Reconstructionists Will Recognize Children of Mixed Marriages As Jewish

The Reconstructionist movement and its affiliated synagogues will recognize as Jewish the children of mixed marriages where the mother is not Jewish and did not convert to Judaism prior to the child’s birth, it was announced by the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Fellowships at its ninth annual conference here. But the parents concerned will have to demonstrate, through action, their intention of raising their children as Jews, the announcement said.

According to traditional Jewish law, children of mixed marriages are not regarded as Jews if the mother is not Jewish since the mother’s faith is decisive. The children, to attain Jewish status in many parts of the world, have to undergo traditional forms of conversion which include ritual immersion and symbolic circumcision. The Reconstructionists will consider these children Jewish it, by parental decision, they have been circumcised, will receive a Jewish education and will fulfill the requirements of bar or bat mitzvah or confirmation.

The conference adopted a resolution calling on the Reconstructionist movement “to study the appropriateness of traditional Jewish norms in confronting problems of sexual morality that challenge us today.” Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, assistant to the president of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, who proposed the resolution, pointed out that traditional Jewish law on sexual morality is more restrictive with regard to the use of birth control devices and abortion than the current Jewish practices. He said “Jewish ideals of family purity and social responsibility provide the standards by which to judge puritanical codes of sexual thought and behavior.”

In the area of civil rights, the Reconstructionist conference adopted by acclamation a resolution supporting the report of the President’s Commission on Civil Disorders. The resolution agreed with the Kerner Commission that the division among races in America is the consequence largely of “white racism, apathy, and a much too meager-hearted effort to achieve social justice.”