American Jews aren’t REAL Jews

In the news today, a brief story on the ongoing dialogue concerning whether Israel should/will recognize diaspora conversions.  And yes, the good guys are winning, but I can’t believe we’re still having this conversation. 

I mean, it’s not like this affects the law of return or anything, right? It’s just an issue of whether I count as a Jew.  To a country chock full of completely secular Jews who “count”. 

I, as a diaspora Jew who underwent a conservative conversion, find this dialogue to be inane.

NOT because I think that the religious Jews of Israel are wrong in questioning whether American Jews are up to snuff… Truly, we aren’t, if by “snuff” one means “comparable levels of religious observance”.  American Jews are lazy, by and large. Everyone knows that.  But as I’ve already stated, plenty of Israeli Jews could give a shit about religious observance. That’s not at stake. 

This is just about membership cards.  About whether American rabbis have the right to hand them out.

I think its total crap that there’s such huge pressure placed on American Jewry to support, defend, finance, and recognize Israel as “our homeland.”  But then the legitimacy of our American Jewish institutions is questioned by the country we’re being asked to support.

I feel like we’re either part of the club or we aren’t.  If you want our money, our media, our votes of confidence, than you need to accept that we belong in the club.  And we bring with us a wide range of perspectives… 

Even sometimes a southern drawl.