Seder Distraction

Special to The Jewish News

Arad, Israel

I

am ashamed to admit it," said
Ronen Matzur, but "when I
read about Pharaoh in the
Haggadah on Seder night, I'll
be thinkinab about the ultra-Orthodox
black hats who have made my life a
misery."
Matzur and his family — his wife,
Marian, and their two children — are
the subject of a case before the Israeli
Supreme Court that rests the difficult
and divisive issue of which conversions
religious and civil authorities should
recognize. The Matzur family trying to
force the Ministry of the Interior to rec-
ognize Marian's conversion to Judaism,
which was performed by a Reform
rabbi in England after Orthodox rabbis
in Israel refused to convert her.
Matzur met his future wife, Marian
Buenase, six years ago in Tacloban, on
the island of Leyte in the Philippines.
Like many other young Israelis, he was
touring the Far East.
For Matzur, 24 at the time, it was
love at first sight. It took a few more
weeks before he won the heart of the
18-year-old Marian, as well as the
approval of her mother and extended
family. After he did, the two were
married in a Manila civil ceremony
and left for Israel.

Desert
Impasse

Egyptian Bedouins
huddle against the
cold as they sit with
their camels- in a fenced
compound on the Israeli
side of the border with
Egypt. About 600
Egyptian Bedouins from
the Al-Azazmeh tribe
who had crossed the
border from Egypt into
Israel Monday were held
at a fenced compound by
the border for a week,
but the Israeli Supreme
Court on Tuesday
allowed the army to
deport them to a demili-
tarized area in Egypt.

3/26
1999

24 Detroit Jewish News

Convert family, suing Israel for recognition,
has mixed feelings this Passover.

The first thing on their agenda was
a conversion — Orthodox, of course,
because Matzur didn't know of any
other possibilities.
But the rabbinate in Ramat Gan, a
Tel Aviv suburb where they lived at
the time, set a whole series of pre-con-
ditions. They had to find an Orthodox
family that would "adopt" them, had
to immediately accept an Orthodox
lifestyle and had to embark upon a
prolonged period of full-time study.
When told that both he and his wife
had to study, Matzur asked why, since
he was already a Jew.
He recalls that the rabbi said, "It's
simple. You attended a secular high
school and so we must 'convert' you
to true Judaism as well."
After Matzur, a hairdresser,
explained that he had to support his
family, the rabbi grudgingly agreed to
a compromise: if Matzur spent three
weeks at a yeshiva, and his progress
was satisfactory, they would let him
get by with only two days a week of
further study afterwards. His wife,
however, would have to study every
day. Finally, both would be obligated
to pass extensive examinations.

Matzur said neither he nor his wife
were happy with this arrangement, but
he nevertheless went to a yeshiva for
three weeks, during most of which time
the people there tried to persuade him
to divorce his wife "because Jews who
marry goyim will go to hell." And
when that period was over, the head of
the yeshiva said he would only receive a
graduation certificate" if he agreed to
regular monthly payments to the yeshi-
va as a sign of good will. Matzur, eager
to finish the process, accepted the pro-
posal and made payments for a year.
Yet despite months of study,
Marian failed her tests because she
couldn't remember all the requisite
prayers in Hebrew. In any case, the
rabbis made it clear that they would
never convert her because it wasn't
Judaism that interested her, but a
Jewish husband and Jewish children.
Matzur recalled being stunned by
the decision. "I know," he says, "of a
gentile girl who wanted to convert in
order to marry a Jewish guy, and she-
had no trouble obtaining an instant
Orthodox conversion after her
boyfriend made a $10,000 under-the-
table payment" to a rabbi.

Pho to by Assoc ia ted

NECHEMIA MEYERS

The Matzurs' spirits later rose
when they heard about the possibility
of a Reform conversion based on
study in Israel and a formal examina-
tion in England (overseas conversions
generally have been recognized here
in Israel where identity card registra-
tion is concerned). So Marian (who
has taken the symbolic name Ruth)
spent 18 months studying with a
Reform rabbi in Tel Aviv and then
was sent to London for a final exam,
which she passed.
But the Interior Ministry ruled that
once a person had an identity card,
the religion listed on it could not be
changed.
The Matzurs, along with 22 other
Reform and Conservative converts, sued
the ministry, and the District Court in
Jerusalem found in their favor. Now the
Supreme Court has the matter.
Its decision cannot come in time
for Passover this year, Matzur notes.
So he, Marian, their three-year-old
daughter, Kim, and their year-old son,
Keanu, who now live in Arad, Israel,
will sit at the seder table with all his
Orthodox relatives pondering the Four
Questions, uncertain of their own
answers.
The Matzurs be hoping, he said,
that by next year they will feel that
they have finally crossed their own
Red Sea to find their place as Jews in
the Jewish state. Fl

A Place To
Convert

AVI MACH LIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

R

epresentatives of Reform,.
Conservative and
Orthodox Judaism in
Israel have launched the
country's first interdenominational
conversion institute in the northern
Galilee town of Carmiel.
But this latest development in the
ongoing battle over religious pluralism
in the Jewish state debuted under a
cloud of charges and uncertainty, rais-
ing questions about how successful
the institute will be in resolving the
debate that has divided many Jews.
Leaders of the liberal streams said