THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

48 Friday, March 1, 1980

Readers Forum

Materials submitted to the Readers Forum must be brief. The writer's name will be withheld from publication upon
request. No unsigned letters will be published. Materials will not be returned unless a stamped, self-addressed envelope is
,enclosed,

The Controversy Over Jewish Conversion

Editor, The Jewish News:
In the Feb. 15 issue you
covered the annual winter
meeting of the Bnai Brith.
At that meeting they re-
solved that conversion ac-
cording to Jewish law was a
deterent to Jewish unity. It
would ultimately sap Is-
rael's centrality in world
Jewish life," they assert.
Have we come to the point

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where major Jewish organ-
izations think they can buy
Judaism and Israel because
they are there? Judaism is a
religion of Revealed Law,
however you interpret it,
and Israel is a Jewish state
where Jews are building a
Jewish society.
If American Jews are dis-
turbed by the rising rate of
intermarriage and the Re-
form and Conservative
movements are accom-
modating themselves, why
should Israelis cooperate in
this supreme form of Jewish
suicide.
In a Jewish state,
Judaism ought to count for
something, and jittery
American Jewish leaders
needn't meddle where they
don't belong.
Zev Davis
(Editor's note: Accord-
ing to the Feb. 15 article,

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'Bnai Brith has called on
Israel to reject any legis-
lative attempts to limit
the Law of Return solely
to Orthodox Jews, term-
ing such a move ill-
considered and denial of
those rights that 'Israel
has properly recognized
for the Jewish people as a
whole.' ")

* * *

Second View

Editor, The Jewish News:
In your issue of Feb. 15,
1980, you featured a front
page article on the resolu-
tion of the Bnai Brith Board
of Governors which de-
nounces the actions of Or-
thodox Jewry in urging the
Israeli government to
amend the "law of return" to
require conversion accord-
ing to Halakha and there-
fore refuse validity to con-
version by other than Or-
thodox Rabbis.
Orthodox Jewry accepts
conversion as eminating
from and defined by Divine

precept — no human can
change it. The resolution
demands Orthodox Jewry to
forego this principle so as to
recognize the right of an-
other Jew to violate it. Fail-
ure to do so, constitutes in-
tolerance.
In Vienna, and I suppose
elsewhere, Reform rabbis
printed certificates which
they sold for $5, which con-
stitute conversion upon the
signing thereof, (such cer-
tificate is in my possession).
It is nothing but a state-
ment that henceforth one
shall be a Jew; persons so
converted have entered Is-
rael as Jews, in the hun-
dreds.
Some of them married
Jews, posing as Jews. In
Halakha, this is a mixed
marriage. If this type of
convert is a woman, the
offspring are not Jewish.
How can aJew view this in-
differently? Bnai Brith
leadership does not bother
to analyze these problems in
depth, they act impulsively.
I.R. Starr

Add Yiddishkeit to Census

Editor, The Jewish News:
According to recent arti-
cles by Boris Smolar,
"Jewish leaders did not do a
thing about putting the
Jewish nationality (ethnic
background) into the census
form."
However, there is a way
each self-respecting Jeiv
can give his nationality as
Jewish (or Israelite), his
language as Yiddish or He-
brew.
Instead of speaking in
generalities, let's have a
look at the forms:
Question 11 asks "In
what state or foreign coun-
try was this person born?"
Persons (Jews) born
outside the United States
or Israel may disregard
the question (not to con-
fuse place of birth with
nationality).
Questions 13a and 13b
ask, "Does this person speak
a language other than
English at home? What is

this language?"
It is in our interest to give
the language Yiddish, or
better Hebrew.
The main problem is
Question 14, which asks,
"What is this person's an-
cestry?"
The best answer wot
be Israelite. If someone
tries to confuse Jewish-
ness with religion (reli-
gion is absent in the form)
the simplest answer to it
wourd—be that for reli-
gious affiliation. It would
be (Jewish) Orthodox,
(Jewish) Conservative of
(Jewish) Reform. The
same as (Christian)
Catholic, (Christian)
Baptist, (Christian)
Methodist, and so on.
Of course, persons (Jews)
who do not have self respect,
and/or Jewish pride "can
write whatever they want
— until somebody else tells
them who they are!
A. Lavan
Atlanta, Ga.

* * *

Jewish Marriage, Divorce
Data Is Asked by Student
Omitting the Facts on Israel Editor,
formation in regard to the
The Jewish News:

* * *

Editor, The Jewish News:
George F. Kennan says
that it is a "naive hope that
the Arab states could be in-
duced, just by the shock of
Afghanistan, to forget their
differences with Israel and
to join us in an effort to con-
tain the supposedly
power-mad Russians." In
1947, Mr. Kennan's famous
"Mr. X" article in "Foreign
Affairs" helped to alert
Americans to the need of
containing Soviet expan-
sionism.
Less famous is the report
he prepared for the secre-
tary of state on the position
of the U.S. with respect to
Palestine in his capacity as
director of the policy plan-
ning staff. This was on what
should be the U.S. reaction
to the Nov. 29, 1947 UN
Palestine partition recom-
mendation.

"The Arabs of Palestine
and the Arab states have
uniformly and consistently
maintained their un-
equivocal opposition to any
form of partition," he said
then. Today he taxes us for
"our involvement in a
wholly unstable Israeli-
Arab relationship," from
which, it may be deduced,
the peace treaty between Is-
rael and Egypt is not
entirely real.
According to President
Carter, in his State of the
Union address:" The peace
treaty between Egypt and
Israel is a notable achieve-
ment which represents a
strategic asset for America
and which also enhances
prospects for regional and
world peace."

The report Mr. Kennan
wrote, dated Jan. 19,

1948, purporting to con-
sider the security inter-
ests of the U.S. with re-
spect to Palestine was
thorough when it came to
all the arguments why
the U.S. should withdraw
support from the state of
Israel but completely
omitted the arguments in
favor of Israel.

For example, it com-
pletely ignored the U.S.
treaty relationship with the
Palestine Mandate, a treaty
between the U.S. and Brit-
ain signed in London on
Dec. 3, 1924, "Convention
Defining the Rights of Na-
tionals in Palestine." It was
by dint of this treaty that
the U.S. became a signatory
of the Palestine Mandate,
and Mr. Kennan might at
least have mentioned it.

He did include all the ar-
guments of the oil industry,
the military establishment
and Middle Eastern dip-
lomats proving that Israel
would become an intoler-
able "burden" to the U.S.
probably requiring the dis-
patch of American troops to
rescue the Israelis from
Arab massacre.

Nevertheless President
Truman gave de facto
recognition to the state of
Israel and today President
Carter regards it as a
"strategic asset." What
must particularly affront
Mr. Kennan is the peace
treaty with Egypt after his
absolute certainty that
recognition of Jewish rights
in the Middle East to a land
of their own could not possi-
bly emanate from any Arab
source.
Sidney Koretz
Arlington, Va.

As a law student at Case
Western Reserve Univer-
sity I am researching the
enforceability of ketubot
and gittin (Jewish marriage
contracts and bills of di-
vorce) in American courts of
law.
As part of that research I
am interested in obtaining
certain information, not
available through means of
traditional legal research,
as follows:
• Specific legal difficul-
ties, successes, and failures
encountered by individuals
and batai din in enforcing
provisions of a ketuba or get
or in obtaining a get from a
husband who refuses or is
unable to issue one.
• Texts of unpublished,
unreported decisions by
American courts of law re-
lating to the above.
I would appreciate any-
one having first-hand in-

Growing Debt

TEL AVIV (ZINS) — Is-
rael's foreign debt totaled
$17 billion in March 1979,
compared to $13.8 billion in
March 1978. This amounts
to $4,500 per Israeli.
A Davar writer calcu-
lated that Israel received
$1.8 billion in U.S. foreign
aid, but had to make foreign
debt payments of $2.2 bil-
lion.

HIAS Will Cite
Stuart Eizenstat

NEW YORK — Stuart E.
Eizenstat, assistant to the
President for domestic af-
fairs, will be the principal
speaker and recipient of the
Centennial Award at the
HIAS Centennial Dinner,
March 23, at the Waldorf
Astoria, in New York.

above contacting me with
such information as soon as
possible. Upon request, in-
fromation obtained will be
kept confidential.
Avram Sacks
3382 Beechwood Ave.
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
44118

* * *

Wallenberg
Letters Urged

Editor, The Jewish News:
Our latest information
indicates that the most ef-
fective means of com-
municating our concern for
the plight of Raoul Wallen-
berg at this time is by send-
ing a Western Union tele-
gram, night letter or mail-
gram (the latter to Wash-
ington D.C. only).
If at all possible please
send a brief message con-
veying your concern for
Raoul Wallenberg, the vast
amount of evidence point-
ing to his continued impris-
onment and your hope tb
he will be quickly a
quietly released to:
Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet
Embassy
1125 16th St. N.W.,
Washington D.C. 20036
and to:
Yuri V. Andropov, State
Committee of Defense
2 Dzerzhinski Pl.,
Moscow. 101,000, USSR
The cost of a night letter
to the USSR is $2.92 for 21
words, 13 cents for each
additional word. The cost of
a mailgram to Washington
D.C. is $2.80 for 50 words.
Thank you again for your
invaluable assistance in
this effort. Shalom.
Annette Lantos
P.O. Box 611
Burlingame, Calif. 94010

