Friday, May 11, 1919 25
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Immoulumos.
Karaim Press for Status in Eyes of Israel's Leaders
By MOSHE RON
The Jewish News Special
Israel Correspondent
A total of 20,000 Karaim
are living in Israel. They
came from Egypt after the
establishment of the state
in 1948.
The call themselves
Karaim as a shortening of
the words "Bnei Hamikra,"
which means that they are
only observing the written
laws of the Torah (Mikra)
and not those issued ver-
bally by the rabbis in the
Mishna, Gemara, Shulhan
Arukh, etc. According to
historians, this branch of
Judaism originated in the
Eighth Century, but he
Karaim maintain, that
their origin dates back to
the times of the First Tem-
ple.
The Karaim demand that
the Israeli government rec-
ognize them as an official
"religious sect" in order to
grant them judicial rights
in their religious affairs. It
means that their sages
should be allowed to marry
and divorce couples of their
sect, etc.
After the visit of Egyp-
tian President Anwar
Sadat in Jerusalem, the
Karaim demanded that
the Israeli government
ask the Egyptians during
peace negotiations to
transfer to Israel histori-
cal Bibles and ritual tools
which they left in Cairo.
The chairman of the
Karaim sect in Israel, Dr.
Michael Kurinalandi, a
lecturer in the Tel Aviv
University, criticized the
Israeli ,grovernment in a
FREEDOM
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▪ FREEDOM CLEANERS — EXPIRES MAY 31, 1979
a
I
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press conference for de-
laying the decision of
granting an official
status to the Karaim sect.
He said, that for 30 years
the sect was not recog-
nized officially.
The Israeli government
15 years ago appointed a
special commission, headed
by Chief Justice Moshe Zil-
berg, to study the problem.
The commission proposed to
establish a legal status for
the Karaim sect in order to
enable it to wed and divorce
and settle personal con-
flicts. But up till today
hardly anything was done
to solve this problem. The
20,000 Karaim still con-
sider themselves as step-
children of the state, though
they fulfill all their duties
towards the state.
The Karaim maintain
that they are part of the
Jewish people, but there are
certain differences. The
Karaim do not put on tefi-
lin, they do not insist on a
minyan for prayers and
they do not recognize
Hanuka as a Jewish holi-
day. Their men have the
right to divorce their wives
against their will and they
have a different approach in
the question of paying
alimony. The first-born is
valued according to the
religion of the father and
not of the mother. They ob-
Magazine Writers
Now Eligible for
'79 Smolar Award
NEW YORK — The 1979
Smolar Award competition
for excellence in North
American Jewish Jour-
nalism has been opened to
writers whose work appears
in magazines as well as in
newspapers. Nominations
for the award are now being
accepted.
Awards will be presented
for excellence in news
coverage, analysis and in-
terpretation; editorial; col-
umns; features, and career
service. Nominations can be
made by newspapers, mag-
azines, journalists, organ-
izations.
In this year's competition,
the Committee decided to
permit writers to enter in
more than one category but
to limit them to submitting
a maximum of five pieces of
writing.
The Smolar Award was
established by the Council
of Jewish Federations in
1972 in honor of Boris Smo-
lar, a distinguished jour-
nalist, author and editor-
in-chief emeritus of the
Jewish Telegraphic
Agency.
.
serve the custom of circum-
cision on the eight day after
birth, but in form of suck-
ing.
The Karaim forbid mar-
riages among relatives. If a
Karai marries a Jewish girl,
he is expelled from the sect.
They strictly observe the
Shabat laws and forbid sex-
ual intercourse on Friday
night. The oldest son gets
two thirds of the inheri-
tance and has more
privileges than the other
sons.
The Karaim wish to
have special religious
courts which could deal
with matters of personal
status. In 1956, when a
trial took place in Cairo
against a group of Jews,
who were accused of spy-
ing for Israel, two Karaim
were sentenced to death
and executed. The
Karaim had hoped then,
that they would be offi-
cially in Israel.
Years later the Karai
Josef Murad appealed to the
chief rabbinical court in Tel
Aviv to arrange his mar-
riage to a Jewish girl. The
court feared a precedent,
and the leaders of the
Karaim sect opposed such a
wedding. Murad had to can-
cel the marriage. There
were cases, in which
Karaim rabbis 'arranged
weddings, but the mar-
riages were not recognized
by the Israeli Ministry for
Religious Affair.s
There were cases, in
which couples did not live
together in harmony. A
Karaim court ordered the
husband to divorce his wife,
but he refused. He appealed
to the High Court in
Jerusalem, stating, that the
Karaim court had no judi-
cial right. It was a compli-
cated case. Because if the
Karaim court had no judi-
cial right to deal with this
matter, it also had no right
to arrange weddings and so
all children from such il-
legal marriages would be
bastards. The High Court in
Jerusalem proposed that
the couple should reach an
agreement about its divorce
by itself. By this way the
question of the status of the '
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Prize Sculpture
NEW YORK (JTA) — Dr.
Maurice Hexter, executive
consultant and former
executive vice president of
the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies of New York
from 1941 to 1967, was
awarded the gold medal by
unanimous vote of the Na-
tional Sculpture Society
jury of awards for a larger
than life-size stone bust of
Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat.
rPASSPORT ,
PHOTOS
IN COLOR
Karaim court in religious
and personal matters was
evaded.
When the Begin govern-
ment got into power, the
Karaim hoped that it would
settle the question of their
status, but the government
is busy with other urgent
matters and could not find
the time to look for a solu-
tion for this matter up till
now. Therefore, the Karaim
renewed the struggle for
their rights.
No Job Too Small
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