The State Department recently issued its Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. Observant Jews in Israel have a special classification: “ultra-Orthodox.” There are no “ultra-Catholics” in Ireland or “ultra-Protestants” in the United Kingdom. The report didn’t find any “ultra-Muslims” in Saudi Arabia. But Jews who make a concerted effort to follow the traditions of Judaism in Israel are a special category in the eyes of the US government: “ultra-Orthodox.”

The bulk of the Israel section of the report challenges the classic positions of Jewish tradition. Russian immigrants who are not defined as Jewish under Jewish law are being denied “their rights.” Religious Jews who provide educational opportunities for secular Jews are chastised for proselytizing. Christian groups who masquerade as “Messianic Jews” are said to be having their freedoms denied. Religious courts that follow three thousand years of Jewish legal precedent in the administration of issues of Jewish identity are labeled as bigoted.

It seems the greatest bias is at the State Department itself. To them anyone who looks a bit too Jewish is deemed “ultra.”

I have been trying to understand for a long time what the qualifications are for this unique classification. Do you need to have a black hat and beard? If you eat glatt kosher you’re ultra and if you trust Hebrew National you’re not? If you connect to the rest of the world via the Internet or a BlackBerry does it propel you into modernity and eliminate your “ultra” status?

Does your employment impact your classification? If you study in yeshivah then you must be ultra. But what about a religious Jew who went to medical school? Is he an “ultra doctor”?

What about politics? Voting for Shas or Agudah must make you an “ultra.” But what happens if hidden under the black hat is a Kadima or even a Labor supporter?

Does geography impact your status? If you live in Jerusalem or Bnei Brak you must be “ultra.” If you move to Haifa do you lose your standing? Moving beyond Israel what about Jews who live in California? Are they also “ultra” if they like the relaxed atmosphere of the West Coast or is residency in Brooklyn a requirement?

There is an old saying among Jews: “Anyone more religious than me is extreme anyone less is not Jewish.” Interestingly the “ultra” label hasn’t been affixed to any sector of Judaism aside from Orthodoxy. There is no “ultra-Reform” no “ultra-Conservative ” nor “ultra-Liberal.” The only people who qualify for this lofty ultra status are the guys and girls with hats beards and sheitels.

Liberal journalists State Department staffers and others have created a term that is really an expression of their own prejudice against Jews who choose to be observant. They dress it up with all kinds of excuses. “We need to describe the ultra religious” or “We have to distinguish between different kinds of Jews.” For some reason they find no such need to differentiate between groups when we move leftward within the Jewish spectrum. Is the New Israel Fund ever described as “ultra-liberal”? (Alas they like to use the word “progressive.”)

The new report reveals a prejudice against those who follow traditional Judaism. By maligning observant Jews the State Department has undermined its own credibility. Religious Jews reflect the mainstream of Jewish tradition as it has been practiced for millennia. If Jewish staffers at the State Department would look back a few generations they would discover that their great-grandparents — and all generations prior — would all be classified as what they now consider “ultra.”

It’s time for the religious community to speak out against a bigoted term.

If they need a phrase to describe Jews who are loyal to Jewish observance they can call us “traditionally Orthodox.”

Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie wears a black hat kapote and beard in the decidedly non-ultra neighborhood of Yorba Linda California. His e-mail address is rabbi@ocjewish.com.