Orthodox rabbis from the United States and other countries, seeking to preserve Orthodox hegemony over religious and personal matters in Israel attacked conversions made under non-Orthodox auspices. Rabbi Louis Bernstein of New York, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, warned that if Israel recognized conversions performed by Reform or Conservative rabbis –not in accordance with halacha–it would gravely prejudice the Orthodox rabbinate’s fight against intermarriage in the U.S. and around the world.
Rabbi Bernstein and some of his Orthodox colleagues spoke at a press conference following the closing session of the RCA’s annual midwinter convention that opened here last Thursday. They attacked local Reform and Conservative rabbis who oppose amending Israel’s Law of Return to stipulate that converts coming to Israel as immigrants must have been converted in accordance with halacha–meaning Orthodox rites–in order to be recognized as Jews.
The “Who is a Jew?” amendment is one of the key demands of the National Religious Party for Joining a Labor led coalition government. But Rabbi Bernstein insisted that he was speaking only for the non-political RCA–not the Mizrachi of which he is vice-president–and that his remarks were not inspired by the NRP.
The Reform and Conservative movements in American have urged Israeli leaders not to surrender to Orthodox demands on the conversion issue on grounds that it would alienate the millions of Jews in the U.S. and other countries who are not Orthodox. But Rabbi Bernstein, alleging that a majority of world Jewry was Orthodox pressed his claims on grounds that Orthodox Jews in the U.S. were most faithful to Israel, had the highest aliya rate and were most active in fund-raising and political lobbying for Israel.
SHOULD NOT FORCE VIEWS ON OTHERS
Rabbi Bernard Casper, the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, claimed that Orthodoxy’s alleged majority gave it rights. But he conceded that these did not include the right to force its views on others. He said that in South Africa not all Jews were observant. Nevertheless, he said, a vast majority recognized the authority of the rabbinate and the rabbinical tribunals in matters of conversion and marriage.
Chief Rabbi Isaac Cohen of Ireland said there were Reform and other Jews in his country but that all recognized the need for uniformity in the crucial questions of conversion and personal status. He said that intermarriage was not a major problem in Ireland because of its predominantly Catholic population. He claimed that all European rabbis would consider; it “irresponsible impertinence” for any religious groups on the outside to attempt to intervene in Israeli affairs and introduce controversy. Rabbi Cohen said the basic problem was that Orthodoxy demanded from a convert a sincere commitment to observe halacha while Reform and Conservative rabbis were prepared to dispense with that.
At another press conference Sunday, Rabbi David B. Hollander, presidents of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, claimed that if Israel accepted non-Orthodox marriage and divorce, it would spell the disintegration of American Jewry. “What’s good enough for Israel is good enough for them,” he said.
A convention of American and European Orthodox rabbis meeting here under the aegis of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, issued a plea to the government yesterday to amend the Law of Return: But the convention created a new split between tire Ashkenazic and Sephardic chief rabbis of Israel. It was convened by Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren against the wishes of his Sephardic counterpart, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who boycotted the sessions.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
