Reflecting on Judaism

          There are some 350,000 Russians living in Israel of Jewish decent but they are not Jewish. They were accepted into Israel under the Law of Return which allows anyone who has even only one Jewish grandparent to become a citizen of Israel. The thinking behind this law is that if such people were considered Jewish by the Nazis for extermination then they must be considered Jewish by the State. This has created a perceived problem because many of these Russian immigrants are now of marriageable age and are likely to want to marry a Jewish partner in whose society they are constantly mixing. The difficulty is that there are no facilities in Israel for such mixed-marriages to be formally consecrated unless the non-Jewish person converts to Judaism. Herein lays the problem for only some 2,000 conversions each year have been carried out over the past four years.

          There are several reasons why the conversion rate is so low. Firstly there is no real need for the non-Jew to convert. They are full citizens of the state, they serve in the army, they consider themselves Jewish and mix freely in Israel society. Secondly, there are not enough rabbis available to handle a greater number of conversions and there is now a proposal to add an extra 22 rabbi’s for the task. Thirdly, many of the rabbis involved in conversion insist that the converts live a fully orthodox life after conversion, some insist on a haradi lifestyle, and this is something that the majority are not prepared to promise. They would be prepared, so the story goes, to live the traditional Jewish lifestyle of the majority of Israelis.

          The Office of the Prime Minister has now spoken out and said to the Russians ‘We want you as Jews’. The suggestion is that the converts go through an orthodox conversion, which shows Jewish continuity, but after the conversion they should be able to live any lifestyle they choose for this must remain a personal decision. This suggestion has not gone down too well with some rabbis.

          Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo, an eminent theologian, has joined in the discussion and reluctantly suggests new criteria for conversion. This must be seen as a response to the need of the hour, he says, in which our people find itself. This is especially true for the State of Israel to which tens of thousands of people of Jewish descent made aliyah, primarily from Russia, yet who are not halachically Jewish. He adds that we should look for ways not to insist on all the rabbinical laws and be more flexible about them. The only laws which should be mandatory are the Laws of the Torah itself, as understood by the Talmud, and not the laws of the rabbis which are a hedge around the biblical law. It is a complicated story but he thinks it can be done,

          He does however say that we should not propose conversion to our fellow (Russian) Israelis if this clearly means that they would violate the most basic rules of Shabbat observance, kashrus etc. Instead we should encourage them to become involved in the values and some rituals of Judaism according to their own pace and desire. This could be done through the creation of special outreach programs and even special “synagogues” thereby creating a love in their hearts for Judaism without violating the basics of normative Halacha for conversion. As such they could somehow be part of “the family” without being fully Jewish. He also suggests that, in those cases where we do speak of conversion for these Olim, minimum standards of Jewish observance should be required, but with great doses of inspiration.

          Obviously such conversions are not ideal, Rabbi Cardozo says, since we would like to see a full commitment to Jewish law and spirit. Still, he continues, there are reasons why we should perhaps permit such “minimum” conversions as an alternative to conversions without any halachic commitment, as also reluctantly suggested by Chacham Uziel, Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits and others. This is especially urgent because of the precarious situation of those (Russian) Israelis who would like to become Jewish but for whom it is too much to commit to all of Jewish law. No less important is the fact that his suggestion, he says, incorporates a greater opportunity for converts to slowly grow into Judaism and make it into a much greater spiritual experience.

          I would like to add my own penny-worth to this discussion. Conversion to Judaism is not a new phenomenon and in the past it has sorted itself out. It has not always been the rule that we defined a Jew only as a person having a Jewish mother as the following examples will illustrate.

          After the destruction of the Second Temple many of our people fled to North Africa where they met the descendants of the Canaanites, those who had fled from Palestine when Joshua entered the land. They mixed and married without today’s formalities of conversion and eventually produced the committed North African Jews we see today. (See ‘Between East and West’ by Professor Andre Chouraqui of the Hebrew University). In bible times we forcibly converted some of our neighbours, such as the Idumeans, and a descendant of one such forced conversion was King Herod.

          As mentioned above there is no external pressure on non-Jews living in Israel to become Jewish for most of them already have full Israeli rights. The only reason many wish to convert is simply because they wish to be Jewish. In Talmudic times the rabbis made such conversion comparatively simple and the example often quoted is the advice of the great R. Hillel (70 BCE-10CE) who told a prospective convert 'Don't do unto other what is hateful to you; the rest is elaboration of this: go and learn it.'

          Hillel was not a lone voice at the time. The Mishnah records (circa 200 CE), and I abbreviate; 'when a non-Jew comes to be converted we ask for the motive. We then tell him how difficult the life of the Jew is. If he replies that he knows and is not worthy to be a Jew we inform him of some of the lighter precepts of Judaism but we should not overburden him nor be meticulous with him.' Only the formalities of circumcision for a male and immersion in a mikva remain to be carried out.

          I think that the Mishnah has got it exactly right. The motive should be the criteria by which the application should be judged. If the non-Jew has the right motive for becoming Jewish why make it difficult? If the motive is political why make it easy?

          A reference to an article in the the Encyclopedia Judaica headed 'Proselytes', will confirm that there was widespread conversion to Judaism during the Second Temple period, and beyond; that the converts included many notable persons and that such conversions were not confined to the upper class. It also states that there is evidence that the early rabbis had an open handed policy towards their acceptance. A reading of the turbulent history of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, extending from Joshua until the destruction of the Second Temple, should make one aware of the constant intermixing of Jews with their neighbours.

          But why refer back only to the Temple period? Let us refer further back to the Torah. In Duet. 21/10 f. where we are told, and I abbreviate, that when man goes into battle and should he capture a woman that he wishes for a wife, he must first take her home and allow her to grieve for her lost family for a full month. The commentaries say that if the man forces himself onto her before the month is over it is considered rape. After the month the man may take the captive woman as a wife and she is then considered Jewish too. A forced conversion of the woman; their children are considered Jewish too. No mention of immersion or any other formalities.

          On the basis of the Judaica article and the reference to the Torah, can any one of us Jews put our hands on our hearts and say with perfect faith that 'I am descended through my maternal line right the way back to Sinai' which is what many rabbis claim defines a Jew. If people could prove that this definition actually applied to them, what percentage of the entire Jewish People would the total number of such people represent? 10%, 20% or 30% of the total? Who can guess?

          If matters are not complicated enough, in May 2008 another obstacle to conversions was introduced. The State Conversion Authority headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman has supervised many thousands of conversions over the past few years. One of the converts applied to a Bit Din for a divorce and in the course of the hearing the High Rabbinic court learned that the convert had not lived up to the level of religious conduct that it would itself have demanded. They accused Rabbi Druckman of intentionally transgressing Jewish law, forging official rabbinic documents and of lying.

          As a result of this alleged criminality, hundreds if not thousands of conversions supervised by the State Conversion Authority might now be considered illegitimate even if the converts have lived a fully observant Jewish life style. According to newspaper reports no evidence, at the time of writing this essay, has been made available to the public to support the allegation.

          If the allegation is upheld then the lives of thousands of innocent converts could be destroyed. Children of these converted mothers would also not be considered Jewish; if married the marriage would not be binding; religious schools might expel such children and future sons might be refused ritual circumcision. I wonder whether the High Rabbinical Court had thought of the ramifications before making their allegations public and if they had, where is their compassion?

          The Jerusalem Post reports that the Chief Sephardi Rabbi Amar supports Rabbi Druckman and his Authority and says that the allegation was published against his express command and that he considers Rabbi Druckman's conversions to be valid. He hinted that disciplinary measures may be taken against the rabbis of the High Rabbinic Court and that no annulments have taken place. There is however no doubt that the repercussions of the allegation will continue to be felt for a long time. The damage has been done and again religious Judaism is now even more divided. And it is not only in Israel that the rabbis are dividing Judaism.

          An American orthodox rabbi, a graduate of Yeshiva University with whom I spoke, told me as follows:-
          I fully agree with you. The problem is not only in Israel, but is equally in the U.S. The Rabbinical Council of America acquiesced to the demands of Rabbi Amar and the Conversions of individual Rabbis are not accepted by Israel. They have set up Batay Dinim who are mostly chumra people, not content with the Halacha as you told it. The issue is dividing American Rabbis and we are setting up a new Rabbinic Fellowship to face the issue.

          In the absence of further details what we are probably witnessing is a raw power struggle between different groups of rabbis, the moderate group often Zionists, and the extremist group often Haradi, each wanting to exercise control and influence over the religious life of our communities. The chairman of the National Religious Party in Israel is reported to have said that the allegation against Rabbi Druckman is politically and anti-Zionist motivated.

           Two articles appeared in the Jerusalem Post on the 30th May 2008. The first by Jonathan Rosenblum headed 'On Halachah, no compromises'. In this article he praises the moderation of the members of the High Rabbinic court whom he states are not haradi; he attacks the standard of conversions that the State Conversion Authority oversaw which, he said, went against the overwhelming consensus of halachic opinion.

          The second article was by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founder of the Ohr Torah Stone College and Chief Rabbi of Efrat. He wrote 'I am ashamed of a Chief rabbinate which can summarily nullify the conversion of thousands of Israelis (even though they were performed by a court of Torah scholars) with crass indifference to the lives they are destroying, and disregarding the manifold biblical directions of how we are to love the proselyte'.

          The late Rabbi Eliezer Berkovitz, in his book 'Not in Heaven' wrote; 'One of the most serious problems of our day is the widespread fragmentation within the Jewish people. To work for Jewish unity in the spirit of love for every Jew in the interest of all of Israel, the reality of the totality of the Jewish people is an urgent demand of Torah realisation. It is to be regretted, he wrote, that Halachah, as it is understood today, rather than striving for Jewish unity, only deepens and fortifies the fragmentation.

          Rabbi Berkovits comments should be taken seriously. During his lifetime he was a leading philosopher-theologian. He was also a Talmudic Scholar, a graduate of the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin, author of several authoritative books and Professor of philosophy at the Hebrew Theological College in the State of Illinois. If we look objectively at the way in which the Halacha is now being interpreted by right wing rabbis and compare it to the views of the moderate rabbis quoted above we can see that Rabbi Berkovits was correct. The conflicting interpretation of the Halacha is indeed causing our people to fragment.

          The Government and other organisations helping prospective converts are up in arms and say that the decision of the above mentioned High Rabbinic Court will be brought before the courts and Knesset. The absorption Minister said that the Jewish people always went with the lenient rulings of the school of Hillel but in Israel the stricter school of Shammai seems to be the stronger party. The people, he said, want religion and tradition, not impossible decrees and extremism. He supports dialogue along the 'Golden Mean' so that people don't have to resort to flying to Cyprus to get married.

          Let me try to predict one kind of scenario of what might happen if this conflict is not resolved. Non-Jewish immigrants will continue to arrive. They and existing non-Jewish residents will continue to marry Jews and have children. Their children will be full Israeli citizens, live in the country, speak Hebrew, serve in the army, celebrate the festivals and stop worrying about conversion. Within a few generations those who wish it will be accepted as Jews by many, if not most, as were for example, the descendants of those Jews mentioned above who left Palestine after the destruction of the Second Temple, who met up with the Canaanites they met in North Africa, intermarried, and whose descendants today are pillars of the Jewish community. The problem will have become too widespread to regulate.

Woolf Abrahams June 2008.