The Reform Movement, as it exists in much of the West today, is no longer Judaism that believes it is reforming itself for the modern world. It is crony progressivism with Hebrew subtitles.
Last Tuesday, ten U.S. Jewish organizations — many affiliated or aligned with the Reform Judaism movement — issued a joint statement condemning President Donald Trump’s administration’s recent efforts to investigate antisemitism on American college campuses.
They claimed these actions, which include crackdowns on universities turning a blind eye to pro-Hamas activism and non-citizen agitators openly calling for violence, somehow threaten Jewish safety.
Yes, you read that correctly: In the wake of October 7th, with Jewish students chased off campuses, Israel-themed events canceled, and Star of David necklaces hidden in fear — your moral outrage is directed not at the mobs, but at the people trying to hold them accountable?
This is not just a disagreement over policy. It’s a full-blown moral malfunction.
You couldn’t make this up if you tried. Following the worst atrocities against Jews since the freakin’ Holocaust, this is the moral priority for Reform Judaism-aligned Jewish organizations?
Not the mobs calling for “intifada.” Not the professors glorifying terrorists. Not the Jewish kids who are removing a mezuzah from their dorms. But … law enforcement?
Let’s call this what it is: a corruption of moral clarity.
You’ve traded Judaism for ‘progressive’ politics.
Reform Judaism, as it exists in much of the West today, is no longer Judaism reforming itself for the modern world. It is crony progressivism with Hebrew subtitles.
Once upon a time, Reform Judaism wanted to be a bridge: between tradition and modernity, between Jewish ritual and contemporary life. But over the last generation, it has collapsed into ideological mimicry. The latest cause du jour is sermonized from the bimah. Actual Jewish peoplehood is treated like an inconvenience.
When there’s a conflict between Jewish survival and so-called “progressive” politics, Reform Judaism leadership chooses the latter. Every. Single. Time.
Let’s be honest. Reform Judaism has not simply become “progressive.” It has become subsumed by “Woke” nonsense. What once started as an attempt to modernize Jewish practice has, in many quarters, collapsed into a form of ideological absurdities — where every tenet of secular Left-wing activism is treated as Torah, and actual Torah is treated as optional folklore.
You now issue statements not based on Jewish values or Jewish safety, but based on what will earn you claps in the faculty lounge or likes on social media. And when “progressive” orthodoxy and Jewish survival come into conflict — as they now do, daily — you choose the former.
What a joke.
‘Not like those Jews…’
When Jewish anti-Zionists say “I oppose Israel as a Jew,” what they really mean is: “I’m not like those Jews.”
The old, inconvenient, tribal, collective Jews. The ones who carry a flag, build a homeland, and fight back when attacked. The ones who believe in peoplehood, not just personal accolades disguised as ethics. The ones who might embarrass them in front of their non-Jewish friends.
This is not new. A century ago in Europe, there were Jews who said the same thing — distancing themselves from their “backwards” brethren in the hopes that their refinement and assimilation would earn them safety. It didn’t.
We know how that story ends.
The particular kind of Jew who, throughout history, seeks to gain moral or social standing by denouncing other Jews — like in the 1930s, when some German Jews insisted they were profoundly different from the Ostjuden (the religious, Yiddish-speaking Jews from Poland and Ukraine). They thought they were safe because they had German manners and spoke Goethe’s language.
Today, it’s the anti-Zionist Jew who proudly says, “As a Jew, I oppose Israel.” Translation: “I’m not like those tribal, flag-waving, army-serving Jews. I’m enlightened.”
Spoiler alert: When the mobs come, they won’t ask what kind of Jew you are.
The movement is dying — and you’re still handing out pronoun pins.
Let’s talk numbers.
Reform temple affiliation? Shrinking. Reform youth engagement? Shriveling. Intermarriage rates? Way up. Literacy in Jewish texts, history, and Hebrew? Way down. Number of students converting to “anti-Zionism” in “progressive” spaces you helped build? Rapidly rising.
You are not gaining moral high ground. You are losing a generation. Because people, especially young Jews, don’t want empty platitudes. They want purpose. They want power. They want meaning rooted in something ancient and true.
They want to stand with their people, while you — for years — invested in coalitions. You signed interfaith pledges. You showed up at protests for every cause under the sun. You hosted diversity panels. You made alliances with “progressive” churches, student groups, Muslim organizations, LGBTQ+ centers, immigrant justice networks — being duped into thinking that solidarity would be mutual.
And then came October 7th.
Babies beheaded. Women raped. Families burned alive. Hostages dragged into Gaza. Holocaust-level horror.
And what did your “allies” say?
Nothing.
Or worse: They justified it.
Some issued vague “calls for peace.” Some reposted Hamas propaganda. Some pulled down hostage posters. Some outright cheered. And many of the rest just ghosted you.
You preached to no end about why and how these coalitions would protect us. You believed that by showing up for others, they’d show up for Jews. But when the test came, it turned out: They weren’t in a relationship. You were trying to drag us into a fantasy.
And yet, even now, you’re afraid to speak that truth out loud. You’re still trying to salvage relationships with those who won’t even say, “Kidnapping Jews is wrong.”
How many times do you need to be abandoned before you admit that you’ve allowed us Jews to be manipulated and used?
Do you even care if we survive?
This is not a rhetorical question.
When you oppose efforts to enforce the law against those calling for Jewish genocide — because that’s what “From the River to the Sea” means — you are not just misreading the moment. You are actively endangering Jews. And if you cannot recognize the line between “civil liberties” and open incitement to murder, then you are not morally serious enough to lead.
This is not the time for interfaith dialogues and healing circles. This is the time for backbone.
A Jewish movement that cannot clearly say, “Our people are under attack and we will defend them.” is a movement that has lost its purpose.
Here is the cold, hard truth: The Reform Movement is evaporating. And your institutions are increasingly seen — not just by Orthodox Jews, but by many proud secular/semi-secular and cultural Jews — as hollow vessels offering generic activism with a Hebrew-school flavor.
Why? Because people crave meaning. Because young Jews, now more than ever, want to feel part of something real, rooted, and resilient. Zionism offers that. Jewish memory offers that. The Torah and other Jewish literature — yes, even the parts you find inconvenient — offer that.
But sermons about pronouns, land acknowledgments, and how Israel makes you “uncomfortable”? Those do not.
Come home.
This letter is not written in anger, though it may sound angry. It is written in heartbreak. The Reform Movement was once a vital force. It could be again — if it remembered what it’s supposed to reform from and what it’s supposed to reform toward.
But first, it must remember that its primary obligation is not to universalism at the expense of particularism. It is not to being “good allies” to people who would destroy us. It is not to social standing. It is, first and foremost, to the Jewish People.
There is no neutrality anymore, definitely not after October 7th. Not when Jewish kids are being doxxed, chased, and threatened on campus. Not when mobs chant “Death to the Jews” in Arabic and “Free Palestine” in English and too many of you pretend not to notice the overlap.
This is not the time to prove to the world that you’re the “good kind of Jew.” This is the time to act like a Jew whose people are under siege.
Stand with Israel. Stand with Jewish students. Stand with law enforcement holding actual terrorists accountable. Stand with your own community.
Or step aside and admit you’ve chosen something else.
Am Yisrael is under siege. History is knocking. Which side of it do you want to be on?
Because Reform Judaism as it exists today is not an option anymore.
