U
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 15, 1983 5
Reform Decision on Patrilineal Descent Criticized
By RABBI JACK
GOLDMAN
In the April 8 issue of The
Jewish News, Dr. Trude
Weiss-Rosmarin, editor of
the Jewish Spectator, reacts
to the decision of the Reform
rabbinate to recognize as
Jewish the children of a
mixed marriage in which
the father is a Jew, but the
mother is a gentile.
According to Jewish law,
as formulated in the
Shulhan ' Arukh, the
Halakha deems such a child
non-Jewish because, in the
eyes of the law, in a mixed
marriage, the child retains
the faith of the mother, un-
less he formally converts to
Judaism, like any other
gentile.
Dr. Weiss-Rosmarin goes
through a lengthy examina-
tion of the issues involved,
presenting what seems to be
a scholarly evaluation of the
historic and legal implica-
tions of this change. She as-
serts that the law which as-
signed religious identifica-
tion to matrilineal descent
was cogent and reasonable
when Jews practiced
polygamy, a mode of life
done away with almost
1,000 years ago.
She expresses the feel-
ing that, for contempor-
ary Jewry, it is incongru-
ous for such arcane
judgments to impose
themselves upon us. She
posits, "It is time for rein-
terpreting Halakha and
giving the father equal
rights for transmitting
Jewish identity to his
children."
With all due respect, Dr.
Weiss-Rosmarin has mis-
construed the entire issue.
The matrilineal identity of
the child in a mixed mar-
riage has absolutely noth-
ing to do with polygamy,
and all her citation of bibli-
cal, talmudic and contem-
porary sources simply blur
the key issues in the case.
There is no Halakhic in-
strument that can unite in
wedlock a Jew with a non-
Jew. Consequently, when a
Jew unites with a non-Jew
in a conjugal relationship
that union is outside of the
law. There is no Kidushin,
the children born of such a
union must be regarded in a
different light from the con-
sideration given to children
normally born among Jews.
Normally, Jewish chil-
dren follow patrilineal des-
cent. If the father of a child
was a Kohen or a Levi, the
child will be the same, re-
gardless of the mother's
lineage. But in a mixed
marriage, there has already
been a moral impropriety.
The partners of the mar-
riage have flaunted their
disregard for the Halakha
They have eschewed the
moral guidelines of Jewish
law.
Under those condi-
tions, the Halakha rea-
sons that one can never
be certain of the identity
of the father of the child.
Consequently, we cannot
assign lineage to the
father! All we have to go
on is the fact that we see
the child come into the
world from the womb of
the mother; therefore, we
assign its descent to her.
The question of the sen-
timental value of maternal
love, the question of equal
rights for fathers, the ques-
tion of the nuclear family
unity are all universally
irrelevant to the issue.
What is at stake is the
fact that children regarded form temples as bona fide
by Jewish law as gentiles Jews, thus further com-
will be welcomed into Re- plicating _
the already chao-
tic question of Jewish iden-
tity, both in the Diaspora
and in the state of Israel
DIAMOND
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Austrian General Linked
to Nazis Will Retain Post
VIENNA (JTA) — Chan-
cellor Bruno Kreisky has re-
fused to dismiss Gen. Ernest
Bernadiner, commander-
in-chief of the Austrian
army who, was recently ex-
posed as having been a
leader of an outlawed Nazi
military group which
helped pave the way for the
Anschluss before World
War II.
Bernadiner, 63, admitted
joining the National-
sozialistische soldatenring
(National Socialist Soldiers
Ring) in 1937, the year be-
fore Hitler annexed Au-
stria, after the conservative
news weekly Wochenpresse
found his name on an old
membership list.
The name was mispelled,
which apparently accounts
for the fact that Ber-
nadiner's affiliation was
unknown to the public until
now, although it was known
to the Austrian authorities
after the war.
The Soldatenring con-
sisted of Nazi-minded
army officers and cadets
who spread Nazi prop-
aganda in the Austrian
army. Bernadiner held
the rank of "grupen-
fuehrer." He claims now
that it was only an hon-
orary title. Of 2,128 offi-
cers in the Austrian army
at the time, only 219 be-
longed to this group
which was branded il-
legal by the pre-war Au-
strian government.
Article 12 of the Austrian
State Treaty after World
War II bars former mem-
bers of. the Soldatenring
from serving in the army.
Bernadiner said he re-
ceived an exculpation cer-
tificate in 1950 from the city
of Salzburg and that the
amnesty extended for
former Nazis in 1957 nul-
lified Article 12. This is le-
gally correct but morally
questionable, according to
Wochenblatt which noted
that Bernadiner was re-
sponsible for drilling and
indoctrination recruits to
the Nazi group and ob-
served that a man with such
a past cannot set a good
example for democracy.
Kreisky said at a press
conference last Friday that
he had not been aware of
Bernadiner's membership
in the Soldatenring when he
was named commander of
the army two years ago, but
"I admit it wouldn't have
bothered me if I had known
it." He noted that the gen-
eral was only 18 when he
joined the group and that he
had been pardoned by law
after the war.
Bernadiner admitted to
the Wochenpresse that he
had found Nazi ideas at-
tractive when he was 18;
"but in 1942, at the latest,
I realized the whole
background of the Nazi
story and I had a differ-
ent view about it," he
said.
Kreisky's position on the
matter recalled his defense
of Friedrich Peter, a leading
Austrian politician and
former member of a notori-
ous SS brigade, when he
was exposed by Nazi hunter
Simon Wiesenthal in 1975.
Bernadiner is a member of
Peter's rightist Freedom
Party. •
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