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Wish someone a sweet year with a basket or tray ofgourmet cookies and brownies 855-1605 Delivery Availabre Mondays, September 13 - October 1, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Getting to Know Your Christian Neighbors: Why? Barry's Let's Rent It Rev. James Lyons PARTIES EXCLUSIVELY The Roman Catholic Church • Tents • Tables • Chairs • China • Paper Goods Rev. Monsignor Leonard Blair The Protestant Liturgical Church Tradition 4393 ORCHARD LAKE RD, N. OF LONE PINE IN CROSSWINDS 855-0480 Rev. Dr. James Wallis The Protestant Free Church Tradition Rev. Carol McVetty Tuition: $25.00 for Temple Members; $37.50 for non-members After September 6, $30.00 for Temple members; $42.50 for non-members To register call the Temple Emanu-El Education Center at 967-4023 Temple Emanu-El • 14450 West Ten Mile Road (East of Greenfield) Ceramic Tile Marble Granite Whirlpool Tubs Faucets Bath Accessories CERAMIC TILE SALES TJ Marble and Granite Shop 23455 Telegraph Rd. North of / Mile in Southfield 356-6430 Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. Call 354-6060 Jewish Status Cases Must Be Explained Jerusalem (JTA) — In a case pitting secular and religious laws against each other, the Supreme Court has ordered the Interior Ministry to ex- plain within 45 days why it relies on the rabbinic courts to determine the Jewish sta- tus of immigrants. The order came in re- sponse to a petition filed by the Reform Movement's Re- ligious Action Center, which claims that the Orthodox- controlled Interior Ministry and the rabbinic courts are exceeding their proper au- thority. The petition also charges that the attorney general failed to exercise his au- thority to prevent the ac- tions of the ministry and the religious courts. The center's petition was filed jointly with Yelena Mazibovksy, who im- migrated here last year. During the process of ap- plying for citizenship, she was referred by the Interior Ministry's population registry to the rabbinic courts to determine the authenticity of her claim to be Jewish. But according to Rabbi Uri Regev, the center's director, the determination of Jew- ishness in the population registry is a civil and secular matter under Israeli law, over which the rabbinic courts have no jurisdiction. He said the rabbinic courts have "incidental authority" over determining Jewish status only in certain matters. Questions about the legality of a marriage, for example, do fall under their jurisdiction. But the Interior Ministry's practice, he said, shows that there is "collusion by the civil and religious au- thorities to invest" the rab- binic courts "with powers that the legislation has never given them." Rabbi Regev said he has been corresponding with At- torney General Yosef Harish for more than two years, try- ing to get him to stop the Interior Ministry's practices, but has so far not received a satisfactory response. What Rabbi Regev terms "most infuriating" about the Interior Ministry's actions is that they apparently con- travene a 1991 Supreme Court ruling that the min- istry "has no business refer- ring immigrants to the rab- Uri Regev: Courts exceed their authority. binic courts and the courts have no jurisdiction" over the matter. In that case, the Interior Ministry referred to the rab- binic courts the case of an immigrant American Jewish couple wanting to register their adopted infant, who had undergone an Orthodox conversion in the United States. The rabbinic courts deem- ed the couple insufficiently observant and rejected the conversion as illegitimate. The Supreme Court, said Rabbi Regev, has consistent- The Interior Ministry has to explain within 45 days why it relies on the rabbinic courts to determine the Jewish status of immigrants. ly ruled that the Law of Return and the population registry are civil matters that do not stem from halachah, or traditional Jewish law, and are not lim- ited by halachic definitions of who is a Jew. "Ours is not a petty peti- tion dealing with for- malities," said Rabbi Regev: Rather it deals with the "denial of rights of new im- migrants to be treated ac- cording to the intent of the law," he said. ❑