"Who's a Jew" food for thought

[wellofvow]

An interesting article, at least for all Israelis - or soon-to-bes - to think about.

Feb 24, 2008 20:07 | Updated Feb 25, 2008 9:24
A twist on the 'Who's a Jew' question
By STEWARD WEISS

You may have seen The New York Times headline ("Imprisoned, Rabbi Sues Over Space for Prayer," February 16), and perhaps, like I did, shook your head in amazement. A hassidic rabbi serving time in a federal penitentiary in New York State has sued the Bureau of Prisons for infringing upon his right to pray. He claims that because there is a toilet in his cell he is unable to pray there, and is demanding that the prison create another space within the facility where he can worship.

The rabbi, Mordechai Samet, is serving a 27-year sentence for financial fraud - including soliciting money for a fake lottery, submitting false death claims to insurance companies, and defrauding banks with counterfeit checks.
This raises the question of what constitutes being "observant" or "religious" or "Orthodox" - for God's sake.
Over the years, world Jewry has debated the issue of "Who is a Jew?" hotly and ad nauseam. But I suggest that "Who is a religious Jew" is no less important a question, for the answer has profound implications for Jewish and Israeli society.

HOW DO we define "religious?"

Is it a function of the clothes we wear, the company we keep, the type of synagogue we pray in, the particular laws we observe? If a person defrauds a yeshiva or bribes a health inspector, if he is a child molester or a spousal abuser - but he covers his head, keeps kosher and davens three times a day - is he still "religious?"

And if a soldier risks his life to defend Israel and the Jewish people - but does not put on tefillin every day or wait six hours between eating meat and milk - is he "irreligious?"
We are a label-obsessed people. The moment we lay eyes on someone, before we get to know them at all, we are already drawing a box around them and sticking on all kinds of isolating labels: Ashkenazi, Sephardi, leftist, rightist, secular, observant or Orthodox.

And not just Orthodox: We subdivide them into haredi, dati, dati-leumi, dosi or hardal. We have neatly judged, packaged and labeled a stranger before we know the first thing about him.

SADLY, THERE are whole political parties that stake their existence on attracting the "religious" or "secular" voter, yet may not have a clue as to what those labels really mean. Shas, for example, claims to be a religious party, with all policies and platforms kosher-supervised by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. But when Shas official David Yifrach, director of the Histadrut Labor Federation's welfare services division, was suspended recently for alleged sexual harassment of three women in his office, party leaders avoided any expressions of the issue.

And when Meretz, the great champion of secular rights, waged a campaign a few years ago to keep the Ramat Aviv mall open on Shabbat, the vast majority of the area's residents, who are not necessarily Sabbath observant, as well as the workers in the mall's establishments, rejected Meretz's efforts and insisted that they, too, were entitled to a day of rest.

ISRAELI SOCIETY, infused with so much intensely Jewish culture and character, and built upon an ancient homestead that oozes spirituality, adamantly defies black-and-white characterization. And because we are so fiercely individualistic, with such diverse input into our personalities, we cannot be simplistically corralled into one corner or another.

I vividly recall an incident when I first moved to Israel. The mover, whom I assumed was totally secular, asked me for a drink of water.

When I brought it to him, he took the glass in one hand and placed his other hand over his bare head. He then pronounced the blessing before drinking. Seeing that I was astonished, he smiled and said, "I never put anything in my mouth unless I first bless God, who gave it."

I learned early on that, certainly in this country, looks can be deceiving and the still waters of religiosity run deep. We have to give people the benefit of the doubt and learn to focus much more on the actions and emotions of those around us, and much less on the superficial, external trappings of what passes for religion.

Instead of judging others too quickly, we should be more open-minded and less clothes-minded.

The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana. jocmtv@netvision.net.il
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull


Certainly, a large part of my making aliya from the US still unmarried was to reduce the risk that any children I would have would marry "outside". And this was when the American intermarriage rate was a mere 17%! It was a pity that I could not forecast my dismay that the blatant religious hypocrisy so ubiquitous in Israel would so completely turn off my children so that the majority are declared agnostics (if not atheists, but are sparing my feelings).

[andak01]

I'm certainly eager to hear Scattergood's thoughts on this one. We already had a discussion regarding creating special public facilities for religious observance. I think both of us were against spending public money on that. I wouldn't have a problem if the prison allowed him an already available space at no cost to the taxpayer and assuming that could be done without breaking prison rules.

As to what constitutes a Jew. I should never be the one to tell you. If within Judaism there is some rule that can never be broken, who am I to tell you that isn't valid. But the same doesn't apply to me. A Jew or Christian or Hindu gets to tell me against my objections that a particularly heinous criminal that has broken many rules within Islam is one of my "brethren". If I claim someone hijacked Islam, I'm simply called a liar. You must feel a bit lucky.

[Mediocrates]

You mean what makes a good Jew. You can be a Jew and incarcerated, like Akiva. One has nothing to do with the other. As to the specifics of this case it seems the Rabbi could wrap his head around the concept of a makom petor or karmelit or Tehum Shabbat. Now certainly these apply to Shabbat but I'm sure someone as hidebound as this fellow can figure out a loophole for it. It's precisely the flipside of what he's talking about.

[scattergood]

I'm certainly eager to hear Scattergood's thoughts on this one. We already had a discussion regarding creating special public facilities for religious observance. I think both of us were against spending public money on that. I wouldn't have a problem if the prison allowed him an already available space at no cost to the taxpayer and assuming that could be done without breaking prison rules.

As to what constitutes a Jew. I should never be the one to tell you. If within Judaism there is some rule that can never be broken, who am I to tell you that isn't valid. But the same doesn't apply to me. A Jew or Christian or Hindu gets to tell me against my objections that a particularly heinous criminal that has broken many rules within Islam is one of my "brethren". If I claim someone hijacked Islam, I'm simply called a liar. You must feel a bit lucky.

This article above intertwines a number of issues which shouldn't, as Medio so rightly touches upong.

As to what makes a person a Jew, the rules are very clear. Either they are born of a Jewish mother, or they are converted by a Beit Din. (Notwithstanding the debates on what makes a 'valid' Beit Din). So is the guy in prison a Jew? I would say yes he is.

As to what makes a person a good Jew, that is based on their behavior. Wearing black hats and peyes doesn't de facto make people a good Jew or a good person. Praying 3 times a day doesn't de facto make people a good jew or a good person. The fact that the guy was convicted of a number of crimes would indicate to me that he isn't a great person, Jewish or not.

I agree with the article's contention that Jews take too much time and energy trying to put people in boxes with strange definitions of what kind of Jew a person is. To me, either somebody is or is not Jewish based on my descriptions above. And a person is or is not a good person or Jew based on their behavior.

Now, as to whether this guy deserves a special place to pray, in general I would say no. He is a convicted criminal, and as such has certain rights stripped from him. For example, felons can't vote which seems to be an even more generalized right than to be able to pray in a room without a toilet. However, I think that if the prison is specifically restricting his ability to pray in other places that is a different issue. Could he pray in the library corner, or the cafeteria or outside? Or is he being told that the only place that he can pray is in his cell? There are some details missing, but I don't think the prison should be burdened with the proactive step of providing a place for him that is special and distinct.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/ma...=5070&emc=eta1

Page 1 of 6

From news article:

One day last fall, a young Israeli woman named Sharon went with her fiancé to the Tel Aviv Rabbinate to register to marry. They are not religious, but there is no civil marriage in Israel. The rabbinate, a government bureaucracy, has a monopoly on tying the knot between Jews. The last thing Sharon expected to be told that morning was that she would have to prove — before a rabbinic court, no less — that she was Jewish. It made as much sense as someone doubting she was Sharon, telling her that the name written in her blue government-issue ID card was irrelevant, asking her to prove that she was she.

Sharon is a small woman in her late 30s with shoulder-length brown hair. For privacy’s sake, she prefers to be identified by only her first name. She grew up on a kibbutz when kids were still raised in communal children’s houses. She has two brothers who served in Israeli combat units. She loved the green and quiet of the kibbutz but was bored, and after her own military service she moved to the big city, which is the standard kibbutz story. Now she is a Tel Aviv professional with a master’s degree, a job with a major H.M.O. and a partner — when this story starts, a fiancé — who is “in computers.”

This stereotypical biography did not help her any more at the rabbinate than the line on her birth certificate listing her nationality as Jewish. Proving you are Jewish to Israel’s state rabbinate can be difficult, it turns out, especially if you came to Israel from the United States — or, as in Sharon’s case, if your mother did.

In recent years, the state’s Chief Rabbinate and its branches in each Israeli city have adopted an institutional attitude of skepticism toward the Jewish identity of those who enter its doors. And the type of proof that the rabbinate prefers is peculiarly unsuited to Jewish life in the United States. The Israeli government seeks the political and financial support of American Jewry. It welcomes American Jewish immigrants. Yet the rabbinate, one arm of the state, increasingly treats American Jews as doubtful cases: not Jewish until proved so.

More than any other issue, the question of Who is a Jew? has repeatedly roiled relations between Israel and American Jewry. Psychologically, it is an argument over who belongs to the family. In the past, the casus belli was conversion: Would the Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to any Jew coming to Israel, apply to those converted to Judaism by non-Orthodox rabbis? Now, as Sharon’s experience indicates, the status of Jews by birth is in question. Equally important, the dividing line is no longer between Orthodox and non-Orthodox. The rabbinate’s handling of the issue has placed it on one side of an ideological fissure within Orthodox Judaism itself, between those concerned with making sure no stranger enters the gates and those who fear leaving sisters and brothers outside.

Seth Farber is an American-born Orthodox rabbi whose organization — Itim, the Jewish Life Information Center — helps Israelis navigate the rabbinic bureaucracy. He explained to me recently that the rabbinate’s standards of proof are now stricter than ever, and stricter than most American Jews realize. Referring to the Jewish federations, the central communal and philanthropic organizations of American Jewry, he said, “Eighty percent of federation leaders probably wouldn’t be able to reach the bar.” To assist people like Sharon, Farber has become a genealogical sleuth. He is the first to warn, though, that solving individual cases cannot solve a deeper crisis.
Judaism, traditionally, is matrilineal: every child of a Jewish mother is automatically considered a Jew. Zvi Zohar, a professor of law and Jewish studies at Bar-Ilan University, told me that in Judaism’s classical view of itself, Jews are best understood as a “large extended family” that accepted a covenant with God. Those who didn’t practice the faith remained part of the family, even if traditionally they were regarded as black sheep.

Converts were adopted members of the clan. Today the meaning of being Jewish is disputed — a faith? a nationality? — but in Israeli society the principle of matrilineal descent remains widely accepted. Sharon’s mother was Jewish, so Sharon knew that she was, too. And yet it seemed impossible to provide evidence that would persuade the rabbinate.

Sharon left the office infuriated. Her mother was Jewish enough to leave affluent America for Israel; her brothers had fought for the Jewish state. Now, she felt, she was being told, “For that you’re good enough, but to be considered Jews for religious purposes you’re not.”

Sharon’s mother, Suzie, is 66, a dance therapist, even tinier than her daughter, a flurry of movement in the living room of her kibbutz bungalow. Suzie’s maternal grandfather, David Ludmersky, was born in Kiev. When he was drafted into the czar’s army, he deserted, fled to America and worked to send a ticket to Rose, the girl he left behind. The Merskys (an Ellis Island clerk shortened the name) moved to the small Wisconsin town of Wausau, where their daughter, Belle (Suzie’s mother), was born. Suzie has heard that they didn’t like the place, that they consulted a fortuneteller, that she told them to move west to Minneapolis. There David Mersky indeed made his fortune, working his way from peddling fruit to owning one of the city’s first supermarkets.

I think its time to call a spade a spade and tear up the law of ingathering once and for all.

[I am David]

Such arbitrarily strict definitions of who is a Jew does not seem to offer any benefit to Israel, only to Orthodox. So how did the Orthodox get to control this monopoly? Aren't most Jews in Israel and the Gov't more like US Reform Jews and secular?

[Yala]

Aren't most Jews in Israel and the Gov't more like US Reform Jews and secular?

Secular Jews in Israel are way more religious (going by the usual definition), or one could say traditional, than Reform Jews in the US.

[Hisardut]

Question: Who is a Jew?

Answer: if your grandchildren are jewish then you are a jew, all the other little things are just mickey mouse bs.

[bararallu]

Such arbitrarily strict definitions of who is a Jew does not seem to offer any benefit to Israel, only to Orthodox. So how did the Orthodox get to control this monopoly? Aren't most Jews in Israel and the Gov't more like US Reform Jews and secular?

This was a decision early on. The state, aka Labor gov, circa 1950s made a deal with Rav. Kook, the rest is history. They made side deals with the Heredim throughout.

[Mediocrates]

And we must not forget that truth, that it didn't slowly evolve after long study and tradition. It was a horse-trade. It was damn close to 'selling indulgences' aka what Luther fought the Catholics about, for the sake of political expediency. So all the Rabbis can swoop down and twist themselves this way and that looking for the ancient reason for it in the Talmud, but it was a horse-trade plain and simple.

[Aliyah1995]

My ? in this whole topic is there were obviously converts to Orthodox Judaism before the founding of the State of Israel. What were the standards then? Obviously, in Israel, there are politics involved, which cloud judgement in EVERYTHING (including the conversion issue).

Maybe we need to go back and see what the standards were for one who wanted to convert to Judaism back in say 1920 in different countries around the world. Surely there must be documented cases. And then we need to take it from there.

[kaiwai]

My ? in this whole topic is there were obviously converts to Orthodox Judaism before the founding of the State of Israel. What were the standards then? Obviously, in Israel, there are politics involved, which cloud judgement in EVERYTHING (including the conversion issue).

Maybe we need to go back and see what the standards were for one who wanted to convert to Judaism back in say 1920 in different countries around the world. Surely there must be documented cases. And then we need to take it from there.

The conversion issue is interesting; I'm going through those steps right now - it reminds me of the old story of 'hotel california'; you may check out, but you never leave. Even if you aren't a 'practising Jew' (in the religious sense), you're still a Jew. I mean, even Catholics, who hardly go to church, still refer to themselves as Catholics.

As for the 'benchmark' - there have been incidents (anyone remember the Neo-Nazi violence IIRC 3 recent immigrants) that could be curbed simply by ensuring that a Jew must have participated within the Jew community; simply finding a link to a relative 400 years ago, and having no contact with the Jewish community since, really pushes the limit on whether someone is Jewish.

[KettleWhistle]

Please don't do this, don't convert!

Don't you value your own traditions and culture?

[kaiwai]

Please don't do this, don't convert!

Don't you value your own traditions and culture?

What on earth are you going on about? I'm pretty much already living a Jewish life already; so how is it a change?

[scattergood]

What on earth are you going on about? I'm pretty much already living a Jewish life already; so how is it a change?

Not all of us feel the way KW does. He doesn't follow the commandments in Judaism that converts shouldn't be treated any differently than any other Jew. I can only assume that you are making an informed choice, that you are working with the local Beit Din, and that you understand the trials and tribulations of joining the Jewish people.

I hope that you have found purpose, meaning, and a great sense of self in your journey.