AMERICAN JEWS ANGRY AT ISRAEL'S ORTHODOX GROUPS.

Byline: Beth Harpaz Associated Press 

Many American Jews are thinking twice about giving money to Israel because of a growing assertiveness by Orthodox groups over the question of who is a Jew.

Reform and Conservative rabbis are asking constituents to send a message with their checkbooks. Liberal and apolitical Jewish charities are getting more donations than ever before. And traditional conduits for Jewish philanthropy - like the United Jewish Appeal, which finances social services regardless of religious affiliation - are hearing from donors who don't want their dollars going to anything with Orthodox ties.

One beneficiary of this trend has been the New Israel Fund, which supports civil rights groups, battered women's shelters, environmental activism and even burial grounds for non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.

``Several people have told us that they're shifting their gifts . . . in order to send a message that they are unhappy about the very heavy influence that the ultra-Orthodox are having in Israeli political life,'' said Gil Kulick, spokesman for the New Israel Fund. The organization raised $13 million last year - 20 percent more than the year before.

``I am absolutely dedicated to switching my contribution because I feel the New Israel Fund is funding things I believe in,'' said Virginia Greenwald of Pittsburgh, who in past years donated stock to her local UJA federation. ``I'm very deeply concerned about what's going on in Israel.''

Ninety percent of U.S. Jews are Reform and Conservative, and many of them, like Greenwald, are infuriated by the rise of the right in Israel. The peace process has slowed, legislation is pending that would invalidate non-Orthodox conversions, and some ultra-Orthodox groups are rejecting the legitimacy of other branches of Judaism.

Last month, the titular head of the Conservative movement in America, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, issued a call to arms, saying there should be ``no more contributions to people who privately treat our religious beliefs with disdain and derision.''

``Religious pluralism has to be elevated as a top priority,'' Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, added in an interview. ``Otherwise the state of Israel is going to end up not as a Jewish state but as an Orthodox one.''

Schorsch would like the UJA to take a stand too, but spokesman Bernie Moscovitz said the organization could never make it a rule to help ``a poor kid as long as they're not ultra-Orthodox.''

The Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose, the UJA's regional fund-raising group in Silicon Valley, recently adopted a policy under which donors can designate their gifts for groups that support religious pluralism and Jewish-Arab coexistence.

``There are a significant number of people in our community who are extremely concerned,'' said spokesman Jon Friedenberg. ``Many of them have been very pleased that their federation has a mechanism to allow them to speak as a community rather than as individuals.''