Fire And Lace
Continued from preceeding page
He speaks of them almost
like a diary.
"I'm writing about my own
experience," he says. "And
each person can translate it
into his own language. I
write a love poem about
what I know, and then
everyone applies it to his
own life.
"I think of poetry as a kind
of architecture, and each
person must build on it."
Amichai will return soon
to Israel. His pipe in hand,
he'll take with him experi-
ences that will be woven into
poetry, and his well-worn
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NOTEBOOK I
A Breakthrough In
Resolving Who Is A Jew?
Orthodox, Conservative and Reform
representatives in America are close to
agreement on a joint formula to deal with
Israeli conversions.
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26
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1989
copies of already published
books.
One of those books, Travels
contains a poem about his
feelings for Israel:
I did not kiss the earth
when they brought me, a
child, to this country.
But now that I have grown
upon it
it kisses me
it holds me
it clings to me in love
with its grass and thorns,
sand and stone
with its wars and with its
spring
until its last kiss. ❑
American Heart
Association
WE'RE FIGHTING FCR vOuR UFE
epresentatives of the
Orthodox, Conserva-
tive and Reform
branches of Judaism are
very close to an agreement
on a joint document for con-
versions in Israel that could
be a model for resolving the
Who Is A Jew controversy.
Negotiations have been
taking place in private in
Jerusalem and New York
over the last six months at
the initiation of Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir. After a false start
last November, Shamir de-
cided to work through the
heads of the three major
rabbinic seminaries in
America: Yeshiva Universi-
ty, which is Orthodox; the
Jewish Theological Semi-
nary (Conservative); and the
Hebrew Union College (Re-
form). They, in turn, ap-
pointed Rabbi Louis Berns-
tein, a Yeshiva University
professor and Mizrachi
leader, of New York, repre-
senting Orthodoxy; Rabbi
Shammai Friedman, of Je-
rusalem, representing the
Conservative movement;
and Rabbi Walter Jacob, of
Pittsburgh, vice president of
the Reform movement's
Central Conference of Amer-
ican Rabbis.
The talks are being
chaired by Elyakim Rubens-
tein, secretary to the Israeli
cabinet, and are attended by
a liaison to the chief rab-
binate.
The purpose of the talks is
to avoid another showdown
over a proposed amendment
to Israel's Law of Return
which would stipulate that
converts must be converted
"according to Halachah,"
traditional Jewish law.
There was great concern last
winter, as Israel's major par-
ties were wooing small reli-
gious parties in hopes of
forming a coalition, that any
change in the Law of Return
would alienate non-
Orthodox Jews in the Dias-
pora by, in effect,
delegitimizing their rabbis.
The current plan would
deal only with those poten-
tial converts who want to
live in Israel, a number that
usually does not exceed a
dozen a year. But what is
significant is that the three
branches of Judaism are
working together on a joint
formula, and that the formu-
la appears to coincide with
halachic requirements.
Essentially, the formula
now calls for the three
movements to establish a
joint commission in New
York to review applicants
for conversion and recom-
mend them to a Bet Din, or
religious tribunal, to be des-
ignated by a representative
of the Chief Rabbinate. The
Chief Rabbinate would
assign a rabbinic attache to
its consulate in New York to
deal with such matters.
The joint commission
would follow the Shulchan
Aruch, the Code of Jewish
Law that guides traditional
Judaism, and would provide
each of the three rabbinic
representatives the right to
veto any potential convert.