16 Friday, September 14, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Parents, High School Juniors, Seniors and College Students COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID IS AVAILABLE Over $135, million dollars of potential student aid goes unclaimed every year. For assistance in your search for college or vocational financial aid money (schol- arships, loans, grants, job oriented and special interest group sources) call STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES for a no obligation initial consultation. At Student Financial Assistance Services your financial aid search is based on individual planning following an in depth applicant interview. 9 A.M.-5 P.M. 553-2490 yr ir 41 40 isor iGI ASS FACTORY OUTLET ETC. PER SALE YS S savE 70% and MORE! 3 GLASSWARE • DINNERWARE • FLATWARE • COOKWARE • CRYSTAL • GIFTS • ETC., ETC., ETC. 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BET. 12 & 13 MILE, NEXT TO RICHARD SIMMONS. (313) 559-3666 OPEN SUNDAY • 12 • S PM DAILY - 10 AM . 9 PM EVERY DAY IS SALE DAY ON EVERYTHING will make personal appearances on September 14, 15 & 16 Bring Your Cameras and A Friend HAVE YOUR CTURE TAKEN WITH THE BIALOSKY BEAR FOR COME MEET BIALOSKY BEAR STUFFED SAFARI INC. 31065 Orchard Lake Road At Hunter Square Farmington Hills, MI 48018 Who is a Jew? BY IRVING GREENBERG Special to The Jewish News Good thru Sun. Sept. 16 AND TRUE OPINION per set REIKES TEMPERED GLASS Colony • Durand • Mikasa • Oneida • Nikko • Plalygraff • Stanley Roberts • Johnson Bros. • Towle • Toscany • W.M. Faraver • etc., etc.. etc. THE BIALOSKY BEAR Two Nigerian businessmen meet with President Chaim Herzog of Israel during a trade mission in August. $100 Friday, Sept. 14th 10:30-11:30 A.M. 1:30-2:30 P. M . 6:30-8:00 P.M. Saturday, Sept. 15th 10:30-11:30 A.M. 1-2 P.M., 3-4 P.M. Sunday, Sept. 16th 1-2 P.M. & 3-4 P.M. If the Who Is a Jew?" issue were a commercial product, the F.T.C. would have long ago slap- ped a cease and desist order on the purveyors on the grounds of con- sumer fraud. The Orthodox are campaigning to change a law which currently puts them in charge. They want to insert the phrase al pi halacha (according to Hlacha) into the Law of Return so that all converts who would be recognized as Jews (and auto- matically gain citizenship under the Law) would ;have to have been converted in accordance with Halachic requirements. But al pi halacha is exactly the present condition in Israel. When converts apply for Israeli citizen- ship, an Orthodox rabbi checks them out and their conversion must meet Halachic standards. Yet the Orthodox continue to press for the amendment. The issue has brought down govern- ment in Israel; full page ads have been taken out in the New York Times. If it ain't broke, why are they fixing it? The answer is that this is a mat- ter of internal Orthodox politics. In the 1970s, when Russian Jews were coming to Israel in large numbers, the (Zionist) Orthodox Rabbinate converted many of their spouses. This was done in accordance with Halachic proce- dures, but they did not exclude those people who they knew would not observe all the laws of Judaism after conversion. the right-wing Orthodox who believe that only observance will preserve Judaism and feel less re- spect for Clal Yisrael (the totality of the Jewish people) objected to these conversions. They proposed to add the phrase al pi halacha to the Law, thus implying that the rabbinate was not following Halachic standards by making these concessions. With the amendment, they sought to present themselves as true keeper of the Halacha against the modern Orthodox. As a side issue, they also sought to exclude Conservative and Reform conversions from Diaspora which were accepted by the official Rab- binate if the non-Orthodox Rabbis had followed Halachic require- ments such as circumcision and immersion in a mikvah. The upshot of all this was that Orthodox political leverage in Is- rael was to be exploited to tamper with a law of historic significance to adopt an amendmtn empty of actual Halachic substance whose only real effect would be to insult non-Orthodox rabbis around the world. This, of course, is folly, but the inernal political urgencies dictated going along rather than arguing. After all, a camel is a horse designed by a committee — and no one expected the issue to linger. In the early years the response of American Reform and Conser- vative movements was temper- ate, if not apathetic. Some — most? — of their converts were being accepted and -they did not wat to embroil Israel in religious controversies. In the past decade, however, non-Orthodox Jews haave been escalating the impor- tance of the issue and their anger at a possible change. In the most recent public press conference (Aug. 13) called by an unprecedented coalition of 11 leading American Jewish organ- izations, the language turned into threats. A change in the law Continued on Page 20 (7.