Opinion

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Dry Bones TO Y l s P AU LV

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Editorial

Who Says 'Who Is A Jew?'

T

he subject of "Who is a Jew?" is
making headlines again.
On March 2, the New York
Times Magazine published a long feature
story by Israeli political writer Gershom
Gorenberg on the problems that foreign-
born Israelis have in proving they are
Jewish in order to get married in Israel.
The Times piece made the point that
Israel's political system has given unjusti-
fied power to the Chief Rabbinate. In an
effort to woo votes and coalition stren
in the Knesset, Israeli politicians have
ceded total authority over marriages to
Israel's Orthodox rabbis. And the result is
that immigrants to Israel who were born
Jewish, raised Jewish and lived Jewishly
their entire lives are now being asked to
prove their Jewishness when they apply to
get married.
A similar issue has spilled over here.
Prominent American Orthodox rabbis
Marc Angel and Avraham Weiss have
criticized an agreement by the Rabbinical
Council of America (RCA), an Orthodox
organization, and the Chief Rabbinate of
Israel on conversions. The dissenting rab-
bis' commentary appeared in the JN last
week ("Deal Hurts Rabbis And Converts,"
March 13, page A28). The two rabbis have

SHULDIG
EVERY YEAR YOU
EMBARRASS ME BY
DRESSING UP AS
QUEEN ESTHER!'

Pirl REFUSE TO GO
TO THIS YEAR'S
PURIM PARTY WITH
YOU DRESSED AS
QUEEN ESTHER.

broken from the RCA and formed a new
Council of America's
group called the Rabbinic Fellowship.
pact with the
The agreement they criticize approves
Chief Rabbinate,
the selection of 40 American Orthodox
Orthodox Jews who
rabbis and 15 rabbinical courts whose
think they are fully
conversions of gentiles to Judaism will be
Jewish could end
accepted. Forty rabbis and 15 courts in the up as unrecognized
entire U.S. are the only ones acceptable to
Jews in the eyes of
RELAX HONEY .
Israel! The process of deciding who quali-
the Chief Rabbinate
PRESENTING
I'M NOT DRESSING
fies as conversion overseers also is suspect. someday.
THE PROUD
On March 11, the RCA issued a clarifica-
AS QUEEN
Instead of break-
AND SULTRY
tion asserting that people converted prop-
ing down the
ESTHER THIS
VASHTI!!
erly in the past according to the dictates
barriers to com-
YEAR.
O
of Halachah (Jewish law) will not have
munication and
zo•At
the status of their conversions changed
understanding, the
and won't be subject to re-evaluation. The
blowup over conver-
rules have changed for future converts and sions has raised the
conversions, however.
divisive walls even
In Israel, meanwhile, could American
higher. Instead of
Jewish children who make aliyah and
welcoming converts
want to get married in Israel win approval and Jews of all
wvAv.drybonesblog.com
before the increasing bureaucratic, haredi- persuasions, Israel
controlled right wing that runs Israel's
and the Rabbinical
Council of America, has effectively divided
marriage-sanctioning offices? Could they
Council of America have excluded some
Am Yisrael. Instead of finding ways to
prove their parents were Jewish or their
of their own from their lists of religious
bring more Jews into the fold, they have
grandparents were Jewish?
acceptance.
found a way to isolate. Their way will
What might be most interesting in this
At a time when the entire Jewish
exclude forever more of their co-religion-
growing scenario is that the increased
world is coming together in celebration
ists. This will only exacerbate the problem
stringency will now impact major groups
of Israel's 60th anniversary, the Chief
of younger Jews having fewer and weaker
of Orthodox Jews. With the Rabbinical
Rabbinate, in tandem with the Rabbinical
ties to the State of Israel. E

Cap

Reality Check

Alarms And Diversions

I

s there a Jew with a computer in
America who has not received some
sort of urgent e-mail about Barack
Obama in the last few months?
Most of them have turned out to be
utter nonsense, easily refuted by the most
basic research or exercise of common
sense.
I am no supporter of the Illinois sena-
tor. I am, however, a big fan of accuracy.
And it astonishes me how many intelligent
people simply swallow whatever they see
on the Internet.
I am a trained journalist. I like using
that phrase. It doesn't mean a thing but it
sounds impressive. My training consisted
of getting yelled at by a variety of mean
old editors and rewrite men until I got it
right. Still, it's not a bad thing to insist on
good information.
It recent weeks, I have been informed
with utter and absolute certainty that the
British school system has discontinued
Holocaust studies to avoid offending
Muslims. It hasn't.

Or that the University of
Kentucky has done the same
thing for the same reason. No,
again.
Or that I should boycott
Petro gas stations because they
are a front for Venezuela's anti-
American ruler, Hugo Chavez.
They aren't. In fact, they are
wholly owned by a company in
North Carolina.
And, of course, that Obama
is a covert Muslim who studied in a school
run by Islamic extremists. Didn't happen.
I can understand Jewish nervousness
about Obama. He comes, after all, out of
the left wing of his party, a group known
for its antipathy towards Israel. But it is a
logical fallacy to claim on that basis alone
that he shares these views.
I am a little more apprehensive about
the church to which he belongs, which
seems to embrace a black separatist
agenda and admires that wacky guy, Louis
Farrakhan. His apologists say that Obama

And it astonishes
me how many
intelligent people
simply swallow
whatever they see
on the Internet.

can't be held responsible for everything
done by the clergy of his church.
Quite true, and there are issues on which
I disagree with the clergy of my temple.
But if they were out there giving awards to
haters, I think I'd find a new temple.
Still, Obama is an X-factor and sup-
porters of Israel would like a bit more cer-
tainty about the next president, whoever
it turns out to be. Because that part of the
world is not a place that is strong on truth
and logic.
I truly believe that if Israel could invent

a device that caught rockets aimed at
its cities in mid air and hurled them
right back at those who fired them, the
Palestinians would erupt in a frenzy
"You are killing innocent people they
would cry. "You are using disproportionate
force."
In their minds, that would be absolutely
true. Because Israel has no right to self
defense. Any attempt to protect itself by
means of — oh, I don't know — a fence
or a reverse rocket flinger is a legitimate
cause for outrage.
Those are the ground rules in the Planet
Bizarro that comprises the Arab world. So
you'd better make sure your back is cov-
ered in America by someone who under-
stands that.
I hope, however, that decision will be
made on something more substantial than
false hysteria on the Internet.

George Cantor's e-mail address is

gcantor614@aol.com .

March 20 2008

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