school proposal should not be seen
as a first step toward accepting patri-
lineal Jews, the term for children of
Jewish fathers and non-Jewish moth-
ers. The Reform movement's accep-
tance of such children, as long as they
are being raised Jewish, set off a furor
among non-Reform Jews two decades
ago.
The Conservative movement's
intensified outreach efforts began last
December at the United Synagogue's
Boston biennial when Rabbi Jerome
Epstein, the group's executive vice
president, announced a movement-
wide kiruv, or "ingathering" initiative,
to make intermarried families more
welcome in Conservative institutional
life.
The ultimate goal is still for the
non-Jews in those families to convert,
with conversion seen not as an end in
itself but "the beginning of a Jewish
journey" that synagogues, day schools
and other institutions of Conservative
Jewish life should help the family take,
Rabbi Epstein said.
Speaking to day-school delegates
last week in Boca Raton, Rabbi Epstein
made an impassioned plea for the
schools to be more welcoming to chil-
dren of non-Jewish mothers, and then
engage in concerted efforts to encour-
age the children and their non-Jewish
mother to convert "as part of their
Jewish journey."
He also said the schools should
clearly articulate "the point by which
that child must be Jewish, certainly no
more than a few years."
Reaction to Rabbi Epstein's sugges-
is that if a family does not buy
into the school's mission, it is not
going to buy into Shabbat obser-
vance and kashrut.
"Hillel opens its arms to every
family," he said. "But they must
respect and bide by our norms."
Freedman thinks the debate
over non-Jews is misplaced. "If
it were me, I'd stand on the high-
est tower and say that everyone
should have a Jewish day school
education – all Jewish and inter-
faith children. Why just pick on
interfaith?
"The Orthodox figured this out
in the 1940s, and we have to, too."
Rabbi Elliot Pachter of
Congregation B'nai Moshe in West
Bloomfield supported Freedman's
contention. Rabbi Pachter, who
formerly taught at Hillel, sees no
reason to make a change. "The
tion drew mixed reviews at the confer-
ence.
Mildred David, head of the Brandeis
School in Lawrence, N.Y., favors a
more flexible conversion timetable
for non-halachically Jewish children.
"If the parents want their child at
the Brandeis School, it means their
lifestyle is Jewish, so why should we
distance them?" she asked.
Rabbi Epstein admitted that his
suggestion involves "a change in cul-
ture which he acknowledged takes
time. He told conference delegates that
"rabbis have been slow to come on
board" with his kiruv initiative, but he
expects "that within a year or two we
will be in field-goal position" — rela-
tively close.
In St. Louis, the city's 12
Conservative rabbis have been work-
ing since September to create a unified
policy for their Schechter school "that
would be acceptable to us as rabbis
and livable for our school," said Rabbi
Carnie Rose of B'nai Amoona.
The policy, sent to the school board
last week, specifies that the school will
accept a child of a non-Jewish mother
up to the age of bar or bat mitzvah.
The child will be assigned a rabbinic
mentor who will work closely with
the family, "so it will not come as a
surprise" that the child will be asked
to convert by age 12 or 13, or else leave
the school.
The school also would admit chil-
dren of non-Jewish mothers after bar
mitzvah age, with the stipulation that
they must convert within a year. 1i
rabbis work with the school and
the (interfaith] families and it is
handled with great discretion."
Dina Shtull in Ann Arbor sent
a formal statement to the Jewish
News:
"We are a Solomon Schechter
day school, but we also function
as a community (elementary)
school because we are the only
Jewish day school in Ann Arbor.
Over the years, we have worked
with our local rabbis to address
issues of Jewish identity, and
encouragement of conversion if
and when appropriate.
"In general, we aim to be inclu-
sive. We meet the needs of the
entire spectrum of religious and
cultural expressions in Judaism.
This is important to us."
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