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December 16, 1988 - Image 21

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1988-12-16

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

in accordance to Orthodox
belief and practice? If not, he
is disqualified. In short,
operationally unity means
conformity to a monolithic in-
terpretation • of Jewish law,
practice and belief.
But I am writing out of my
own Jewish philosophic
outlook. I am viewing the en-
tire matter as a Conservative
Jew. What if I were an Or-
thodox Jew? How else could I
think about the Law of
Return? Would I, could I act
or think otherwise were I an
Orthodox rabbi, committed to
an Orthodox understanding
of Halachah? I believe I could
and not by compromising my
Orthodoxy. Halachah is not
without recource to wisdom
and compassion. It has within
it principles and solutions
that address the reality of our
Jewish condition. Some
decisors may be inflexible but
Jewish law is not rigid, im-
pervious to a people's struggle
for survival and the preserva-
tion of its character.
"Beneficence and kindness
are worth as much as the
fulfillment of all the other
commandments of the Torah"
(lbsefta, Peah IV, 18).
It is not openly discussed
but generally acknowledged
that to its credit the Israeli
Orthodox rabbinate found
ways to accommodate the law
to the exigencies of the mo-
ment within the boundaries
of the law. What, for example,
should be done to facilitate
the exodus of Soviet Jews who
had married non-Jewish
spouses and who under the
Law of Return would be de-
nied automatic admittance to
Israel and the rights of Israeli
citizenship? The entire
Jewish emigration to Israel
would be seriously affected
were non-Jewish spouses not
permitted to enter Israel with
their Jewish partners; a
strictly enforced conversion,
however, would exclude the
conversion of those who could
not pledge to be observant
and those who were conver-
ting for the sake of marriage
or Israeli citizenship.
Out of responsibility to
Israel, the Jewish people, and
the importance of aliyah, the
Orthodox rabbinate "coach-
ed" would-be converts, many
gathered in Austria, not to
deny any mitzvah they might
be asked to observe and not to
use marriage or entrance to
Israel as explanatory motives
for conversion. This leniency
accommodated to the "crisis
of the hour," to the emergen-
cy conditions confronting the

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

21

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