This morning’s press release from the 121st meeting of the Central Conference of Reform Rabbis made me smile. Whatever one thinks about the substance of their statement on intermarriage, there are lessons there for all of us – lessons about keeping things in perspective and appreciating that even the most radical things often become entirely normal.
Not to mention the fact that today’s statement should remind the Reform rabbis that when it comes to seeking converts, what’s sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander, that turnabout is fair play, and that we should do unto others as they would do unto us.
The release includes the following:

“While in the past the Reform rabbis focused discussion on how to prevent intermarriage, the CCAR today affirmed that intermarriage is a given and should be approached with the goal of engaging intermarried families in Jewish life and living. Rabbis can and should work to improve the effectiveness of their efforts to encourage intermarried people to embrace Judaism for themselves and their children.”

The statement goes on to stress “the importance of encouraging in-marriage (marriage between Jews) and conversion of non-Jewish spouses”. Ah, where to begin?

Imagine the consternation that would be caused were a Christian group to target Jews this way. Oh wait, we don’t have to because they sometimes do, and when they do, it is the Reform movement that has traditionally led the cry against such behavior, labeling it theologically ugly and communally inappropriate.
I have no problem with seeking converts to Judaism. The fact that Jews have not done so over the last two millennia is at least as much a function of historical circumstance as theological commitment. But then we should be open to the fact that members of other faiths have the right to do the same thing.
Why is it “poaching” when Christians seek to convert Jews, but appropriate for Jews to seek the conversion of Christians? Because we are smaller and more insecure about our own existence, should not give us rights which we do not grant others.
I am also struck by the fact that the ideas which form the substance of today’s statement from CCAR, were first proposed to the same movement as early as 1978 by Rabbi Alexander Schindler. But when Schindler fist imagined that intermarriage was a door into, and not out of, the Jewish community, he was thought of as kooky at best and reviled at worst. To miss that, is to miss the really important lesson in this new move by these rabbis.
Every tradition was once a radical innovation, and virtually every innovation was initially decried as destructive of the very culture it sought to revitalize. I hope that whatever people think about intermarriage, proselytizing by Jews, or virtually any other religiously divisive issue, we can all keep that in mind and treat each other accordingly.
The rabbis of the MIshnah ask why we preserve minority and rejected opinions in Jewish law so carefully. The response is that one day another generation will arise and see our rejected answers as their appropriate conclusions.
Imagine that Jews looked at other Jews that way, and then imagine that members of different faiths did as well. The funny thing is, that if deepening religious commitment were seen as helping people get to that kind of perspective, all of our houses of worship would be overflowing and nobody would worry about shrinking numbers, religious competition, or any of the other worries which distract us from the bigger picture – the picture of people using the world’s many wisdoms to make their lives better and empower them to help others do the same.