NEWS
Conversion Panel Works
Toward Compromise
J.J. GOLDBERG
Special to The Jewish News
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TO ALL OF THE FRIENDS
OF THE LIGHT FAMILY
JUST A LITTLE NOTE TO THANK ALL OF
OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHOSE
PRAYERS AND KIND THOUGHTS FOR
OUR SON, ALAN, HAVE HELPED OUR
FAMILY THROUGH A VERY DIFFICULT
TIME.
ALAN IS ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
AND MAKING GREAT PROGRESS.
YOUR CALLS AND LETTERS WERE
GREATLY APPRECIATED.
LARRY AND MARILYN LIGHT
28
FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 15,_1989
egotiations between
representatives of Or-
thodox, Conservative
and Reform Judaism, held for
the last six months outside
the glare of any publicity
under Israeli government
auspices, reportedly are close
to developing a joint formula
for conversion that could
begin to resolve the "Who is
a Jew" controversy.
"Negotiations are going
on," said Rabbi Walter Jacob
of Pittsburgh, a vice president
of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, who is
negotiating on behalf of the
Reform movement. "Various
proposals exist, but no final
agreement has been reached."
The talks were initiated
last winter by Prime Minister
Yitzchak Shamir. They are
focused on developing a
mutually agreed-upon
mechanism for conversions to
Judaism in the case of per-
sons seeking to settle in
Israel. Such a mechanism, it
is hoped, would sidestep the
demand by some Orthodox
groups for an amendment to
Israel's Law of Return speci-
fying that immigrant con-
verts must be converted "ac-
cording to Halachah," or
traditional rabbinic law, as it
is interpreted by the Or-
thodox rabbinate.
The Law of Return grants
certain privileges to Jewish
immigrants to Israel. It
defines as a Jew a person born
of a Jewish mother or con-
verted, but does not set down
standards for conversion.
Negotiators said they decid-
ed to keep the talks secret
after an earlier round of
negotiations was leaked to
the press last fall and quick-
ly collapsed in disarray. All
requests for details of the
plan under consideration
were turned down.
Negotiators include one
representative from each of
the principal wings of U.S.
Jewry, designated by the
presidents of their respective
seminaries, and two ranking
Israeli government sincere
commitment to resolve the
problem by all sides," said "I
can only tell you that we're
working on it, that we've met
in Jerusalem and in the
United States, and that
there's a sincere commitment
to resolve the problem by all
J.J. Goldberg is associate
editor of The Jewish Week of
New York.
sides," said Rabbi Louis Bern-
stein of Queens, a professor at
Yeshiva University who is
representing mainstream
U.S. Orthodoxy in the talks.
No firm statistics are
available on the number of
Reform and Conservative con-
verts who seek to settle as
Jews in Israel, but most
observers estimate six to 10
per year. Many of those whose
cases have reached Israel's
Supreme Court were persons
who visited Israel as non-
Jews, decided to settle there
and then returned to their
home countries for conver-
sion. They would be covered
by the current proposal.
Ironically, Bernstein said,
the public explosion within
Orthodoxy could have the ef-
fect of speeding up the process
by forcing moderate Orthodox
forces to unite behind their
negotiators' position. "It
could be finished in two
weeks, where we expected it
to take another two years," he
said.
The Conservative move-
ment also is said to be
relatively united behind the
tentative agreement. No such
unity has yet been achieved
within the Reform movement,
however.
Several Reform leaders
questioned on the matter in-
sisted they would not accept
any system that required
their converts to be
"reconverted" by an Orthodox
bet din, comparing the idea to
the "degrading" treatment of
Ethiopian Jews settling in
Israel.
Reform
Nonetheless,
spokesmen agreed they would
have to compromise to reach
an agreement. ❑
French Director
Facing Thal
Paris (JTA) — The govern-
ment has ordered that one of
France's most acclaimed film
directors, Claude Autant-
Lara, be tried for anti-Semitic
incitement.
The 88-year-old filmmaker
also was ousted from the
French Academy of Fine Arts
and resigned his seat in the
Parliament of Europe, which
is based in the French city of
Strasbourg.
Justice Minister Pierre Ar-
paillange announced last Fri-
day that he personally decid-
ed to initiate proceedings
against Autant-Lara for
virulent anti-Semitic
remarks he made in an inter-
view published last Friday in
the leftist monthly Le Globe.