Exposure: Rabbi Lipman attended Reform conference

After yesterday (Thursday) Minister of Social Affairs of Yesh Atid declared that a Haredi who does not serve the army is not 'his brother', members of Yesh Atid continue to expose their real face: Knesset Member Dov Lipman, who sits on the slot of "Haredi pet" in the faction, attended last night a conference held by members of the fledgling movement of Yesh Atid in Hod Hasharon - along with the Reform community of "Yehonathan" in the city.

The conference, held under the title "Love the stranger", was particularly postponed after Shavuos and was last night in order to allow the participation of Lipman, and dealt with the topic "The ger (convert) and acceptance of others."

The conference opened with the screening of a documentary film by director David Ofek, "Tale of Nicolai and the Law of Return." According to what was published in the community site towards the conference "The film floods exciting viewpoints on the topic of conversion, foreign workers, ways of entry to Israel and more. The thought-provoking film will serve as a background for the discussion further on."

Apparently, the Reform community understands the absurdity of the participation of the person who defines himself a Haredi rabbi at such a conference, and they bothered to note the courage it is required to reach them. "MK Rabbi Lipman," the website said, "a Haredi rabbi, who lives in Beit Shemesh, agreed without hesitation to participate in the discussion taking place in a Reform community. It turns out that Orthodox rabbis are not homogenous, and at least some are willing to live a life of openness, tolerance and acceptance of differences."

Note that members of the community who participated at the meeting later told that Lipman clarified that he chose to be a Rabbi in order to solve problems, not to create them. However, the community clarifies, Lipman said that the desire to accept a stranger can not be on account of halachic details and laws of conversion, in contrast to the position of the Reform who promote conversion which is not according to the Halacha.

MK Yifat Kariv of Yesh Atid also participated in the discussion, raised her impressions on the Facebook page and wrote: 'Accepting the other must be our guideline – superficially there are two ends of society, both ends which agree on a lot, work a little differently, but agree that one should allow anyone to act by his faith, in his way, with love and acceptance of the convert and the other."

We turned to Lipman, who is careful to describe himself as a student of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore - where he also got his smicha, and asked him whether he thought an Orthodox Haredi rabbi could attend the conference along with a Reform Rabbi - in opposition to any Israeli and American rabbis and even Mizrahi rabbis, who prohibited attending conferences of the Reform of any kind.

"This was not at all a Reform conference," was Lipman's response, "While the conference was held at the Reform synagogue in the presence of the Rabbi of the community, but it did not deal with issues related to reform. Since I could not participate in the Tikkun Leil Shavuot - the conference was held a day later, and dealt with conversion only and not with reform."

• Is this convention not included in the severe prohibition agreed on by all of Gedolei Yisroel?

"My Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Weinberg, explained that the purpose of the prohibition is not to participate in conferences held to recognize Reform Jews or confront them because it compares the status of Judaism to Reform movement, but at this conference I did not acknowledge them and did not confront them, so in my opinion it is not included in the prohibition."

The Reform appreciate him for his courage and for his being open to accept those different. And we are left to wonder if they would appreciate him even if he would tell them he does not acknowledge them?

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!