The BiG Story Volunteers Needed! (Ages 2-99) Kids on Tour is looking for parents and children to join the traveling volunteer musical revue that brings laughter and love to the elderly. Singers, dancers, choreographers, comics, artists, designers and musicians needed. Carol Blumenstein (248) 539-0538 if interested. Please call at TWO WAYS TO JOIN THE AREAS FINEST TENNIS CLUB! 100 per month for unlimited play or '25 per month and 15 per visit ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ 13 of the finest outdoor Clay Courts Four of the best lighted indoor courts Game arranging Private and group instruction Workout room/fitness center Call (248) 661-2300 for more information or stop to see us at 31031 Drake Rd. oust south of 14 Mile Rd.) • Farmington Hills lEINZ Our Exclusive Service Offers: • Home Space Planning • Packing • Unpacking • • Deluxe Move Packages • "Everything In Place The Day You Move" • Makes Your Life Easy. Ruth Schwartz ASID - IFDA (248) 352-2264 House To House EZ Move Space & Home Planner Professional Interior Designer, 30 years' experience Call for a detailed brochure! 1 ancient Roman law. In Judaism, ever, at the age of bar/bat mitz- personal status is based on blood- vah, the child has the right either : lines. The moment of birth gives a to reaffirm or to protest the conver- Jew his or her identity, which no sion. Many rabbis see the legal procedure or court decree bar/bat mitzvah ceremony itself I can erase. as a reaffirmation, thus giving it I This emphasis on bloodlines has special significance for an adopt- serious consequences for adoption ed child. 1 in Jewish law. For example, the A problem today is that rabbis I religion of a woman establishes of various movements differ on the 1 the identity of her child as Jew or requirements for conversion of an gentile. [Editor's Note: The Reform adopted child born of a gentile Movement also recognizes as Jew- woman. ish a child born of a gentile moth- Many Orthodox rabbis will only ! er and a Jewish father, providing arrange a conversion if the adop- !the child is raised in a Jewish tive parents have made a commit- :home.] IF the mother is Jewish, ment to Jewish observance, includ- 1 then the father's status as a Kohen, ing observance of the Shabbat 1 Levi or Yisrael decides the child's and the dietary laws and a yeshi- 1 tribe. And if the mother became va education for the child. Many pregnant as a result of an affair or of these same rabbis will not rec- I incest, the child takes on the status ognize conversions performed by 1 of a mamzer, which would affect . non-Orthodox rabbis. Often, they his ability to marry within the tradi- control the community mikvah and tional Jewish community. It is for : will not permit its use for non- I this reason that many Orthodox Orthodox conversions. 1 rabbis counsel Jewish couples to All Orthodox and Conservative adopt a child born of a gentile rabbis, and many Reconstruction- 1 birth mother. ist and Reform rabbis, require for- If a child is born of a gentile : mal conversion in a mikvah. How- 1 birth mother, the child will need a ever, other Reform and Reconstruc- conversion to Judaism. This tionist rabbis say that a naming includes brit milah or a symbolic ceremony without immersion is 1 brit for a boy, and immersion in a sufficient. kosher mikvah for both a boy and Even after conversion, there are girl. Most rabbis prefer to arrange a number of halachic issues to the conversion at a young age, consider. For example, may an I even infancy, long before the child adopted boy use his adoptive has an understandin g - of what is father's name, or must he be happening. called ben Avraham Avinu (son of The Talmud asks why the rabbis our father Abraham) like an adult have the right to convert a child convert? Most authorities permit 1 before the age of consent. The the father's name to be used. 1 answer is based on the Talmudic May a baby girl adopted and principle zachin leadam shelo converted marry a kohen? Ortho- lbefanav "We can act to some- dox authorities forbid it, but Con- 1 one's advantage even without his servative and Reform rabbis permission." (Ketubbot 1 I a) How- permit it. I Rabbi Michael Gold is the adoptive father of three children and the l author of And Hannah Wept: Infertility, Adoption, and the Jewish Couple. (248) 583-1300 fax: (248) 583-1305 31051 stephenson hwy madison heights, mi 48071 8/21 1998 74 under new ownership Detroit Jewish News (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1988). He welcomes your :comments on this article, and questions in general, at 1-888-HEARTS (1- 888-432-7815), or at his website: www.heartfelt.com . Copyright01995. Reprinted with permission.