for me. The more I disagreed with the Orthodox viewpoints presented to me, the more I thought about what felt right. This Aish HaTorah trip redefined me as a Reform Jew and I thank them for that.
If the reason Ms. Katzki is a committed Reform Jew is because of a negative interaction with a religious family, she is unfortunately forgone all critical thinking.
She does not deny that, for example, confirmation is of non-Jewish origin, but her defense is that it felt good.
Indeed, isn’t that her entire critique- that, yes, technically, Jewish texts do side with the orthodox, but what I do feels good.
One can’t argue with her sincerity; merely her logic.
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07/03/2009 at 03:17 AM
“I was informed at the beginning of the trip that Aish HaTorah does not have any affiliation with any particular denomination of Judaism…”
If what you say is correct, then you have raised a very serious question of the sincerity on the part of the organizers.
I look forward to JWeekly covering this story.
Joel
http://religionandstateinisrael.blogspot.com/
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