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Controversy Over Israel Law of Return, and Diaspora Jewry
Passover Greetings
BLUE FLASH
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and happy Passover
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COHEN & SON
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Continental Food - Brokerage Co.
17501 West Eight Mile Road
Detroit, Michigan 48235
255-5880
By SEYMOUR SIEGEL
Chairman, Committee on Jewish
Law and Standards, Rabbinical
Assembly
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
On Jan. 9 of this year,
the Reform. and Conservative
movements urged the newly
elected Israel government to
resist the political pressure
exerted by Orthodox groups
who want- to amend Israel's
revised Law of Return. This
law was adopted by Israel's
parliament (Knesset) in 1970.
The Law of Return grants
every Jew in the world the
right to become a citizen of
Israel automatically when he
or she becomes an immi-
grant, with all the rights and
privileges granted -such im-
migrants to Israel.
When this law was drafted,
a basic question had to be
answered: "Who is to he
consideied a Jew?" The
present formulation of the
Law of Return answers this
question: Anyone born of a
Jewish mother or anyone
who has become a Jew
through conversion. This
Passover Greetings
FREEDLAND
STRUCTURAL STEEL CO.
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GREENE'S HAMBURGERS
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Specializing in Carry-Out Service — Open 24 Hours
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CAPITAL
MORTGAGE CORP.
26600 Telegraph, Suite 100
355-4000
Southfield, Mich. 48075
THE RADERMAN FAMILY
And All Employees of
KITCHEN MAID FOODS.
Distributors of Carmel Israeli Wine and -Champagne, Carmel
Kosher Food Products, Kedem Wine and Champagne, Kosher Zion
Delicatessen Products, B. Manischewitz Products and Hudson Spices.
Extended Best Wishes to the Community
For A Happy and Joyous Passover
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A Happy Healthy
Passover
To All
Ben & Harry Kosins
logs
FINE APPAREL FOR MEN
means that anyone born a
non-Jew and subsequently
brought into the Jewish fold
through conversion by a
Reform, Conservative or Or-
thodox rabbi can claim all
rights granted by the Law-of
Return.
When the legislation was
adopted by the Knesset in
1970, various Orthodox
groups began an intensive
campaign to have this law
amended to read that con-
verts to Judaism would be
acceptable only "if convert-
ed according to.Jewish law"
(al pi halakha). Since the
Orthodox rabbinate in Israel
has exclusive control of all
matters pertaining to Jewish
law, such an amendment
would mean, in practice, that
any conversion supervised by
non-Orthodox rabbis would
not be recognized, regardless
of whether or not the conver-
sion met the standards of
Jewish law.
With the formation of a
new government in Israel,
the controversy has been re-
Stamps and Homing Birds
By DAVID ScHWARTZ
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
32890 Capitol Ave.
,..11/12;iiiiiI14,rW..tel,
With the price of stamps
having risen, there is some-
thing of a mail crisis. Some
have expressed the fear that
the gas and electric company
and even the installment
houses may soon stop send-
ing bills.
It has been suggested that
perhaps we should return .to
the use of birds for commun-
ication. Noah got good results
with a dove, when the postal
system was disrupted by the
flood. It is said the Roths-
childs got their start using
homing pigeons to get the
first news of the defeat of
Napoleon, enabling them to
cash in on the Stock Ex-
change.
James Gordon Bennett,
publisher of the New York
Herald, got many scoops by
building up his pigeon carry-
ing news service, getting .
"scoops" thereby over other
newspapers.
Homing pigeons would pro-
vide cheaper service. What
does a pigeon need? A few
crumbs of bread and the pi-
geons don't have any unions.
Of course, times are differ-
ent from what they were in
Bennett's day. Probably if
we used pigeons today we
would find that they too
would unionize, demand
cake instead of bread and
also fringe benefits such as
more trees over park
benches. -
The invention. of the tele-
graph put the pigeons out of
business. No town soon was
without a telegraph office.
In any good sized town there
Europe Out-Phoned
TEL AVIV (ZINS) — The
ministry of communications
reports there are 21 tele-
phones for every 100 resi-
dents, a ratio higher than
that of England, France, or
Germany. There are now
500,000 telephones installed
in Israel, with a waiting list
of 140,000. Every new in-
stallation entails a capital
outlay by the state of IL
10,000 ($2,500).
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 5, 1974-53
were many, but today it is
heartbreaking to see what
happened to a great business.
The few telegraph offices that
exist have turned to singing
Happy Birthday, and selling
candy.
The telegraph was killed
by_the telephone. Alexander
Graham Bell had read the
story of Paul Revere in the
American Revolution. Revere
was a dentist. He was work-
ing on an extraction and in
the middle he had to let go,
jump on his horse and go
shouting "The British are
coming." It broke Bell's
heart. If Revere had a tele-
phone, he could have called
Sam Adams and in a minute
the Minutemen would have
been ready. So Bell invented
the telephone. But the Brit-
ish stopped coming, so it
didn't help much.
After the telephone, an
Englishman, Maxwell, math-
ematically figured out there
must be radio waves. Then
a German Jew, Heinrich
Hertz, produced the Hertz-
ian waves, than an Italian
Gugliemo Marconi took the
final step and lo there was
the wireless!
But the end is not yet.
Mark Twain found he could
write a letter and not put a
stamp on it and not even
send it and it got there any-
way. He said the act of writ-
ing seemed to carry the
thoughts by telepathy. He
said just tear up a letter to
someone and that someone
will answer nevertheless. He
had that experience.
Among Jews, if your ears
tingle, they say, someone is
thinking of you.
Einstein expressed a belief
in the possibility: of telepath-
ic communication. He noted
that the existence of electric
currents and radio waves had
also been .ri d i c u.l e d. He
thought it was possible that
there are human emanations
of which we are ignorant.
Telepathy would be the
ideal solution for the Post
Office problem. You wouldn't
need . any stamps and you
wouldn't worry about spelling
and if the gas company sent
you a bill, you could tele-
pathically tell them what you
think of them.'
,
newed. The ruling Labor
Party apparently cannot
maintain a workable major-
ity in parliament without the
votes of the National Reli-
gious Party. This party wants
to exact a price from Mrs.
Meir and her colleagues for
their participation in the new
government: an amendment
to the Law of Return which
would disqualify conversions
by non-Orthodox rabbis.
Diaspora Jews, especially
in North America, are af-
filiated in overwhelming
numbers with the Conserva-
tive and Reform movements.
Conservative and Reform
congregations and leaders
provide the bulkof the sup-
porters of_Israel. Thus the
legitimacy and the status of
the majority of the Jewish
religious community would
be seriously challenged if the
Israel government succumbs
to Orthodox pressure by
amending the Law of Return,
making it impossible for
converts brought into Juda-
ism by non-Orthodox rabbis
to claim Israel citizenship
under Israeli law. Such a
denial of legitimacy to the
religious leaders of the ma-
jority of American. Jews
would severely strain the re-
lationship of world Jewry
With the Jewish state, at a
time when unity is needed
more than ever. Requiring
Jews converted by non-
Orthodox rabbis to submit to
another ceremony before be-
ing allowed to claim Israeli
citizenship under the Law of
Return would represent an
intolerable situation.
Because of these congider-
ations, the Reform and Con-
servative movements have
vigorously opposed any
change -in the status quo.
Their position does not imply
a denial of the authority of
Jewish law. Conservative
rabbis, for example, insist
upon the traditional require-
ments for conversion: the
acceptance of Jewish beliefs
and practices, ritual immer-
sion (tevilla) and, for males,
ritual circumcision. In many
localities, the Reform and
Conservative m o v e m e n t s
jointly sponsor classes for
converts. The differences of
interpretation and of em-
phasis do not represent a
denial of the force of Jewish
law (halakha) in the area of
conversion to Judaism.
The fact that the religious
establishment in Israel is
controlled- exclusively by Or-
thodox rabbis and the refusal
of the Israel's chief rab-
binate to recognize Conser-
vative and Reform Judaism
as legitimate expressions of
Jewish faith, make it neces-
sary for the Israel govern-
ment to retain the present
wording of the Law of Re-
turn, which recognizes con-
versions to Judaism by any
recognized rabbi, Orthodox
or non-Orthodox. A sur-
render to the pressures of
the National Religious Party_
and its allies calling for an
amendment to that law would
disrupt the close ties which
bind world Jewry with the
state of Israel.
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