This year Jews around the world celebrate two significant anniversaries. One hundred years ago, Theodore Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland mobilizing the Jewish people into an international lobby that would re-form the third Jewish commonwealth. And in the coming year, we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.

In the last fifty years, the dream of Israel has been realized 25,000 Jews who inhabited Palestine during Herzl's time have become a nation of five and a half million citizens. Hebrew, the ancient language of our scriptures, has been re-invented and is now found in rock and roll songs just as it is in Torah, ancient Jewish poetry and Rabbinic commentaries.

The people of Israel have made the desert bloom. Agricultural technologies pioneered in Israel are now utilized througout the world and help feed billions. In the field of medicine, Israeli scientists and researchers are on the front lines of research, seeking out cures for diseases which ravage the entire world. Intel's microchips were developed, in part, by Israel's high-tech industry. Israel is a source of great pride for the Jewish people. Though only the size of New Jersey, she is a thriving, militarily superior, economically sound, agriculturally independent nation.

Yet despite her strength, a number of problems still confront the Jewish State. The once promising peace-process is stalled. Israel has yet to achieve peace with her neighbors Lebanon and Syria. Nor has she reached an accpetable agreement with her Muslim inhabitants who also want their own homeland. The challenges are indeed great.

But Israel's most immediate problem, at least for much of Diaspora Jewry, is the crisis of religious pluralism in Israel. The Israeli government does not officially recognize non-Orthodox movements of Judaism: The government-sponsored Chief Rabbinate is comprised only of Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, a small percentage of the nation's electorate. Life-cycle events such as weddings, funerals, circumcisions, and conversions may only be performed by Orthodox Rabbis. Prayer at the Kotel, the Western Wall, is administered according to the practices of Orthodox Jews, thus prohibiting mixed prayer groups.

The Orthodox monopoly on religious practice in Israel greatly affects Zionism as it exists in the Diaspora today. American Jews pour millions of dollars into Israel every year, but many non-Orthodox Jews are becoming less happy about supporting a country that does not accept their practice of Judaism. The Israeli government happily accepts donations of Israel Bonds, Jewish National Fund trees and Jewish federation gifts from any Jew, but only Orthodox Jews are considered to be dati (religious) in the final analysis. Religious pluralism, advocating a plurality of religious beliefs and customs, is the only answer to these several problems that are the manifestation of the current crisis.

Israel's incorporation of religious pluralism in its government and society is the only way Diaspora Jews will continue their significant support. Israel should be the State of the Jews, rather than a state run according to one version of Judaism. The present status quo in Israel does not fairly represent either the full scope of the Jewish people or even the full scope of Israelis. It has been estimated that only 15% of Israelis are either Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox. Undeniably, the vast majority of Jews both in Israel and abroad are not Orthodox.

Recognition of non-Orthodox movements is an important first step the government should take now to begin addressing this problem. Israel is home to more than fifty Masorti (Conservative) and Reform congregations whose membership is well over 20,000. (Israel's Bahai community, a much smaller group by comparison, receives both recognition and support from the government.) Israel has a duty to recognize non-Orthodox Jews in official capacities and treat their representatives with the same degree of respect given to Orthodox Jews. All Israeli citizens pay high taxes that exclusively fund Orthodox religious institutions. While small (though nonetheless significant) sums were awarded to Masorti and Reform programs under the Labor government, the Likud government has entirely withdrawn support.

Never in the history of the country has the Religious Affairs ministry helped build a non-Orthodox synagogue, pay a non-Orthodox rabbi's salary, support a non-Orthodox yeshiva or provide significant funding for educational or community programs. Institutions such as these can prosper if given the chance and the appropriate government funding. It should not be left to Diaspora Jewry to keep the doors of non-Orthodox institutions open in Israel.

Second, the system by which Rabbis are granted certification to perform life cycle events is discriminatory. Masorti Rabbis should perform weddings for Masorti couples. Funerals for Reform Israelis should be overseen by a Reform chevra kaddishah (burial society). Divorce need not follow only Orthodox standards. The reprehensible problem of agunot (women who cannot remarry before receiving a formal notice of divorce from their husband) can be solved with a clause in a Ketubah (Jewish wedding document) only approved by non-Orthodox rabbis, thus rendering the Ketubah illegitimate by Israel's current standard. The Chief Rabbinate's inexcusably slow conversion process can be expedited with non-Orthodox, halachic conversions that follow the framework of Jewish law. Certainly, just as women are recognized as rabbis by the non-Orthodox movements, so too should they be recognized in these roles by the Israeli government.

Finally, perhaps the most explosive issue: changing the status quo at the Kotel, the Western Wall. This site, more than any in the world, is looked to as the central "address" of Judaism. Nearly every Jewish visitor to Israel goes there as their first and last stop on their visit. Yet, the religious practices at the Kotel are solely Orthodox. When the Kotel was liberated by Israeli soldiers in 1967 (by both Orthodox and non-Orthodox soldiers), the prayer area was divided into three sections:one for men only, one for women only and one mixed section. This set up had changed, however, by 1970. That solution is, today, the only acceptable solution. Women who wish to wear tallit and tefillin should not have to endure having chairs thrown at them, being spat on or being called "Nazis."

The horrible spectacle of garbage and feces being thrown on Conservative men and women who were praying at the Kotel this past Shavout shows the true degree of animosity toward religious pluralism present in certain segments of Israeli society. A statement from the government that this sort of behavior is unjust and not to be repeated would be an appropriate first step. Instead, Conservative Jews were shoved outside the walls of the Old City on Tisha B'av by the police rather than having the police protect them within the walls. Worse, the government has yet to prosecute or take any action against those responsible for the Shavout incidents. The Kotel belongs to all Jews, so all Jews should feel comfortable praying there.

Total separation of synagogue and state is neither feasible nor desirable in the Jewish State. However, we remain far from a solution to these challenges. Recent elections for the American delegation to the 1997 World Jewish Congress to be held in Jerusalem this December have shown that the vast majority of American Zionist Jewry do favor a change in the status quo in Israel. 73.7% of the voters agreed that liberalization is necessary. This majority of votes represents supporters of Mercaz, the Conservative movement's Zionist organization and ARZA, the Reform movement's Zionist organization.

Of the 150 American delegates to the Congress, nearly 100 will take the message of religious pluralism to the Israeli government in December. As a delegate to the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem representing Mercaz, I plan to go with the message that the type of Judaism that I practice, which synthesizes the modern world with traditional behavior and belief, is a legitimate form of Judaism. I believe that it is possible to adapt traditional Judaism to contemporary times. Just as Israel has received the support of nearly all Jews around the world, it, too, must recognize that all Jews deserve its recognition and support. Orthodoxy should not be the sole answer in the quest for religious fulfillment among Jews, in Israel or abroad.

If we, concerned, vocal, active young Jews and Zionists make our voices heard today as the Jewish State struggles to define herself, the next fifty years of Israel's history will, no doubt, be even brighter than the first fifty years. I look forward to meeting that challenge in the future.