‘Who is a Jew’ Amendment Scored

Rabbi Richard Hirsch, executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (the Reform movement) said today he failed to understand the point in renewed efforts to amend the law of Return at a time it was essential to unite all the forces of the Jewish people.

Hirsch reacted in a public statement to a bill adopted yesterday in the Knesset at first reading, amending the Law of Return to define as Jews only those who were born to Jewish mothers or converted according to halacha. If the bill is approved in further readings–which seems unlikely–conversions performed by Conservative and Reform rabbis will be considered invalid.

Hirsch recalled that last year, shortly after the new government took office, a delegation of American Conservative and Reform rabbis met with Premier Menachem Begin and suggested various compromises, such as the establishment of a court for all three trends in Judaism. "Even the Premier agreed to that," said Hirsch, "but when he presented the idea before the Orthodox rabbis they rejected it outright."

Hirsch said he was confident that American Jewry would not stand idly by if the bill is approved by the Knesset. "Is it not paradoxical that the same rabbi (Alexander) Schindler who served as chairman of the Presidents Conference (Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations) and who has been much honored by Premier Begin cannot perform conversions that will be recognized in Israel?" Hirsch asked.

SCHINDLER BLASTS AMENDMENT

(In New York, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform), said today: "At this critical time when the need for Jewish unity is paramount, we are appalled by the new political efforts to amend Israel’s Law of Return so as to disqualify two-thirds of world Jewry from membership in the Jewish people. We are one, working for Israel’s strong future throughout the world; we must be one in the eyes of Israel’s law. The issue is not one of subtle interpretation of halacha. Rather it is a direct slap in the face to all non-Orthodox Jews, saying in effect that our money and our energies are good enough but we and our children are not… As we are one people in anguish and in death so we must be one people in life."