20
Friday, September 14, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Continued from Page 16
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EAST AFRICA — October 21-November 3, 1984 — escorted by Milt and Terry Rotenberg of
Gemini Travel and accompanied by naturalist Lynne Leakey.
"HOLYLAND AND GREEK ISLES" CRUISE on the elegant
ROYAL ODYSSEY May 15-29, 1985
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would "jeopardize the sense of sol-
idarity that binds the Jewish
people everywhere to the State of
Israel."
Of course the writers of this de-
claratoin included all sorts of dis-
claimers. The text spoke of a "vi-
tal symbiotic relationship with Is-
rael," "sense of solidarity," "nur-
turing relationship." But we all
know the implications; they have
been stated privately already.
They include withholding or re-
ducing financial support and
political/communal splits with Is-
rael.
The Conservative and Reform
movements have a legitimate
beef. Israel's democratic process
should not be used to get a
politically-dictated statement
that deligitimates non-Orthodox
spiritual leadership and conver-
sions. Therefore I personally, as
an Orthodox rabbi, issued a sepa-
rate statment supporting their
protest. But the escalation to
jeopardizing solidarity with Israel
is off the wall.
Mind you — they are fighting to
preserve the present law which
gives the Orthodox rabbinate the
authority and forces non-
Orthodox rabbis to follow
Halachic standards to get their
converts recognized. What is
more, there cannot be much more
than five people a year affected by
this status issue — and maybe
less. (The Israeli rabbinate does
not release figures.)
There are possibly 10,000 con-
verts a year in the United States.
The aliyah rate of American Jews
is about 1/20 of one percent an-
nually. If converts go on aliyah at
the same rate as other American
Jews, that would mean five people
a year are involved.
This estimate is probably too
generous. Aliyah is directly re-
lated to a highter level of obser-
vance and Jewish education. Or-
thodox day school graduates go on
aliyah at a rate four times higher
than average Jews (albeit at a
very low rate themselves). So the
convert's rate of aliyah is prob-
ably lower than the overall
American Jewish ratio.
The number involved is prob-
ably even lower than my figures
since the Orthodox themselves
convert some percentage of the
converts annually. The best proof
is that in all the furor here, no
lists or names of good Jews, living
good Jewish lives, but converted
by Reform or Conservative rabbis,
and denied admission by the Is-
raeli Orthodox rabbinate, have
surfaced. In the 1960s, one
woman, Rina Eitani, who had fol-
lowed ther German Jewish hus-
band to concentration camp, was
denied Jewish status because her
conversion did not meet Orthodox
standards. The news was plas-
tered all over the Israel press and
caused a national uproar.
The non-Orthodox statement
should have said:
"We strongly oppose the
amendment. No politically ex-
torted statement denying the
non-Orthodox spiritual leader-
ship's validity will carry any
moral weight with us or our con-
stituencies anyway.
"We recognize that there is a
will to national unity in the Is-
raeli public and we stand ready to
work out a common conversion
procedure that could meet
standards held in common.
"Nothing can break our solidar-
ity with Israel. For God's sake, let
us all together keep Israel out of
the crossfire of denominational
politics."
And the groups should actively
follow up — between crises — and
keep the heat on for a common
conversion process. American Re-
form, in particular, has been
going its own way on conversion
standards and expanded out-
reach. American Reform is
legitimately demanding full re-
spect in Israel, but has not fully
responded to the will for unified
standards which the Israeli pub-
lic, including Israeli Reform,
validly prefers.
As it stands now, a law of gigan-
tic moral stature — one that
guarantees haven for any Jew
anywhere in the world — and the
historic post-Holocaust American
Jewish unity around Israel are
being chipped away for pygmy
considerations. The federations
have sidestepped the issue for fear
of the divisiveness, but the issue is
getting steadily more inflamed.
American Jews should put di-
rect pressure — including finan-
cial and moral — on all the de-
nominations' spiritual leadership
to get together and work out
common conversion. And leave
loyalty to Irael out of it.
Copyright 1984, National Jewish
Resource Center.
Cruise and Keep Fit!
Exercies with NAOMI DWORKIS
Aboard the R C L "Song of America"
February 17-24, 1985
"ORIENT ESCAPADE" — 22 days — September 28, 1985
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Some 2,000 demonstrators marched outside the Knesset in August to
protest against the policies of newly-elected MK Meir Kahane and his
Kach Party.