CO ME IN AND SEE
expect the proposed change to widen
the rift between the Reform and other
movements.
"This part in the process of Jewish
identity more accurately reflects the
needs of our community," he said.
Stahl agreed: "It was done more for
our benefit than inter-group rela-
tions."
Until 1983, the Reform movement
had no official policy on children of
mixed marriages. A resolution to use
the term "patrilineal descent" was
adopted that year, confirming the
Jewish status of a child born to a
Jewish father and non-Jewish mother.
However, that child would need an
"appropriate and timely public formal
acts of identification to establish that
status," according to the committee
report that studied the resolution of
Jewish descent. Those formal acts
include circumcisions, baby namings,
consecrations, bar or bat mitzvahs and
confirmations. However, the same
committee is looking for clarification
from the executive board in November
on these acts.
Jewish education is considered an
act of identification, but, Stahl said,
"That could mean reading just one
Jewish book. That doesn't constitute a
Jewish education."
Congregation B'nai Moshe Rabbi
Elliot Pachter respects the Reform's
right to make a policy switch, but sees
the overall picture as "confusing."
"It's an unfortunate confusion, and
if I had my Wishes, they wouldn't have
this policy," said the Conservative
rabbi. "It may not cause any more of a
rift, but it's confusing when one
denomination says you're Jewish, and
another says you're not."
Pachter assumes that the switch to
the rerm "equilineal" is a move to clear
up the issue, saying that "patrilineal"
may assume that the child would be
Jewish only if the father was.
Pachter acknowledged there are
Jewish children of patrilineal descent
in the Conservative movement. "We
want to enable to conversion to take
place in order for the children to be
raised Jewish," he said. "As long as the
mother is willing to participate and
raise the children as Jews, we will offi-
ciate the conversion."
Rabbi Eliezer Cohen of the
Orthodox Or Chadash understands
the move to be an attempt to clarify
the status of children born of either a
Jewish mother or father, but, "Jewish
law is very clear that the status of the
mother determines the religion of the
child." ❑
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1998
Detroit Jewish News
21