If Progressive Judaism is edited out, the wider community will struggle
The article attacking us was an attempt to suggest that one form of Judaism is the only valid form and to photoshop everyone else out
Last Friday, The Jewish Weekly put a photograph of Rabbi Charley Baginsky and me on its front page under the headline “BETRAYED FROM WITHIN”. The editorial described us as “so-called rabbis” and our meeting with the Foreign Secretary as a “shameful betrayal”.
There was another extraordinary detail in the photograph. Rabbi Charley’s image had been altered: her clothing changed to add a garment up to her neckline.
As Charley has written elsewhere, there is much to say about the casual editing of a woman’s body in public life. But this article is also a wider editing of a large proportion of the UK Jewish community.
Not every Jewish woman will dress in exactly the way that the editor of The Jewish Weekly might like them to. Yet, we all have the right to dress and be viewed as we wish, not how others think we should.
And similarly, not everyone thinks, prays, or lives their Jewish lives in the way that others may want – and are no less legitimate or valid in our community as a result.
Underlying this article is an attempt to edit the Jewish community, to flatten the diversity that exists within it. To suggest that one form of Judaism is the only valid form and to photoshop everyone else out.
But this does not reflect our reality today.
The Jewish community in Britain is more diverse than it has ever been. In practice and observance, in culture, in politics, in language, in how people identify and express their Jewishness. And there is no sign of that changing. The reality of our community is diversity.
That is not a problem to be solved, but a richness to be celebrated.
One of the strengths of the Progressive Jewish life that I am proud – despite The Jewish Weekly – to represent, is our embrace of diversity.
Our communities seek to create a non-dogmatic, non-judgemental Judaism which meets people where they are, rather than as others think they ought to be.
Progressive Judaism is not a position on the current Israeli government, it is the Judaism lived by diverse people in more than 75 communities across Britain through prayer, learning, lifecycle moments, youth movements and the ordinary work of sustaining Jewish lives.
We believe Judaism has always developed in conversation with the world around it and we have built communities based upon equality that strive to welcome people whom other Jewish spaces have sometimes struggled to include.
People are entitled to disagree with our choices. Jews have argued with one another for generations. But to seek to edit others out goes beyond disagreement. It suggests that the Jewish lives others lead are fraudulent, and that those of us who lead them stand outside the bounds of legitimate Judaism.
The rabbis who created the Judaism we inherited were themselves radical interpreters. They preserved disputes, recorded minority opinions and allowed different understandings to remain within the tradition. The Tosefta instructs us to make for ourselves “a heart of many rooms”, capable of holding the words of opposing schools. Is British Jewish life still capable of building such a heart?
We are living through a frightening period with a rise in antisemitism that leaves Jewish people feeling exposed, and the trauma of 7 October remains with us. In such circumstances, difference within the community can feel threatening. It is no wonder that here is a strong temptation to decide that safety requires us all to say the same thing.
But the Jewish community does not, in fact, say the same thing. British Jews hold different views about Israel, the occupation, settlements, sanctions and the meaning of Jewish responsibility. Naming that reality does not create the division, it simply refuses to conceal it.
This matters particularly for our young people. They have grown up hearing from us that Judaism is concerned with justice, compassion, peace and the dignity of every human being. They are now asking whether those teachings still apply. If our answer is that belonging requires them to suppress the question, many will sadly conclude that Jewish life has no room for them.
That would be an enormous loss, not only to Progressive Judaism, but to the whole Jewish community.
A newspaper can alter a photograph until it matches the image it wishes to publish. A living community cannot be treated in the same way, Diverse Jewish life is part of the British Jewish landscape, the real choice is whether our communal picture is honest enough to show it.
Rabbi Josh Levy is co-CEO of Progressive Judaism