Published in The Washington Post (letter to the editor)

Regarding Gil Steinlauf’s July 16 Outlook essay, “I’m an American rabbi. Israel rejects my religious authority”:

The false report of an Israeli “blacklist” of rabbis was discredited before the essay was published. More important, Israel balances the needs of diverse religious and secular communities. Rabbi Steinlauf’s claim that the “ultra-Orthodox” have sole control over Jewish “personal-status” matters is pejorative and groundless; Israel uses the same common standards that Jews around the globe have observed for centuries. Rabbi Steinlauf appeared to regard that tradition as outrageous and immoral, yet seemed genuinely surprised that those who revere that tradition might look at his beliefs the same way.