The Sad Truth About Denominational Judaism

Around two weeks ago, we learned about different streams of Judaism, meeting with members of the Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and Haredi communities. All four were very interesting, but I found myself getting angry and offended often during these meetings. The Reform Rabbi was great, and I agreed with what he had to say about Judaism and the Reform movement. The Conservative representative was also enjoyable, and I could appreciate everything he spoke about. The other two, however, were not as pleasant for me. 

The Modern Orthodox man was an American-born former Reform Jew who transitioned to Modern Orthodoxy after finding many issues with Reform Judaism. Much of what he said at first was interesting- all about his daily life, aspects of Modern Orthodoxy, and his experience living in the West Bank. Eventually, he began speaking about all the problems he has with Reform Judaism, and that's where I started having issues. Among other things, he talked about how Reform Jews reject the Torah. That point really offended me. I understand that Reform Jews don't necessarily follow Halacha, or attend Yeshiva, but that does not mean that we reject and disregard the Torah. Then with the Haredi man, the same happened. He was very interesting and nice, but once he began talking about Reform Judaism, he essentially said that we're not real Jews, making an analogy that we're spies infiltrating Judaism.

So the main point with all of this is that while learning about the other denominations was very intriguing and educational, it opened my eyes to the horrible way that Reform Jews are viewed by other Jews. And honestly, it was quite sad. We're all one people, one Am Yisrael, but based on the way they spoke about my type of Judaism, it doesn't seem that way.