Robert M. Heller – Chair of the Board of Trustees, Union for Reform Judaism.

For many of us in my generation, being Jewish was not a choice. It was a given, an immutable fact like being tall or short. We would marry a Jew, raise Jewish kids, and we would eventually be members of a congregation.

That is not today’s world. Old barriers have fallen. When it comes to religion, we can be anything we want, choose any religious identity that fits, or choose to have no religious identity and practice no religion. Choosing to be Jewish today involves an affirmative act, not passive acceptance. The cliché is right: all of us who identify ourselves as Jews, at least all of us willing to live outside ghetto walls, are Jews by choice.

Reform Judaism is the vibrant, growing mainstream in North America. Reform congregations and institutions are beginning to flourish in Israel as well despite legal obstacles, discrimination against our professionals and lack of proportionate support from successive governments that prop up an Orthodox monopoly.

Why are people in North America and Israel choosing Reform Judaism? To be sure, the excesses of the right-wing Orthodox rabbinic leadership in Israel repel some, but those excesses are more likely to turn individuals away from organized Judaism entirely. I believe people are choosing Reform Judaism because of attraction, not repulsion or revulsion over the perceived hypocrisy and corruption that flow almost inevitably when religious monopolies are created. They -- we -- are choosing Reform Judaism because it stands for something and enables us to engage in Jewish prayer, study and action that has meaning and relevance for us in today’s world, not because it is not Orthodox Judaism.

Too many Jews accept the canard that “Reform” means “minimal”. I am tired of jokes that suggest we are taking the easy road and are less than authentic. I am no scholar or theologian and there are many people better qualified to discuss all the implications of choosing a Reform Jewish identity, but I can suggest a few of the philosophical and religious underpinnings that are attracting people to our ranks.

Proper role of halachah: We know that halachah is a set of man-made rules (and I mean man-made – women have not been a significant part of their development). We respect that tradition and understand its evolution over time in different places, but we also understand that halachah was not handed down from on high at Sinai or anywhere else. Hence, we give it a voice, not a veto, and we interpret it in light of modernity and the realities of human experience.

Egalitarian tenets: We insist upon equal religious rights, obligations and opportunities for women and men. That has opened new roles, professional and personal, for women and has created richer Jewish experiences for all of us.

Inclusionary approach: We draw lines to bring people in, not to isolate them or leave them out. That applies to outreach, gay and lesbian inclusion and other areas and has added to the vibrancy of our congregations.

Pluralistic outlook: Each of us is made b’tselem elohim, in the image of God. We accept the fact that there are many roads to Sinai, that no one holds a monopoly on ultimate truth. Among other things, that enables us to engage in constructive, respectful and productive dialogue with our non-Jewish and secular neighbors.

Heeding the prophetic voice: Tikkun olam and social justice are core religious values for us. God’s world, which we hold in trust for our children, grandchildren and generations yet to come, remains fragmented and in need of healing. Each of us is charged with its repair and with enabling all God’s children to share in its abundance. We do not wait for the messiah -- the arrival of a messianic era depends on us.

Dynamic lay/professional partnerships: We know the value of having educated volunteers working in partnership with professionals -- rabbis, cantors, educators, communal workers. Our congregations’ task is to create sacred communities. We can only do that if lay people and professionals act together as partners, bound by covenants of mutual respect and purpose.

Judaism has changed in response to modernity and in resonance with or reaction to the surrounding culture wherever we have been from antiquity to now. We Reform Jews, surely no less than our fellow Jews in other streams, are the direct heirs of Abraham, of the prophets, sages and rabbis, and of all those Jews who dared to confront and, if necessary, smash the idols and practices of their day, who reformed and reshaped Judaism to incorporate human knowledge and understanding and to address the human condition in every era.

We are the heirs of all those who over the centuries turned the Torah and turned it again in light of contemporary knowledge and the realities of their community. We extend that rich inheritance every day. Reform Judaism attracts us because it offers us a creative, meaningful religious life and the opportunity for growth here in the modern world in the open, democratic societies where we choose to live.

Robert M. Heller is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Union for Reform Judaism, the top lay leadership position in the Reform Movement. Heller, who served as vice chair of the Union for four years, has been actively involved in the Union since 1987, having served the Union on the regional level before joining the national board in 1994. An antitrust lawyer and former managing partner of the firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, Heller graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia College in 1963, and received his LL.B. magna cum laude from Columbia Law School three years later. Bob Heller met his wife Amy at the Union’s Eisner Camp Institute, and they are members of New York City’s Central Synagogue. They have two grown children, David B. Heller, married to Hermine Riegerl Heller, and Pamela L. Heller, married to Erik A. Hartog, and one grandchild. All are members of Central Synagogue.