SPECIAL COMMENTARY

In Demand Of A Strong Jewish Response

Jerusalem

The Venice court, where Tali was
n June 23, - 1858, the papal
living, ordered a psychological exami-
police entered the home of
nation of the mother. Focusing almost
Shlomo Mortara, a Jewish
exclusively on traditional Jewish reli-
merchant living in Bologna,
gious practices, the psychologist fre-
Italy, and removed Mortara's
quently expressed astonish-
6-year-old son, Edgardo.
ment at such things as Tali's
Six years earlier, a servant
insistence on wearing stock-
girl in the Mortara household,
ings, even in the heat of
fearing Edgardo was on the
summer. Tali was asked:
verge of death, had sprinkled
"Your daughters are so
water on him. When the local
beautiful, why must they
papal inquisitor subsequently
wear long dresses? Why
learned of this, he declared
don't you watch TV? Why
Edgardo baptized and had him
can't they eat pizza?"
seized. He would never return
In a late 1996 visit with
JONATHAN
to his parents, and died a
her daughters to Israel, Tali
ROSENBLUM
Catholic priest.
made a fateful decision to
Special to
In Italy today, a modern-day
remain.
version of the case is alive.
the Jewish News
For the next two and a
Eight years ago, Moshe Dul-
half years, Tali hid with her
berg and his wife, Tali, Israelis
daughters. When they were
then living in Genoa, Italy, were
found, in April 1999, the Israeli
divorced. Their two children — Nitzan,
Supreme Court returned the Dulberg
now 14, and Danielle, now 10 — were
sisters to Genoa, under the Hague
in their mother's custody for four years.
Convention, for a custody determina-
In 1996, Tali became religious and
tion.
remarried. Her former husband
The Genoa court refused Tali's
Moshe brought suit in Venice's juve-
repeated request for an impartial psycho- -
nile court to remove Tali's guardian-
logical examination of everyone involved
ship, saying her new lifestyle rendered
and to hear witnesses on traditional Jew-
her unfit to care for her daughters.
ish practice. Indeed, no witnesses at all
were heard and there was no cross-exam-
Jonathan Rosenblum, who lives in
ination of the parents.
Israel, is a monthly columnist for the
Two psychologists hired by Moshe
Jewish News. To learn more about the
submitted "findings" without inter-
Dulberg case, or to help the Dulberg sis-
viewing Nitzan, Danielle or their
ters, e-mail Rosenblum at
mother. The professionals charged that
amechad@isdn.net.il
Orthodox Judaism views "exploitation

0

and cruelty to minors as legitimate ...
and perverted behavior as normal."
They compared Orthodox parents to
drug addicts in their inability to serve
as a "loving source of affection" for
their children. For good measure,
Orthodox Jews were compared to Ser-
bian war criminals and those who
killed their children at Jonestown. Any
American court would have treated
this as insane. The Genoa court used
the "findings" throughout its decision.
The court, guided by the assump-
tion that the lifestyle of normal Italian
children is self-evidently better, char-
acterized the Lubavitch movement,
through which Tali originally became
religious, as a "totalitarian sect."
Thus, Moshe won absolute authori-
ty over all educational decisions
involving Nitzan and Danielle, with
the explicit goal that they be exposed
to the full range of Italian culture, and
a "normal life" regarding "nutrition,
exercise and social relations."
The Dulberg sisters were forbidden
contact with former friends and relatives
in Israel, or from speaking Hebrew
(their mother tongue); this violated the
U.N. Convention on the Rights of the
Child. In further violations, the Genoa
court did not take into account the
desire of Nitzan and Danielle to be
reunited with their mother — one reit-
erated in letters and to the court.
Tali was granted the most minimal
contact with her daughters. Every
meeting must be in a place designated
by Moshe and in the presence of his

designates. Conversation is restricted
to Italian. No one can speak to Nitzan
and Danielle about Judaism.
There are no parallel restrictions on
Moshe. He had represented himself to
the Israeli Supreme Court as a tradi-
tional Jew; the Genoa court accepted
at face value his characterization of
himself as a "pure Jew, who keeps the
commandments."
In fact, Moshe never stepped in the
Genoa synagogue in his first 12 years
there. Several years ago, he converted
to Catholicism. He regularly partakes
in the Catholic sacraments, as con-
firmed in a taped conversation with
the priest who converted him.
Worse, in December 1999, without
notice to Tali or her attorneys, the
Venice court (which still had some
jurisdiction) took the virtually
unprecedented step of removing the
girls' guardianship from Tali. The
court based it on a 4-year-old psychol-
ogist's report, described by the author
herself as being far too incomplete.
The Venice court made its preconcep-
tions explicit when it described Tali's
lifestyle decision — i.e., to become a
religious Jew — as "aberrant in her
role as parent." Yet, every psychologist
who has examined the children has
commented on their extremely strong
bond with their mother and on Tali's
gift for parenting.
Unless world Jewry acts in concert,
two young girls will be lost to the Jew-
ish people, against their will, just as
was Edgardo Mortaral❑

these studies before making assump-
tions from their published results.
Patricia C. Becker

item in the media. Yet they have no
compunction in criticizing the Israeli
government, regardless of which party
happens to be in power, accusing it of
"caving in to outside pressure,"
"defeatism," "Galut psychology" —
even betrayal of Zionist principles.
The Oslo peace process, for
instance, whether negotiated by
Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu or
Labor's Shimon Peres and Ehud
Barak, is viewed by these new Zionists
as "appeasement" or "surrender of hal-
lowed Zionist patrimony."
Their criticism is becoming increas-
ingly shrill, even venomous and indis-
tinguishable from calumnies manufac-
tured by known Israel bashers and
antisemites. Nor is their criticism
focused exclusively on policy-making
Israeli officials, but upon Israeli society
itself, blaming it for electing such

LETTERS

View Of Findings
Is Falsely Based

J.J. Goldberg's column ("Surprise!
American Jews Are Thriving," Jan. 21)
about findings of various Jewish popu-
lation studies regarding Jewish identity
and affiliation has some significant
false premises.
Comparisons between local Jewish
studies and the national Jewish popu-
lation study are inappropriate because
the purpose and design of the studies
are different. Local studies are con-
ducted primarily for federation-plan-
ning purposes and are designed to
provide the greatest amount of data
about the local Jewish community at
the least cost.
Achieving these ends means that
these studies, of necessity, are not rep-

resentative of all the Jews living in the
metropolitan area in which the study
is conducted. Rather, they are usually
representative of Jewish households
that are known to federation and/or
live in geographic area of higher than
average Jewish concentration (the
"core"). That was the case in Detroit's
1989 study.
The national study, on the other
hand, is designed to be representative
of Jews living anywhere in the United
States, as long as they have a tele-
phone. Thus, it picks up people who
live far away from any Jewish "core"
area. This population is, generally,
much less identified and affiliated with
the Jewish community. That's why the
overall results on questions about
identity and affiliation are lower.
Mr. Goldberg should become more
familiar with the methods behind

Southfield

(The letter writer was in-house consul-
tant for the 1989 Detroit Jewish Popu-
lation Study and wrote the report of its.
findings for the community.)

`New' Zionists
Aren't Helping

It seems evident that a goodly number
of American Zionists would stand to
benefit from pursuing an updated ver-
sion of (Maimonides') A Guide for the
Perplexed.
The new Zionists' attachment to
Israel manifests itself in an unortho-
dox way. They are quick to react,
rebut and repudiate any anti-Israel

2/4
2000

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