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Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.corn

Dry Bones

On Separate Grounds

ichael Oxman, a 21-year-old staff ser-
geant in the Israeli Defense Forces,
was buried last Friday in Haifa with
full military honors, three days after
he and five fellow soldiers died in a Palestinian ter-
ror attack on their West Bank outpost. But he was
not buried with his five comrades. Instead, his body
was placed in a section of the military cemetery
reserved for non-Jews. Oxman's father is Jewish and
the soldier considered himself Jewish, but because
his mother is not Jewish, under Halachah (Jewish
law) he must rest in separate ground.
The service for Oxman, who had emigrated six
years ago from Ukraine, came two days after Israel's
Supreme Court had decided to modestly
expand the rights of Reform and
Conservative converts to government recog-
nition. The ruling means they must be list-
ed on the official population registry, but it did not
expand their right to a recognized marriage or, as in
Oxman's case, traditional burial.
The court is on the right track in pushing for a more
generous interpretation of what it is to be Jewish.
Obviously, something needs attention when you can
be Jewish enough to die for your country, yet be treat-
ed as a non-Jew when it comes to burial.
Four years ago, a commission headed by a cabinet
minister, Yaakov Ne'eman, worked closely with the
major streams of Judaism to find more flexible
approaches to the conversion process that would not
undercut Halachah. But the Israeli Chief Rabbinate,
which is Orthodox and the nation's authority on mat-
ters on Jewish identity, ultimately rejected the ideas as
a conflict with Halachah. The joint conversion insti-
tutes are continuing — they have about 4,500 current
students —but don't seem to be embracing the full
range of Conservative and Reform concerns.
It is vital that a multi-stream search for new and wise

ideas on determining who is a Jew con-
rIAAV61\i'T c-(106
tinues. The court decision provides a
1-1-Af2b. to
TCRRORISITS
welcome nudge, a reminder that the
MODegATE
issue, which Israel had generally set
MUSLIMS ?/
aside in the face of the Palestinian
intifada (uprising), is still very much
S0RE..
alive.
Israel has existed with the tension
since its beginnings. Its first prime min-
ister, David Ben-Gurion, said it had to
be a country governed by civil law, not
by Halachah. But he could never get a
constitution framed and agreed upon,
I
\ A
and he and all his successors frequently
compromised the principle
to avoid internal dissent that
might have affected the
(-(6--r •
country's ability to fight its
REAR
-ro
external threats.
-
FROM
American Jews have been often at the
forefront of the desire to broaden the
interpretation of who is recognized as a
Jew. But even in the wake of last week's
decision, Reform and Conservative
leaders said they did not want to push
too hard for a final resolution of the
issue while the Palestinian terror cam-
paign continues.
That is sensible for now. But they
should not use the excuse of the
One of the strengths of Judaism is that it has been
intifada to ease the search for
able
to adapt to a changing world without undermin-
thoughtful approaches that will help Israel's Chief
ing core principles or central beliefs. The goal is not to
Rabbinate find a way to break the stalemate.
enhance one movement or stream at the expense of
Some say the court's decision will bring confusion
another, but rather to maintain the vitality of Judaism
and pain, primarily to new Israel immigrants, who
not only in the diaspora, but also in the Jewish home-
will be expecting a full acceptance because the word
land, where Sgt. Oxman had come to live and for
"Jew" will be on their national identification card.
which he was willing to die.
Rather than fearing that, a determined leadership
It is sadly too late to help this soldier, but it is not
might look at the relatively modest step of easing
too
late to renew a multi-stream effort to resolve who
the conversion process for immigrants, like Sgt.
is
considered
Jewish in Israel. ❑
Oxman, whose fathers were Jewish.

EDIT ORIAL

Related coverage: page 21

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Who Is A Perceptive Jew?

table situation here in the United States,
Giddy claims of non-Orthodox leaders notwith-
where
there are two distinct "Jewish worlds"
standing, truly perceptive Jews of all affiliations
—
one
that, in effect, validates all "Judaisms"
know that it bodes ill for the Jewish future.
and all "conversions," and another that stub-
For starters, it is sure to sow confusion, dis-
bornly clings to what has kept us a single
illusionment and heartbreak. With the large
Jewish people for more than 3,000 years.
number of non-Jews who have immigrated in
At the moment, anyone in Israel claiming
recent years to Israel from the former Soviet
to
be a Jew can likely be assumed by all other
Union, we can expect (and non-Orthodox
RABBI AVI
Jews
to be just that. Unless a law is enacted
leaders are eagerly awaiting) a surge of non-
SHAFRAN
to
render
the High Court's decision null, that
Orthodox conversion applicants. Innocent
Special
will
not
long
remain the case. The easy avail-
people will come to be convinced that they
Commentary
ability of wholesale non-halachic conversions,
will be widely accepted as Jews when, in fact,
sweetened now with the promise of the word
neither Jewish religious law nor Orthodox
"Jew" on an identity card, will see to that.
Jews anywhere will be able to recognize their
Ironically,
whether the "two Jewish worlds"
conversions as valid.
model
indeed
spreads, God forbid, to Israeli socie-
What is more, the decision will serve to only further
ty or whether some legislation is crafted to avoid it,
Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath widen the gulf between Jews who remain faithful to
Israel of America, a national Orthodox organization.
Halachah and those who choose to reject or revise it.
SHAFRAN on page 32
His e-mail address is shafratz@amechad.com
Israel, tragically, is now one step closer to our regret-

New York City
is tempting to dismiss as insignificant the
recent Israeli High Court ruling that the state's
Interior Ministry must recognize Israeli con-
verts to the Reform and Conservative move-
ments as Jews.
Indeed, the decision has no repercussions for reli-
gious matters, and no impact on the Israeli Chief
Rabbinate. Its effects are limited to things like popula-
tion rolls and identity cards. And no secular court's
opinion can budge the deep-seated belief of Orthodox
Jews like me that Halachah (Jewish law) alone, not
any temporal judge, must define Jewishness--
All the same, though, the ruling carries an undeniable
symbolic cachet, and perhaps even something more.

I

3/1
2002

31