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Re-Charging Reform Judaism

Yesterday, I received an email inviting me to the 2026 Re-Charging Reform Judaism conference. Although this initiative has been going on for three years, I’d never heard of it before. The unnecessary hyphen in “Re-Charging” seems like a move by marketing consultants. Since I’m interested in both Reform Judaism and marketing, I clicked the link to an essay to learn more.

As best I can tell, Re-Charging Reform Judaism has two main goals: 1) to revive the 1997 Miami Platform of Reform Judaism, affirming the State of Israel as the “spiritual and cultural focal point of world Jewry,” and 2) to restore the unity of Judaism, Jews, and the State of Israel in the minds of Reform Jews by defining Jews as Knesset Yisrael: a covenantal community established by God.

Invoking God without clarifying what is meant by God suggests that what follows is bullshit. The Miami Platform and Re-Charging Reform Judaism are no exception.

God’s covenant, I read, was a covenant to champion Jewish pluralism and equality.

Really? According to Torah, God’s covenant was about obeying God’s commandments (Exodus 19:3; Deuteronomy 11:13-15). Nothing pluralistic or egalitarian about them.

God’s covenant, the essay said, was a covenant to help Israel become the best version of herself—not just for Israelis, but for all of us who carry her within our identity.

This is nonsense. God’s covenant was with the people, not the state. There are no Israelis in the Bible. To talk about Israel being the best version of herself is to sound more like Oprah than God. And God’s covenant isn’t about carrying the State of Israel within our identity, but about shaping our identity within the Land of Israel.

As I continued reading, I learned that ours is a moment when the deep wound of degradation has reopened and the promise of sovereignty feels more fragile than ever.

I assume that the deep wound of degradation refers to the Shoah (Holocaust), and that Hamas’s October 7, 2023, pogrom is the reopening of that wound. This is nonsense. Hamas’s brutality and terror—though evil—did not degrade Israeli or world Jewry, nor did it threaten Israel’s sovereignty. Israel is a nuclear power with a military capable of killing tens of thousands of Gazans, maintaining five million Palestinians under military occupation, and, with U.S. help, waging war on its military rival, Iran, and its proxies. Gaza is fragile. Palestinians are fragile. Israel is not fragile.

The essay ends this way: Let us model a Zionism that is resilient, compassionate, unapologetically connected, and courageously honest.

OK, let’s be courageously honest.

1) Re-Charging Reform Judaism asks Jews to commit to a pre-modern, tribalist, anthropomorphic, and supernatural God most of us have outgrown, a covenant without mitzvot/commandments whose only obligation is to follow Melania Trump’s injunction to “be best,” and a Zionism that doesn’t ask us to move to Zion.

2) A resilient Zionism recovers quickly from setbacks. Israel’s challenges are self-inflicted and can only be solved through internal change. To model a resilient Zionism, Reform Jews must become Israelis and vote for change. Even re-charged Reform Jews aren’t willing to do that.

3) A compassionate Zionism would end Israeli theocracy and Jewish supremacy, help establish a free and independent Palestinian state by 2030, and grant full and equal citizenship to all Palestinians who choose to remain in Israel. Again, modeling a compassionate Zionism requires becoming an Israeli citizen and voting for change.

4) If unapologetically connected Zionism means openly endorsing a policy of “Israel right or wrong,” then it dishonors the genius of the Hebrew prophets and the Jewish prophetic tradition. If that’s not what it means, I have no idea what it means.

5) A courageously honest Zionism would establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the atrocities of the Nakba, the Israeli theocracy, illiberalism, and Jewish supremacy, apartheid in the Occupied Territories, and the horrors committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and the Israeli military in Gaza. This cannot be accomplished from outside Israel and requires American Reform Jews to become Israeli citizens and vote for change.

6) American Reform Jews, un-charged, charged, or re-charged are not going to do any of these things.

If I’m understanding Re-Charging Reform Judaism correctly, I’m not just attending this conference; I’m abandoning Reform Judaism entirely.