Conversion invalidations:End of united Jewry or of deception?

I recommend that you check out this discussion at Brooklyn Wolf's blog.

Here's a sample:

"Rabbi Avraham Sherman, the head of the Israel's High Rabbinical Court, has been making some very threatening and ominous statements concerning conversions. He started out by stating at the Eternal Jewish Family conference in Israel last week that the majority of potential converts do not intend to keep the commandments (generally viewed as a sine qua non of conversion). This is the same Rabbi Sherman who made the decision to annul thousands of conversions performed by Rabbi Haim Druckman, who was the head of the state Conversion Courts. This is also the same Rabbi Sherman who, this past week, invalidated another conversion (although, to be fair, I don't know the grounds on which this was done).

[ . . . snip . . . ]

. . . Rather than accepting all conversions as valid (barring evidence to the contrary), his opinion seems to be that all conversions are to be viewed as suspect until and unless there is evidnece validating it. Indeed, according to a Ynet article, Rabbi Sherman has instructed municipal registrars to question every conversion certificate that they are presented with.

At this rate, one has to wonder... why bother with conversions at all? Why would anyone in their right mind want to consider a conversion when it can be challanged years down the road? Why would anyone consider a conversion in the United States when there is no guarntee that it will be accepted when one gets to Israel, despite one's best efforts to get the highest standards of Orthodox conversion? Why would anyone want to start the process of conversion when they know, in the back of their mind that years down the road, after they are enmeshed in a marriage and have children and grandchildren that it could all come crashing down on them... even for factors over which they had no control?

[ . . . snip . . . ]

. . . It's one thing (and a separate debate) to set up higher standards for conversions going forward. But it's another to start demanding extra evidence of converts (and whose to stop him from requiring it of descendants of converts) that their conversion from years ago is valid when they have a valid certification. To start questioning every past conversion (or marriage, or divorce) is not only a complete departure from established precedent, but also can only lead to irreperable harm to the Jewish nation."

ClooJew said...
I don't see, lulei demistafina, how this qualifies as a "madness."The wholesale tossing of conversions is a reaction to the wholesale nature of the conversions themselves. You don't seem to bring any evidence to the table as to why Rabbi Sherman should stop undoing conversions that, in his Halachic opinion, flouted Halachic standards. I spoke to a rav in New York City who is involved in geirus (a YU musmach, as it happens), and he confirmed that the lack of standards for conversions is deplorable and destructive.As for sincere converts, yes it is unfair to them; but that unfairness does not fall on the lap of Rabbi Sherman. The people to blame are the insincere converts and, moreso, the rabbis who acted as their enablers. They cast significant doubt on the entire process."


This situation is beginning to sound depressingly familiar.

Conversion crisis update:The new Jewish “papacy"

Here's the Hillel (standing-on-one-foot) version: "Power corrupts . . . "

And money creates problems, too. :(

I’m sorry that I don’t remember where I read this, but someone recently wrote, concerning the conversion crisis, that Israel was flexing its muscles as the new population center of the Jewish world, with the Israeli rabbinate becoming indifferent to the concerns of Jews in galut/the Diapora.

Indeed. :(

To understand the latest twist in the conversion crisis, start with the Jewish Week article "Who Is A Jew Crisis Moves Into Aliyah Sphere: Chief Rabbinate seen taking control of Orthodox converts seeking to move to Israel." Now, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel not only gets to decide whose conversion is valid--apparently, their rabbis don't accept all of our rabbis, even the Orthodox ones--but also whether a convert with an "unacceptable" Orthodox conversion is eligible for automatic Israeli citizenship as a Jew under the Law of Return.

This new power grab by the official Israeli rabbinate is:

• anti-Diaspora/Galut because it calls into question the authority of non-Israeli rabbis to make decisions for their own communities
• anti-Zionist/Tzionut because it discourages converts from making aliyah/moving to Israel (which, for all we know, may be part of the official rabbinate’s intention)

(Side/snide note: It takes a certain talent to develop an official policy that’s both anti-Galut and anti-Tzionut.)

• anti-non-Chareidi, because it calls into question any version of Orthodox Judaism (and any type of Orthodox rabbi) that doesn’t conform to every last Chareidi-mandated chumrah (stringency that goes beyond what halachah/Jewish religious law actually requires). I don’t remember where I read this, but, a few months ago, one convert now living in Israeli commented, only half-jokingly, that she wondered whether the Israeli rabbinate might nullify her conversion years from now if she were seen once in public without socks under her sandalim. This may also account for the ruling being anti-Tzionut—some of the Chareidi (fervently Orthodox) community may live in the Land of Israel, but they don’t accept the existence or authority of the State of Israel, so why would they want to encourage aliyah, especially by non-Chareidim?

• dictatorial, because it strips all rabbis everywhere of their authority to make decisions for their own communities and concentrates said authority in the hands of a single decision-making body in Yerushalayim/Jerusalem. Has there ever been a period in Jewish history in which all authority for conversions, not to mention weddings and divorces, was limited to one centralized decision-making body for the entire planet? Is Yerushalayim rapidly becoming a Jewish Vatican? Whatever happened and/or will happen to the concept of Mara D’Atra, the local religious decisor for a particular community?

In case this latest volley in the conversion war doesn’t distress you enough, try looking at conversion through the eyes of this would-be Jew, who's dismayed by the high cost of converting. (Hat-tip: Larry Lennhoff, here.)

• I hate to be a cynic, but I don’t really see another option—the move to create centralized batei din (rabbinic courts) that have the sole authority to do conversions puts so much power into the hands of so few that the rabbis in charge may be tempted to charge as much money as they want, because a perspective convert has few other places to go.
• The move to create centralized batei din for conversion also makes it much more expensive for most would-be converts to go through the process because they can no longer just go to their LOR (local Orthodox rabbi). Now, not only do they have to pay for the beit din (consisting of three rabbis) and the use of the mikveh (ritual-immersion pool), they have pay to travel there, too, even if there’s a mikveh down the street and three Orthodox rabbis within commuting distance who would be willing to convert them.

Bottom line, literally—will would-be converts have to be rich in order to complete the conversion process?

And if they do convert, will they be able to make aliyah and be accepted as Jews in Israel, and/or trust that their conversions will never be declared invalid or nullified retroactively?

Related:

• Rabbi Jeffrey R. Woolf's "Sadducees among us" (Tuesday, September 07, 2010)
  Two views (or more) re the Rotem conversion bill (Monday, July 19, 2010)

Sacks's bad decision: Failure to recognize British convert weakens Jewish life

The following article was e-mailed to me as a subscriber of the Sephardic Heritage Update (a publication of the Center for Sephardic Heritage) by David Shasha, editor thereof. To subscribe, e-mail him at Davidshasha@aol.com.


Sacks's bad decision: Failure to recognize British convert weakens Jewish life
By: Leslie Bunder

For a man who has just been knighted, you would think that British Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks would be worthy of the honor - but sadly this man is not.

While he may be seen as connecting communities, within his own Jewish community, he is far from a uniter.

Rather he divides it further and turns off people embracing the Jewish faith. Sadly, this is one Chief Rabbi who has failed to deliver.

The background: When is an orthodox Jewish conversion not quite an orthodox Jewish conversion? Well, it seems for the London Bet Din and the chief rabbi, if you get converted under an orthodox procedure don't expect them to recognize it as being kosher.

Converted in 1990

Recently, a family revealed that plans to send their son to the _Jewish Free School_ (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3109307,00.html#n) have been stopped on the grounds that the London Bet Din does not recognize the orthodox Israeli conversion.

Under the auspices of the Sephardi Bet Din, Helen Sagal was converted in 1990, having spent 15 months on her conversion and married her husband, Raoul, in an orthodox service in Tel Aviv.

But despite embracing the Jewish faith and indeed also making sure her son Guy was circumcised by a United Synagogue mohel, it seems that this is not good enough for the Bet Din.

In what can only be described as an insulting and offensive letter, JFS wrote to Sagal with a letter it had received from the Bet Din's Rabbi Julian Schindler saying her conversion would not be recognized, and the only way her son could get a place would be if the school were "unable to fill its standard admissions number with children who are recognized as being Jewish by the Office of the Chief Rabbi.”

So what is up with the Chief Rabbi and indeed the people who make up his office? Here, we are now getting into the dangerous "Who is a Jew?" debate. Here we have someone who has converted to Judaism in Israel under an orthodox conversion, yet the London Beth Din denies that the child of this convert is Jewish.

Sephardi v. Ashkenazi?

Quite simply, this is sheer and utter madness. An orthodox conversion is Israel - indeed what is deemed to be the Holy Land - should be recognized by all. Maybe for the United Synagogue Bet Din this is not good enough? Maybe they are looking to see what they can get out of this in terms of wanting Sagal to pay for their "approved" orthodox courses?

Maybe they have an issue with a Sephardi conversion? Are not Sephardi orthodox conversions good enough for an Ashkenazi organization?

Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi, needs to step in and bring some sanity to this matter. He needs to show that he himself is not a hypocrite. After all, he is the man who time and time again lends his support to Israel and calls for unity in the Jewish community. If he and his Bet Din cannot recognize an orthodox Jewish conversion, then it is time he and his organization consider their own positions.

While Sagal and her family may not be totally religious in their nature, they are still Jewish. Allowing the son to attend the school would enhance his own Jewish identity; not allowing him will alienate the child and confuse him.

Another implication for this is would be converts may even be put off in becoming Jewish, if certain Bet Dins feel they can pick and choose who is Jewish and should be allowed into a Jewish school.

We need to embrace converts, who make a valuable contribution and wish to embrace a Jewish life. Not kick them down which is what has happened with the Bet Din.

Leslie Bunder is editor of Something Jewish, A UK-based website

From Ynet News, July 7, 2005


Update: This just in from Miriam Shaviv, of Bloghead (http://bloghd.blogspot.com/)

Friday, July 08, 2005 (according to the British time zone, I presume)

Decision in the Sagal case
British Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks has made a decision in the case of Helen Sagal, whose Israeli Orthodox conversion was questioned after she applied for a place in JFS, a Jewish High School, for her son Guy. The decision was entirely predictable: Rabbi Sacks will not accept her conversion, and Guy, therefore, will be forced to go against his will to a non-Jewish school come September. . . .

. . . There are now two classes of Jews in London, born Jews, and converted Jews who can never be entirely sure that their lives will not be turned upside down one day, and their status reversed, by an excessively enthusiastic Beth Din.

Casualty of conversion war: Druckman fired

Yes, I know I’ve linked to this opinion piece before (thanks, Steg!), but, for those who are new to, or don’t understand, the whole conversion controversy and Rabbi Druckman’s role therein—he’s one of the good guys, in my opinion—start here.

The latest news, courtesy of Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Woolf of My Obiter Dicta, is that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in yet another move to salvage his scandal-ridden political career, has chosen Rabbi Druckman as the latest sacrificial offering.

I am left speechless. The only response that comes to my mind is “Hashivah shofténu k’va-rishonah, v’yoatzénu k’va-t’chilah, Restore our judges as at first, and our counselors as in the beginning … Baruch . . .Melech ohev tzedakah u’mishpat, Praised is . . . the Sovereign who loves righteousness and justice."

Not to mention “. . . al géré ha-tzedek . . yehemu rachamecha, upon the righteous converts, show (?) mercy . . .”

My previous posts on the conversion war:

• Frum vs. frum: The conversion crisis that affects all (Saturday, May 10, 2008)
  The war against Modern & Zionist Orthodoxy (Tuesday, May 20, 2008)
  The conversion war: A conflict of values (Tuesday, May 20, 2008)
  Jew by Choice discusses conversion controversy (Wednesday, May 21, 2008)

Riskin discusses controversial topics at Limmud NY

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founding rabbi of Ohr Torah Stone, made a number of presentations at Limmud NY on matters of grave concern. The first was on the subject of the conversion crisis in Israel. Rabbi Riskin surprised me, and probably other attendees, by stating that Judaism is, in fact, a proselytizing religion--or was, at least, until the Hadrianic persecutions made conversion a crime punishable by death. He asserted that converting non-Jews is actually a mitzvah (commandment), and that, therefore, one should be welcoming to conversion candidates once one has established their sincere desire to convert despite our history of being persecuted. He's none too happy about tales he's heard of conversion candidates being turned down simply because they hadn't yet learned a particular b'rachah (blessing). He also stated that rabbinic tradition holds that a convert remains a Jew even if he/she ceases to be observant--to revoke a conversion retroactively just because a Jew by Choice is no longer Orthodox is against rabbinic tradition. He's none too happy about the extremely strict conversion requirements on which the more right-wing Chareidi rabbis seem to insist.

The short version of his presentation on whether peace with the Palestinians is possible was that many of the "regular" Palestinians want peace, but their leaders don't. Nevertheless, as a settler who's made a point of developing good relationships with the Palestinians of the villages near Efrat, he's hopeful that there will be peace, albeit in the long run.

The short version of his presentation on what went wrong with Israel and how it could be fixed was, surprisingly for an Orthodox rabbi, that religion should be separated from the government, so that Judaism can serve as a counterbalance, as it did in the case of the prophet Nathan confronting King David.

Rabbi Riskin is a good speaker, but you should probably be forewarned that all of his presentations seem to begin from the beginning--Tanach/the Bible--and work their way up to the present. So it takes him roughly 45 minutes to present the background, leaving him about 15 minutes to get to the actual topic. :) But the lead-up is well worth the wait.

Frum vs.frum:The conversion crisis that affects all

Here’s an opinion piece about the recent Israeli rabbinical ruling declaring possibly thousands of Orthodox (Hebrew: Dati; Yiddish: Frum) conversions invalid. (Thanks to Steg for the link).

Harry Maryles warns, “Are you a convert to Judaism? Think again!"

Steg also links to Marc Shapiro’s New York Jewish Week article asking whether there’s going to be a schism in the Orthodox community—and indicating that it might be necessary.

Rabbis Marc Angel and Avi Weiss must be clairvoyant—they founded the new International Rabbinic Fellowship just last week. Actually, they seem to have been headed in that direction already, as this quote from the linked article indicates: "“Avi and Marc have come to feel increasingly disenfranchised,” one rabbi said, “and the conversion issue put them over the top."

ADDeRabbi, a former American now living in Modiin, said of the Israeli rabbinate, “I haven't discussed the current giyur [conversion] issue because I've been trying to get a copy of R' Sherman's psak din [roughly, ruling on a question of halachah/Jewish religious law]. In the meantime, I can't help but think that maybe THIS will be the crisis that finally precipitates a Religious-Zionist austritt." Methinks we'll be hearing more from the Israeli outreach rabbinical organization Tzohar as well--I can't remember where I read this, but I think there's been previous talk of Tzohar acting independently of the official state rabbinate.

This rabbinical ruling is frightening. As I said in my comments to a post of my own that’s almost two years old (sorry about the no-longer-functioning link in that post):

". . . if, as the ADDeRabbi asserts, the real issue is that a significant group of chareidi [fervently Orthodox] rabbis consider only chareidi rabbis to be real rabbis, then . . . it stands to reason that, if non-chareidi *rabbis* aren't consider to be real *rabbis,* then non-chareidi *Jews* aren't considered to be real *Jews.*

. . . Unless a reasonably solution is devised, a) non-chareidi conversions will not be recognized, b) non-chareidi "born" Jews will not be recognized, and c) non-Orthodox Jews, having no Orthodox, much less chareidi, rabbis to vouch for our Jewishness, will not be recognized. In the blink of an eye, the chareidi rabbinate of Israel will have written off as non-Jewish roughly 95% of American Jews."

Now, even those converted by Israeli Orthodox rabbis aren't "safe."

Don't say I didn't warn you that the rightward turn of Orthodox Judaism would affect all of us, Orthodox and non-Orthodox. At this point, I'm frankly hoping that there will, indeed, be a schism within the Orthodox community, both in Israel and elsewhere.

In case you think it's unmitigated chutzpah (gall) for a non-Orthodox Jew to hope for a schism within Orthodox Judaism, please remember that I have a personal stake in the outcome of the conversion crisis, as I said in a comment to that two-year-post of mine:

"Please excuse me for taking this personally, but the last person in my family to live and die Orthodox was my greatgrandmother, so our son has no Orthodox rabbi to vouch for his Jewishness. In addition, my Israeli nieces and nephew are the children of a Jew by choice. Her conversion was under the auspices of an American Orthodox rabbi. I fear that the fact that said [rabbi] was approved by the Israeli rabbinate *at that time* might not suffice to protect her children from being declared non-practicing Protestants.

My nightmare scenario #1: Within the next 15 years, my nieces and nephew are each, in turn, rejected for marriage by the Israeli rabbinate (their parents having made aliyah only weeks after the wedding). Each chooses to raise her/his kids as totally secular Israelis.

[Said Marc Shapiro in the aforementioned New York Jewish Week article, "I was struck by how, in his lengthy ruling attacking Rabbi Druckman’s conversions, the haredi [fervently Orthodox] dayan [judge] relies on the halachic [Jewish law] decisions of a well-known posek [decisor on matters of halachah/Jewish law] who serves the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit. In other words, the writings of one who believes that the creation of the State of Israel was a terrible sin — and who clearly has no sympathy with the goal of helping ease the conversion of sincere non-Jewish immigrants — is helping guide the decisions of a dayan who works for the Israeli government and is supposed to have the best interests of the State at heart."]

My nightmare scenario #2: My son's fiancee having decided, after very serious deliberation, to chose Judaism, they go to an Israeli-rabbinate-approved Orthodox rabbi to begin the process. Instead of addressing my son's fiancee, the rabbi grills my son about his Jewish identity, rejecting our ketubah [Jewish wedding contract] as proof. My son storms out, enraged, and our only grandchildren are raised Roman Catholic.

Result: In 20 years, there won't be a practicing Jew left in the family, and all of my parents' descendants will be (considered) Christian."

The most right-wing and anti-Zionist of the chareidim have rejected the rest of the Jewish People. Maybe it's time for the rest of the Jewish People to reject the most right-wing and anti-Zionist of the chareidim.

Orthodoxy's right-ward turn affects all: 4-Conversions

Here's the latest from the New York Times: How Do You Prove You’re a Jew?

(Hat-tip to ADDeRabbi for the NY Times link.)

The Jewish people is rapidly devolving into two separate entities--those born Jewish or converted in accordance with Orthodox interpretations of halachah/Jewish religious law, and the rest of us. How can this possibly not affect "the rest of us?" When our children or grandchildren, with mothers or grandmothers converted under non-Orthodox auspices, decide to make aliyah (move to Israel), will they be able to marry "as is," or will they have to undergo conversion? When our children or grandchildren decide to become baalei t'shuvah/"returnees" to Orthodoxy, will they be accepted "as is," or will they have to undergo conversion?

And here's the latest from the New York Jewish Week: RCA Seen Caving on Conversions. Now, even the legitimacy of Orthodox conversions is being called into question.

HaShem is one, but is His People still one?

Friday, March 7, 2008 update:

My Obiter Dicta says, "Except in rare cases, the acts of one Bet Din have always been accepted and respected by other Batei Din. א"כ במה מצינו כח בית דין יפה? By what right does the Israeli Chief Rabbinate arrogate to itself the authority to sit in judgement upon the acts of colleagues abroad? Do they know anything about Diaspora Jewry?"

Saturday night, er, Sunday morning update, March 9, 2008, 12:23 AM:

This past Friday's New York Jewish Week is chock full of opinions, pro and con, on the RCA's new conversion rules.

Rabbi Kenneth Auman says that this agreement is a great boon.

Rabbi Kenneth Hain and Rabbi Hershel Billet think that last week's headline, "RCA Seen Caving on Conversions " was inaccurate.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein offers a conversion critique from within, but "hesitates to withdraw from the new system because of the impact it could have on the hundreds of people he has already converted and their descendants."

And lined up on the same page is "The Chief Rabbinate-RCA Deal: Two Views," with Rabbi Barry Freundel making "The case for 'centralized' conversions" and Rabbis Marc Angel and Avi Weiss arguing that the new policy is "Taking power away from the rabbis."

Repost: Patrilineal descent and the pain of rejection 😥

This is one of the posts that seems to have disappeared from both my front page and my September 2022 archive.  I'm copying and pasting both the post and the comments because this is too important to lose.

 

Tuesday, September 06, 2022

Patrinineal descent and the pain of rejection 😥

Copied from Facebook:

I've been a member of Conservative (or dual-affiliated) synagogues since childhood, and have always supported the traditional opinion that only the children of Jewish mothers are Jewish (the matrilineal opinion). But I've been rethinking my position in recent years. Is it really the right thing to cause so many people so much pain? Here's how being a patrilineal Jew affected Allison Goldperson.

 

Allison Goldperson is with Jeremy Lawrence and

3 others

.

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[August 20, 2019]

 

Just over a year ago, I had the opportunity to do a mikveh ritual in the ocean, where I affirmed my Jewish identity in the presence of Rabbi Gabriel Botnick and four witnesses. It was an important moment for me, because it allowed Rabbi Botnick to then give me an official certificate, signed by himself and two witnesses, affirming that I am, indeed a Jew.

This status is a big deal, because it means that I am finally able to participate fully in the rituals that comprise Jewish practice: I can be married by a Rabbi to another Jew; I can be counted as part of a minyan; I am allowed halachically to fully keep Shabbat; if I have children, they will be counted as Jewish. Most importantly, this moment resolved one of the deepest and most painful challenges in my life: the fact that, for years, as I felt called more deeply towards Jewish practice, I was repeatedly turned away.

I am Jewish by patrilineal descent. My grandparents on my father’s side were Polish Holocaust survivors; my mother is from the Canadian east coast. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Toronto, in a home that was filled with jokes told in Yiddish accents, stories from Chelm and foods like challah, cholent, and matzo brie. I carry the last name “Goldman”, went to Jewish summer camps and had a bat mitzvah.

It wasn’t until I got to university, and had a spiritual experience that made me want to connect more deeply with religious (vs. cultural) Judaism, that I understood the significance of my patrilineal descent. I was told, for the first time, that I was not Jewish -- that if I wanted to become Jewish, I would have to convert.

I was shocked, and hurt, but I respected the Rabbis telling me this. I wanted to follow the rules. I started learning, first with an orthodox Rabbi, and then with a conservative one. The more I studied, however, the more it became clear to me that I could not convert. Why? Because I’m not a convert. Judaism is not something I’ve chosen. In fact, over the years that I struggled with this part of my identity, I tried hard to not be Jewish. Twice in my twenties, after particularly painful experiences of being rejected based on my birth, I told myself that it wasn’t worth it, and vowed that I would not be Jewish anymore. It hurt a lot to make that vow, and never stuck. As it turns out, we don’t always get to choose who we are. Sometimes, our souls hold a truth that we ignore at our own peril.

For me to try to be anything other than Jewish was to force my soul so deeply out of alignment that it created a terrible spiritual pain.

My soul’s truth is that I am Jewish, and I have absolutely no choice in the matter. When I pray in Jewish community, I feel a sense of connectedness, to the earth, to the sky, to others and to myself. My soul whispers to me: “yes, this is where you’re meant to be.”

Last year, when I first approached Rabbi Botnick about my identity, I was so scared. I had already begun to feel connected to the community at Mishkon, and by revealing my secret to him, I was risking that he would reject me -- that he would suggest, like every Rabbi I’d spoken to before him, that either I should join a conversion class and undertake a process of “transformation,” or that I should just accept that only the reform community is available to me. Instead, he responded in the most beautiful, affirming, and healing way I could possibly have imagined. He asked me about my upbringing: was I raised in a Jewish home? Did I have a bat mitzvah? He reflected to me in no uncertain terms that I am indeed a Jew. He was clear and casual about it, and said we could make it official the very next day, at Na’or on the beach.

The Jewish ritual of the mikveh is one that signifies transformation. Traditionally, a convert immerses herself fully under water to signify a total transformation – a change in her soul from someone who was not bound to the covenant, to someone who is. I feel strongly that my soul did not transform last year when I undertook my mikveh. I have always been Jewish. In fact, I believe my soul has been Jewish for much longer than I have actually been alive.

Its meaningful that Jewish ritual, and particularly this ritual, is done in community, in front of witnesses. When I submerged myself in the ocean last summer, I was affirming a deep commitment to my own authentic truth, the same truth that prevented me from “converting” for so many years: that I am now, and always have been, Jewish.

By witnessing and testifying, my community also affirmed this truth back to me – and that was the transformation I needed.

I am so deeply grateful to Rabbi Botnick for facilitating that moment, and offering me the chance to fully belong. At the same time, I’m writing this post in part to say: this is not ok. It was wrong of my community to turn me away so many times, while welcoming other mixed Jews who have a matrilineal line. It was wrong to trivialize my Jewish lineage and experience, and the identity I have always had. This is an aspect of our tradition that hurts so many of us: Jews like me, but also Jewish men who are told they alone cannot pass on their traditions to their children. It’s wrong because it sews division among us, and causes us to do ugly things, like reject people we could love. In Genesis, the day that G-d separates water from the land is the only day she does not see that “it was good.” Our tradition should be the glue that holds us together, yet we cling to an outdated rabbinical interpretation that wrenches us apart.

There are many things I love about Judaism. Among them is our willingness to grapple with tradition and to make changes where necessary. The good news is that we already have the tools to right this wrong: when Rabbi Botnick offered to officially sanction my Jewish identity through an affirmation – when he offered it without even suggesting for a second that I had to change my essence, or “convert” – he demonstrated the best of what our tradition has to offer.

It is my hope that, in the future, this ritual of affirmation will be made more easily available and widely popularized. We should all know there is space in our tradition to hold and welcome our entire tribe, and to affirm the powerful influence that fathers have upon their children.

5 Comments:

 Shira Salamone said...

If you have a Facebook account, I recommend that you read the comments to the original post here: https://www.facebook.com/acarrollgoldman/posts/pfbid0sWgQoty15fvdbxukhHQaWaA5K3maTC4KtCizejNxj4JkAvQn7RqXyuuKQfkHN2Zyl

Tue Sep 06, 06:19:00 PM 2022  

 Shira Salamone said...

More comments copied from Facebook:

Stephen Belsky
It sounds like she went through an actual giyyur procedure (the immersion with witnesses) but what was important was not delegitimizing her preexisting Jewish identity in the process

Shira Salamone
Exactly. But there are so many patrilineal Jews who just consider themselves Jewish who aren't willing to do that. I'm having trouble lately just wrapping my head around the idea that we Jews are rejecting so many people who just want to be accepted as part of the family. 😢

Allison Goldperson
Shira Salamone hey Shira! Thanks for sharing this and understanding my intention in sharing my story.
I was extremely resistant to doing a mikveh ritual for many years because people framed it as a “conversion” and I feel strongly that I was always Jewish. I never had any other identity to go to, so when people told me I wasn’t Jewish, it was like a negation of my very personhood in the world.
Now it has been years since that day, I’m deeply involved in Jewish community, and the pain of those rejections is something that continues to hurt many years after it has been “resolved”.
I very much appreciate that you have been changing your mind about this topic and hope that others will do the same 💕

Shira Salamone
Allison Goldperson , I'm hoping to encourage others to give this some serious thought, at least. Thank you for articulating the pain of rejection so movingly.

Barton Lessin
At no time in our history has being a Jew been the easiest of choices. I applaud those who choose to be members of our tribe. It seems well past time to consider patrilineal descent on a par with matrilineal descent.

Tue Sep 06, 06:22:00 PM 2022  

 Shira Salamone said...

Sorry, let me try posting that URL as a link:
Allison's post

Tue Sep 06, 06:27:00 PM 2022  

 Anonymous said...

That's all well and good, but she either converted, or she's not Jewish. Or she could be Reform (and still not Jewish in the eyes of the rest of Judaism). So either the ocean was mikvah with witnesses l'shem giyyur or it was not and all that happened was she got wet.

Every religion, every people has inclusion and exclusion rules. I don't get to declare myself Canadian just because I like hockey and Tim Horton's, I'd have to go through a naturalization process to become Canadian. It's the same with Judaism. Mother is Jewish? You're a citizen. Mother isn't Jewish? You're not. The father is wholly irrelevant.

We should be welcoming and perhaps make the conversion process easier for people brought up thinking they were Jewish, but at the same time, there's no reason to weaken millennia-old laws.

Wed Sep 07, 02:51:00 PM 2022  

 Shira Salamone said...

We should certainly make the conversion process easier for people who were brought up Jewish but are not considered Jewish according to halachah (Jewish religious law). As with the rabbi in this true story, the rabbi should certainly take into consideration how much the person already knows rather than blindly insisting that they attend a conversion class as if they were starting from scratch, and perhaps calling the conversion ceremony an affirmation ceremony might also help.

Thu Sep 08, 08:38:00 PM 2022

"Papal" Rabbanut questions another Ortho conversion

The validity of yet another Orthodox conversion done decades ago in the U.S. has been questioned by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate/Rabbanut.  I've been writing about the "conversion crisis" for years.  Just how many times am I going to have to say "been there, blogged that?  I agree with those who've said that the real question is not "Who is a Jew?, but rather, "Who is a rabbi?".  And I will continue to assert that this crisis is a sign of the evolution of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate into a new "papacy."  If you don't have time to check all the links, I recommend that you click on just the first and last ones--they're depressing enough all by themselves.  :(

Shavuot: An all-nighter, standing on one foot

After the Tikkun at our local synagogue--with so many seniors, we rarely run past 11 PM--a few hardy souls headed for the Tikkun at the JCC in Manhattan, where we broke up to follow our own interests. I ended up first in David Kraemer's "Israel as Converts: The Conversion Ritual & Standing at Sinai." The text that he taught showed the rabbis taking two totally different approaches to conversion: Either it consisted of (milah and) t'vilah (circumsion, for a man, and) ritual immersion, making one a member of the Jewish family, or it consisted of a committment to accepting the mitzvot (commandments), as at Sinai, making one a part of the covenant with G-d. As far as I can determine, both seem to be required, though the current conversion controversy seems to pit an emphasis on one against an emphasis on the other.

In passing, (Rabbi?) Kraemer said that Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) did the women a favor by declaring that men couldn't come near women for three days prior to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai: He said that there was some concern that both women and men be ritually pure, so that all, male and female alike, could receive the Torah. I told this to a female rabbi of my acquaintance the next night--she didn't buy it. But I like the idea.

The next session I attended was taught by Congregation Ramat Orah Associate Rabbi Moshe Grussgott. He was scheduled to speak about the "cheter m'chirah," the permission/leniency to sell land in the biblically-defined Land of Israel to a non-Jew so that one could continue to farm it during the Shmittah (Sabbatical) Year. At the last minute, though, he decided to speak about the AgriProcessor kosher-meat-processing-plant controversy instead. There was much talk of violations of halachah/Jewish religious law, ranging from "dina m'dina dina" ("the law of the country is the law), which would make it halachically forbidden to violate U.S. immigration laws, to questions of g'neivah (theft) because workers were not being paid adequately and/or on time for their work, to causing a person to sin through deception or the withholding of information (lifnei iver lo titein michshol--in front of a blind person do not put a stumbling block), to the chilul HaShem (desecration of G-d's name) of being involved in one of the largest illegal-immigrant mass arrests in the history of the United States, not to mention the prior allegations of cruelty to animals (tzaar baalei chayim). I'm sure I've forgotten one or two more points.

Concerning the question of whether a boycott of AgriProcessor products would be appropriate, especially prior to a trial, Rabbi Grussgott said that no business has an absolute right to any person's patronage, and that one can simply choose to buy from another business at any time. He did not seem to think it necessary to wait for a verdict.

This point was vehemently disputed two days later by the teenaged son of some members of my Manhattan synagogue, who insisted that to boycott AgriProcessor before a verdict would be to commit an act of lashon ha-ra (malicious gossip). He was also quite adamant that, if the Orthodox Union wished to withdraw its certification of the kashrut of AgriProcessor products, they state quite clearly that they were withdrawing it not because the company's products weren't kosher, but because they did not wish to be associated with a company that conducted itself in a manner that might be deemed unethical. He took a very narrow view of kashrut, with which I disagreed, but ended up in the same place in the long run, which was that a boycott and/or withdrawal of kashrut certification might be appropriate if properly explained and occurring after a guilty verdict.

I'll happily respond to comments when available to do so.

The conversion war: A conflict of values

See part one here.

According to one school of thought, one should convert a person to Judaism only if that person is a true believer and is willing to accept and observe all of the mitzvot (commandments).

According to other perspectives, other factors may enter into the equation. Is preserving the Jewish people so important that it's preferable to convert a person and hope that that person will be observant than to stand by while a Jew marries a non-Jew? Is maintaining the Jewish character of the Jewish State so important that it's preferable to convert a half-Jew, there being so many ex-Soviet Israeli citizens with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers (a person's religious identity being defined, according to halachah/Jewish religious law, by the religion of the mother), and hope that that person will be observant, than to stand by while the Jewish character of the State of Israel becomes questionable?

The previous paragraph may have been a bit simplistic. After all, we do want conversion to have some meaning. But what "entrance requirements" should the Jewish People enforce? What are our priorities? I think that's the real question behind the current conversion crisis.

If the answers aren't easy for those of us who are laypersons, imagine how difficult they are for those actually entrusted with performing conversions. But I would like to think that more Orthodox rabbis and rabbinical students are, at least, asking questions like this one.

Conversion:Is my nightmare--& worse--coming true?

Rabbi Jeffrey Woolf, of Bar Ilan University and My Obiter Dicta, makes the following complaint in this post of his:

"Consider, once again, the case of concersion. According to information published by Rivka Lubitsch, the Israeli rabbinate now has a policy of not recognizing qualified conversions, and keeping converts on probation forever. Such a policy flies in the face of and [sic] explicit Gemora, which is accepted by EVERY MAJOR POSEQ [religious decisor] ever since, that after the convert emerges from the miqveh [ritual bath], he is a Jew even if he subsequently worships idols (B. Yevamot 47b).

That's not a violation of סוגיא דעלמא. [Er, "sugyah d'almah?" Translation assistance, please.] I'm not sure what it is. Orthodox Judaism, it isn't!"

Here's the introduction to the shocking, in my opinion, story to which Rabbi Woolf linked:

Rivkah Lubitch

The secret code of repealed conversions

If you converted to Judaism and also got divorced, check the divorce documents that you received from the rabbinic courts. If it says 'the son of our forefather Abraham'? You're not in bad shape. If it says 'convert'? You're on your way to a repealed conversion. Rivkah Lubitch studied the opinion paper submitted by the Rabbinic Court to the High Court of Justice and discloses how converts are being marked

Published:

02.03.10, 08:28 / Israel Jewish Scene

I sent the link to this article to my Israeli brother and ex-sister-in-law with the warning that it's possible that she and their children have already been declared non-Jews. I later noticed that one commenter to the article asked whether it's (now) possible that a conversion could be challenged even after a convert's death.

Sadly, this is even worse than what I predicted and feared would happen.

Stop the presses! Rabbi Druckman's in Riverdale!

Anyone who can get to this important presentation tomorrow night on "The State of Conversions in Israel," please, please blog about it! Many thanks to Aliza Hausman for the information.

Event: "The State of Conversions in Israel" with Rabbi Chaim Drukman

Date: Tuesday night, Dec. 1, 2009

Time: 7:30pm

Place: Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 3700 Henry Hudson Parkway, Bronx, NY

". . .

"Rabbi Chaim Drukman is the head of Bnei Akiva and past Director of the Israeli State Conversion Authority and a leading open voice on conversions in Israel.

Yes, THAT Chaim Drukman from all the articles I've linked in the past years about the problems of conversion in Israel! THAT Chaim Drukman whose conversions were revoked! . . .


If you don't know who Rabbi Druckman is or what the issue is, you might find some of my own posts (and links) concerning the "conversion war" helpful.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 update:

Here's a (partial) transcript of Rabbi Druckman's presentation, courtesy of a Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT) rabbinical student, posted on Aliza's blog.

"The perversion of conversion: Freundel as a symptom"

See Chuck Davidson's Times of Israel blog post.

I, too, have protested against the "new Jewish papacy," and have been writing about the conversion crisis since 2005--here's a link to several of my posts.

The Israeli Chief Rabbinate seems bound and determined to ensure that as few people convert to Judaism as possible.  :(

A thought for Tisha B'Av re welcoming converts

Yes, I've been done this road before, but it seems particularly relevant to discuss this on Tisha B'Av, given the haftarah (prophetic reading) for Mincha (Afternoon Service), Yishaya/Isaiah, chapters 55-56.

Rabbi Druckman (see link above) goes for Yishaya/Isaiah 56, verse 3:

ג וְאַל-יֹאמַר בֶּן-הַנֵּכָר, הַנִּלְוָה אֶל-יְהוָה לֵאמֹר, הַבְדֵּל יַבְדִּילַנִי יְהוָה, מֵעַל עַמּוֹ; וְאַל-יֹאמַר הַסָּרִיס, הֵן אֲנִי עֵץ יָבֵשׁ. {פ}	3 Neither let the alien, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying: 'The LORD will surely separate me from His people'; neither let the eunuch say: 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' {P}

Rabbi Sherman (see link above) goes for verses 6 and 7:

ו וּבְנֵי הַנֵּכָר, הַנִּלְוִים עַל-יְהוָה לְשָׁרְתוֹ, וּלְאַהֲבָה אֶת-שֵׁם יְהוָה, לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לַעֲבָדִים--כָּל-שֹׁמֵר שַׁבָּת מֵחַלְּלוֹ, וּמַחֲזִיקִים בִּבְרִיתִי.	6 Also the aliens, that join themselves to the LORD, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast by My covenant:
ז וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל-הַר קָדְשִׁי, וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים בְּבֵית תְּפִלָּתִי--עוֹלֹתֵיהֶם וְזִבְחֵיהֶם לְרָצוֹן, עַל-מִזְבְּחִי: כִּי בֵיתִי, בֵּית-תְּפִלָּה יִקָּרֵא לְכָל-הָעַמִּים.	7 Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Rabbi Druckman replies:

ח נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה, מְקַבֵּץ נִדְחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: עוֹד אֲקַבֵּץ עָלָיו, לְנִקְבָּצָיו.	8 Saith the Lord GOD who gathereth the dispersed of Israel: Yet I will gather others to him, beside those of him that are gathered.

How are we ever going to avoid "separating 'foreigners' who have joined themselves to HaShem" if we can't even decide whether complete observance--by Chareidi standards, presumably, since I've read of a woman's conversion being nullified because she was seen in public bareheaded and in pants, which is common dress among senior Modern Orthodox women in my neighborhood--is the only acceptable standard for a convert, or whether a commitment to observe Shabbat and kashrut will do? When did standards for conversion become so strict? (Actually, see here.)

This is yet another disagreement creating (unnecessary, in my opinion) divisions in the House of Israel. It's no wonder that the third temple hasn't been built yet.

My husband explains the Rotem conversion bill . . .

. . . more or less.

Me: "I don't understand why the bill insists on the use of municipal rabbis. Why aren't Tzohar rabbis included? Why can't would-be converts go to congregational rabbis, as frequently happens in the US?

My husband: "It's like me doing an audit for a company seeking a loan. If the bank doesn't know me, the chances of the bank accepting my report are greatly reduced."

"Why? Isn't your CPA license a good enough credential?

"Is every doctor qualified to perform surgery? It's the same with CPAs. The banks are looking for a CPA whose firm prepares plenty of audits, or someone in private practice who's had a lot of auditing experience. CPAs need to specialize, just as doctors do."

"So you're saying that conversions need to be performed by rabbis with special expertise in the laws of conversion? You think that that's what Rotem may have had in mind?"

"Yes."

Conversion bill: A completely different perspective

See "The Rotem Conversion Law" on Jameel's "Muqata" blog.

Now reread "From Brian Blum: Will our children be Jewish," based on a post from Brian's "This Normal Life" blog.

Two Israelis, two opinions. What's yours?

From Brian Blum: Will our children be Jewish?

As if it's not bad enough that we have to worry about whether our only child, a male, will give us halachically-Jewish grandchildren (by marrying a Jewish woman), now we have to worry about whether anything that he, his (future) wife, or we do (or did) will matter. Read it and weep--again.

"The new regulations announced in the last month require city rabbis and marriage registrars to send every convert and (this is new) every person whose parents were married abroad to the court for a determination of whether or not she or he’s a Jew.

While the main targets of the ruling are converts, the implications for Anglo immigrants are nevertheless astounding. Even though my wife Jody and I were both born Jewish, we were married in the U.S. And not by a rabbi who is on the official list of Diaspora rabbis recognized by the Chief Rabbinate. Accordingly, our children – if they decide to get married in Israel – will have to prove their own Jewishness in a court of law. And, astonishingly, they will have to pay for their own hearing."

As you can see from my related post Conversion: Is my nightmare--and worse--coming true?, this is an old story--if you follow the links, you'll see that I have posts on the "conversion crisis" going back to March 4, 2008--but it just keeps getting worse. :(

Brian said, "When I shared this article with my teenage daughter, she couldn’t understand what the Rabbinate was trying to achieve." It seems to me that the Israeli Chareidi rabbinate (Chareidi meaning fervently Orthodox, that is, extremely right-wing in religious practice) is trying to establish a reverse Inquisition, with the goal of proving, at any emotional and/or financial cost, that non-Chareidi Jews aren't Jews. To put it in blunt English, they're trying to rid Israel and the Jewish People of anyone who's not Chareidi, both because they oppose Zionism and because they don't believe that non-Chareidi Orthodox rabbis and/or laypeople, either in Israel or in the Galut/Diaspora, are truly Orthodox. As for us non-Orthodox Jews, they wrote us off years ago.

A pre-Pesach rerun with a current update

See especially The Physicist's comment to this post of mine.

Our son's current question is whether some of the more stringent interpretations of Jewish law were designed for the express purpose of excluding a growing proportion of the Jewish community.  Seriously, separate dishwashers for dairy and meat?  Separate kitchens for Pesach?  As our son commented:

"The argument here though is on the unreasonableness and unnecessary expense involved in some of these rules. This entire topic, in fact, came up because of Passover. AN entire separate set of everything to be used only for 8 days a year? Talking not just about the separate dishes for Passover, but the separate dishes in general: why do we do this? Surely this in unnecessary and unreasonable for most people, who do not have custom kitchens, who do not have the space for multiple dishes, who have one sink and one dishwasher.

Clearly, in biblical times this was never done. It might be months worth of earnings just to purchase a single plate for each person in your family in those times; they certainly did not have different dishes for milk and meat, let alone Passover. They simply did not eat them at the same time and cleaned up for Passover, and that was enough. Certainly we clean our plates far better than they did, so it can't be about residue. We even have better food sourcing, so the chances of a mixup are far lower for us than they were for them. Why was it good enough for them and not for modern Jews?

Part of it certainly is the practice of "building a fence around the law." This is the same logic that says poultry is meat, even though it can't possibly be exposed to mothers' milk since birds don't have any. But I think that some of it is also simple elitism; the desire to show that Jews are different and thus better than the gentiles. We shouldn't need the extra expense, the extra large houses, the custom kitchens that the tradition of so thoroughly separating milk and meat brings. Washing dishes in between meals should be enough. Even a large amount of kosher supervision is unnecessary; how can grain or even more ridiculously sponges be traif? But instead, we have this custom, and woe betide those who don't stick to them, for they shall be cast out and called fake Jews."

Never mind that some in the Orthodox community look down on non-Orthodox Jews; now, certain segments of the Orthodox community look down on other Orthodox Jews.  The conversion crisis is a symptom of this exclusionary attitude, given that the question involved is less "Who is a Jew?" than "Who is a rabbi?"  (Start here and you can click your way all the way back to 2008.)  But even kashrut questions, and even questions of what constitutes appropriate clothing for a Jew, even within the Orthodox community, can separate Jew from Jew.  Is it possible that our son is right, that one of the purposes, conscious and/or unconscious, of increasingly stringent ("chumradik") interpretations of Jewish religious law (halachah), customs (minhagim), and/or tradition (mesorah) is precisely to narrow the parameters/perimeters of the Jewish community?

"They shall be cast out and called fake Jews."

Who is a Jew?: Worst-case scenario

From the Brooklyn Wolf's "Scary Paper on Annulling Conversions:"

ProfK said...
Anonymous's comment "Where does this end?" brought to mind a really scary end to this scenario. If geirus [conversion] can be invalidated retroactively then what is to keep rabbanim [rabbis] somewhere down the line from saying that being a Jew will no longer be passed down from mother to child? That you only get to call yourself a Jew if you meet X,Y and Z criteria?
June 17, 2008 8:29 AM