Rabbi Shlomo Riskin on Tuesday 10 Tammuz addressed a conference titled “We and the Jewish People in the Diaspora – To Where”. The conference was initiated by the Strauss-Amiel Institute of Ohr Torah Stone, which provides emissaries to the communities of Israel, in cooperation with the Diaspora Ministry and the Herzog Academic College. One of the keynote speakers was the head of Ohr Torah Stone, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin.
“There is a reciprocal relationship between Diaspora Jewry and Israel, which is very important, even vital for us,” said Rabbi Riskin. “Diaspora Jewry includes intermarriage and assimilation, and the great importance is to explain to them about Independence Day and Jerusalem and the things we can give them to be Jews.”
The rabbi said that he was “in Toronto with the emissaries of the Strauss Amiel Institute, and I heard how our emissaries give the Jews abroad the feeling that Judaism is the way and that it is capable of teaching the world and we are blessed with all the families of the earth and that we must begin learning the values of Judaism and Shabbos and this may change the whole face of Judaism in the world.”
He then addressed the spiritual life of most Jews in the Diaspora, citing “What can the Diaspora give us? First and foremost, the idea of pluralism, that this way and that way are Divrei Elokim Chaim. In the United States, everyone has to be free to pray and to worship G-d how he wants to.”
According to him, “the average American Jew can understand that Orthodoxy in Israel is the established Judaism in Israel, but he is not willing to accept that those who belong to one stream and pray differently cannot get a respectable place at the Kosel. There is room for different tefilos in HKBH’s Beis Tefilla. I am an Orthodox rabbi who is very proud, but I see the Reform and Conservative as my partners and as part of Israel and I am not prepared to categorize them as apocryphal and gentile as the rabbinic religious establishment does.”
Ministry of Diaspora Affairs Director-General Dvir Kahana cited with concern, “We are in a historical catastrophe that the Jewish people did not experience during the destruction of the Second Temple and not during the period of the ten tribes when 15 percent of the Diaspora Jews are Orthodox, and another 7-8% are connected somehow to the community in Israel. Eight million Jews, who make up about 85% of Diaspora Jewry, find no place to link to Israel or Jewish identity in the everyday sense.”
Kahana added, “We must look at the future of the Jewish people and ask ourselves whether we have a responsibility for these millions of Jews, and not only in times of crisis.”
“Every year the Israeli government takes more and more responsibility as a strategic challenge and we invest a great deal of money in many projects in order to cope with this enormous challenge and we have a national responsibility to expand to additional fields around the world. ”
YWN notes that Chief Rabbi of Efrat Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has previously referred to “J” as a “model Rabbi”, and called him “Rabbi J”. [VIDEO IS BELOW]
Some excerpts of the 5 minute video:
Shalom to all. My name is Shlomo Riskin. I am the Chief rabbi of the City of Efrat…..I am an Orthodox Rabbi…and an Orthodox Rabbi who is very profoundly interested in religion in general, in Christianity, and especially in the persona of Jesus in particular….I was truly fascinated by the personality of Jesus, whom to myself I have always referred to as “Rabbi Jesus”….because I think he is indeed a “model Rabbi” in many counts…and he lived the life of a Jewish Rabbi in Israel in a very critical time in our history…..I have constantly come back to the study of his personality and his teachings which are very strongly rooted in Talmudic teachings…..”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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17 Responses
YWN, Stupid question……
Why do you keep giving this YUTZ the slightest respect????
This Am Ha’aretz thrives on negative publicity.
A Ba’al Gaivah that can’t get it the right way will take it any which way they can.
So i ask once again, why would you put a picture of this YUTZ??
And i forgot to ask, would you allow your child – YES YOUR CHILD read this post or listen to this idiot?????
Perhaps we should treat the Conservative and Reform the same as our relatives who go off the Derech. For many years the approach would be to disown them, throw them out of the house. Today our experts tell us that is the worse thing we can do. We should celebrate every mitzvah and encourage them to do more. What would we do if 88% of our children went off the derech? Throw them out or draw them close? The fact the Reform are acknowledging Tefillah and the Sefer Torah are important is a major step forward for them. We should figure out how to embrace this minor step and encourage more. They are off the derech for many generations, it will take many generations to bring them home.
To him he is an orthodox Rabbi. Must Orthodox Rabbis don’t agree with his philosophy. The man thing for him is been the Rav Ephrat.
What he’s leaving out is that most Israeli Jews are not Orthodox, and the vast majority of them don’t want shenanigans at the kosel. It’s only the self-centered American non-Orthodox that keep bellyaching about it.
Rabbi Riskin: when you say that………this way and that way are Divrei Elokim Chaim”, you are misrepresenting that phrase. “Eilu VeEilu” (this way & that way) only applies where both sides are, at the very least, within the parameters of Halacha. Do you mean to say that “orthodox” and “reform” are considered “Eilu VeEilu”? how absurd! you can’t be serious.
Judaism is at Riskin
Sure they’re your colleagues are the conservative and refrom because the Torah observant Jews are not!
Something is very wrong when someone tries to validate being called Jewish but not following a single mitzvah or halachah. The reform movement is falling apart due to their liberal approach. These people don’t daven three times a week but they want to a place at the kosel. This approach goes down the same slippery slope as open orthodoxy.
Riskin, you are an assimilated Jew, that’s why you hang with them as your partners.
Is your family intermarried “yet”?
The practical difference that comes out of this for most of us is:- Not to set foot @Lincoln Square Synagogues, even if we are on Upper west Side, and have no where else to stop by, to obtain a Minyan.
Rogue “rabbit” trying to undermine the Kotel and Judaism, trying to justify falsehood.
although Rabbi Riskin has done much good, still he seems to be off in this issue.
Shame on you YWN for posting the words of this low life
Not to validate his opinions but sometimes theres a bit of truth on the other side. We could be a bit more pluralist regarding chardakim and accepting halachic gerut not performed by the rabbanut etc. Maybe if we’d accept the truth more the reform (and riskin) would accept lies less.
To those that object to ywn posting someone you disagree with, we must know our enemy to combat them. Maybe it’s precisely this hypersensitivity that turns some off. Especially when it leads to rejecting legitimate halachic Jews. See Ivanka Trump.
When are the Reform our partners? When their “Rabbis” perform intermarriages and same-gender marriages? When they teach their constituents that it’s ok to eat not Kosher and to violate Shabbos? All of the above? The Reform religion was man-made approximately 200 years ago and does not represent Judaism. This is NOT Divrei Elokim Chaim. Jews worship G-d the way that HE wants us to, not the way WE want to. Judaism means following the instructions of the Torah, which G-d gave to the Jews over 3300 years ago, at Mount Sinai. Divrei Elokim Chaim means different opinions that have been arrived at following the Torah’s due process of analysis. It does NOT mean VIOLATING the Torah.