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I wish my bridge partner, a reform Jew, and a serious one who attends temple near every week, who required his wife to convert to Judaism as a condition of marriage, who is more conservative than I am on almost every issue these days (he is a "reformed" former conservative Dem), and who is deeply moved by the evangelical Christian support for Israel, were here to comment. This piling on about reform Jews is painting too broad a brush. That is the opinion of this near atheist WASP.

It started out as a very serious movement. That's why there's a lot of very faithful Reform Jews amongst the elderly (65+) normally, and even one generation down (although less). The problem was that they put too much emphasis on assimilation and it worked a little too well. The grandkids just don't care. And the parents don't care enough to force them when they're young. And it's easy to just slip into a stream of feel-good, liberal politics and an empty, questing "spiritualism" rather than a true faith. The great grandkids won't be Jewish. Maybe there will be some cultural residue, or maybe it will be an ethnic thing to an extent, but they won't really be Jewish in any true sense. At least, I don't think so.

As I've said before, I'd rather have some Christian evangelicals at my side, than Reform JINOs at my back. The former I know aren't gonna cut and run, and many of them are armed. The latter, well, they might sell me for the price of political correctness and a good speech about neo-colonialism and the imperialism of the Christian Reich (it's a such a clever twist on "Right" don't you see... /yawn)

This piling on about reform Jews is painting too broad a brush.

My feelings about Reform Judaism long predate my participation in FR. Regarding "piling on," I cannot help the fact that others feel the same way.

Reform Judaism is not a religion. It is an attempt to sanctify the platform of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. They follow the Democratic platform rather than the Torah.

For example, they did not become pro-abortion until the Democratic Party became pro-abortion. When the Democrats were pushing gun control, they pushed gun control. When the Democrats de-emphasized gun control, so did they.

When the Democrats became feminist, Reform Judaism became feminist. And on and on. The only "morality" they recognize is liberalism.

Nothing unfair about it - it's fact.

When a Reform Jew becomes politically conservative, nothing differentiates him from fellow white, middle class Americans, who are predominantly political conservatives (at least by the modern usage of the term).

I'd make a (safe) wager that your friend will have few identifiably Jewish descendents unless they happen to become traditional religious Jews.