Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs
failure to agree on a constitution has
\ left persistent ambiguities.
Israel's Law of Return, which grants
automatic citizenship to Jews, has his-
torically been the source of the prob-
lem. The law was amended in 1970 to
define a Jew, for the purpose of receiv-
ing citizenship, as "one born of a
Jewish mother or who has converted."
Since then, groups representing the
haredi, or "fervent," side of Orthodoxy
\-1-iave often tried to change the law to
require conversion according to
Halachah, or Orthodox Jewish law.
The "Who is a Jew" issue took on
greater urgency in the mid-1980s,
when Shas, a haredi party, secured
control of the Interior Ministry and
tried to prevent those converted by the
Reform and Conservative movements
abroad from being registered in Israel
as Jewish.
In 1986, the ministry refused to
register as Jewish Shoshana Miller,
who converted through a Reform
rabbi before moving to Israel from
Colorado. Even a court ruling in her
favor was not considered a precedent
by the ministry, and the Reform
Movement petitioned the Supreme
..----L,011rt. •
A landmark ruling in 1989
required the government to register
anyone converted abroad as Jews,
including those converted by Reform
and Conservative rabbis.
Only a tiny number of Reform and
Conservative converts immigrate to
Israel each year. But for the liberal
- Jewish movements, the struggle has
always been a matter of principle.
They want to know that the Jewish
state — where most religious Jews are
indeed Orthodox — fully recognizes
Diaspora Jews, the bulk of whom are
Conservative or Reform.
Since the 1989 ruling, the Reform
and Conservative movements have
C-i repeatedly turned to the courts in
their struggle for recognition and
equality, demanding that the govern-
ment abide by the law.
But these court decisions infuriated
the Orthodox, who accused the move-
ments of trying to breach the "status
quo," a set of principles on religion
and state that were agreed to by the
Orthodox and David Ben-Gurion,
/--israers first prime minister.
And so the Orthodox parties, who
have gained power in recent years,
have made the Knesset their battle-
field.
As part of the coalition agreements
he forged before taking office in 1996,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
promised his powerful Orthodox allies
he would push through the conversion
bill.
April 1997 marked a turning point.
Blaming the liberal movements for
breaking the status quo and going to the
Supreme Court to obtain recognition of
conversions performed in Israel, the
Orthodox parties pushed through the
first of three votes on the conversion
bill, sparking a severe crisis of confidence
between Diaspora Jewry and Israel.
In June 1997, both sides agreed to
freeze all court petitions and legislative
moves while the Ne'eman Committee
explored possible solutions to the cri-
sis. For the first time ever, Orthodox,
Conservative and Reform representa-
tives sat together to try to forge a
compromise.
But the liberal movements say the
Orthodox leadership never really
embraced the compromise and has
even stepped up anti-Reform and anti-
Conservative rhetoric.
The cautious optimism of last year,
when the committee issued its corn-
promise, is now a distant memory. On
both sides, there is a feeling that the
debate has become a zero-sum game
and could explode into the worst rift
ever between Israel and the Diaspora.
Here in Israel, the rhetoric has also
been sharp.
"There is always room to go back
on the path of compromise, and it's
clear what it will take," said Rabbi Uri
Regev, director of the Reform
Movement's Religious Action Center
in Israel, who has been at the forefront
of the pluralism battle. "The Chief
Rabbinate must come down from its
almost anti-Semitic approach and out-
rageous rhetoric."
Orthodox leaders, meanwhile,
believe that nothing less than the fun-
damental principles of the Torah are at
stake — and they view this as not a
subject for compromise.
"They are a new religion," Shlomo
Benizri, an influential Shas Knesset
member, said in describing the
Reform and Conservative movements.
"We love them, as we love all Jews,
with all our hearts. But we are disgust-
ed by their way of life, which is not in
line with the Torah."
Both Regev and Benizri say the
only way to avert disaster may be to
forge a technical solution. Several have
been raised, such as abolishing the line
listing nationality on Israeli identity
cards. This would render the need to
register converts as Jews a non-issue.
But for a new solution to be found,
the various streams must be willing to
talk — a daunting task, given all the
overheated rhetoric.
STELLAR MAGIC ON STAGE AND SCREEN
Not until the Renaissance did Jews in central Europe begin to evolve a
theatrical tradition entirely their own. At first; the stages were filled with
dramatic religious works performed in Yiddish and Hebrew. As the art
gradually spread across the Continent, comedies were added to repertoires.
Like minstrels of earlier times, Jewish storytellers, vocalists, puppeteers
and carnival clowns toured shtetls and urban neighborhoods. Through the
ages these entertainments developed into a refined theatrical culture for
sophisticated audiences, giving birth and sustenance to many Jewish
performers who lent glitter to theater and films. Among them were:
SARAH BERNHARDT.
(1844-1933) b. Paris, France The love child of a
Jewish-Dutch music teacher and an unidentified
father was educated in a French convent, but
remained proud of her maternal blood lines--even
as she became the best-known stage personality of
her day. Affectionately called "Divine Sarah" by
admirers on five continents, Bernhardt dominated
world theater for more than a half-century. Her
emotional range, charming and lyrical voice, and captivating, sensuous
presence on stage led to triumph after triumph in virtually every leading
role she played.
Bernhardt's career flourished following her 1866 contract with the
Odeon theater and her appointment to the Comedie-Francaise in 1872. Her
reputation soared as the unsurpassed classical and romantic interpreter of
plays by Jean Racine, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, and in title roles of
Shakespearian drama in French translation. Forming her own company in
1872, the slim beauty toured widely and became an international idol from
Egypt to Australia. Nine notable visits in the U.S. brought her to New York
City before clamorous audiences.
Her public mystique reflected a tempestuous personality and
reputed liaisons with Victor Hugo and the Prince of Wales. And her
indomitable and courageous spirit prevailed, despite the 1915 amputation
of a gangrenous leg injured years before in a stage accident. With dogged
determination, Bernhardt was borne by litter on battlefront visits to World
War One soldiers, and she once again toured America. The multi-talented
star also wrote several plays and a memoir, and was a gifted painter and
sculptor. She was made a member of the Legion of Honor in 1914.
PAUL MUNI
(1895-1967) b. Lemberg, Austria. How one of
America's leading Yiddish performers reached
equal .prominence in Hollywood and on Broadway
is the mark of a consummate actor who
transformed himself into widely varied stage and
screen characters. At once a Russian aristocrat or
crafty lawyer, Muni could easily recast himself as
an aged Orthodox Jew, an American gangster,
a Chinese farmer, an army deserter or a piano teacher. "The Man of Many
Faces" received a 1936 Academy Award for The Story of Louis Pasteur,
and such classics are replayed in film libraries and museums worldwide.
Muni began his stage career in Chicago at age twelve, and while in
his early twenties he joined the Yiddish Art Theater founded by Maurice
Schwartz. But as immigrant Jews assimilated, English grew in favor and
Muni made his first English-speaking Broadway hit We Americans in
1926. His exposure to the Cameras came several years later while filming
The Valiant and Seven Faces, two of the first talkies. A deep, resonant
voice and remarkably versatile and powerful portrayals became his
trademark.
Typecast as a criminal in the acclaimed 1932 features, Scarface and
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Muni was later seen sympathetically
in The Life of Emile Zola and Juarez. In some ways his career mirrored the
"Americanization" of another famous Yiddish-speaking actor whose roles
mellowed in time: Edward G. Robinson. Alternating between theater and
films, Muni appeared in nineteen stage dramas and 22 motion pictures,
some of which are memorialized in entertainment history: Key Largo
(1939), Death of a Salesman (1949) and Inherit the Wind (1955) in live
performance, while The Good Earth (1937), Commandos Strike at Dawn
(1943) and The Last Angry Man (1959) were screened. - Saul Stadtmauer
,
A.
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1/15
1995
Detroit Jewish News 17