Religous Court Recognizes "Conversos" -- Majorca as Jews

The NY Times has a fascinating article today, about the Majorcan community -- from an insular island off the coast of Spain,...a community of about 20,000 people, and how an Israeli Chareidi Relgious court under the leadership of Rabbi Nissim Karelitz has ruled that the community is Jews.


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PARIS — Centuries after the Spanish Inquisition led to the forced conversion of Jews to Catholicism, an ultra-orthodox rabbinical court in Israel has issued a religious ruling that recognizes descendants from the insular island of Majorca as Jews.

The opinion focused narrowly on the Majorcan community of about 20,000 people known as chuetas and did not apply to descendants of Sephardic Jewish converts in mainland Spain or the broader diaspora of thousands of others who scattered to the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish colonies in South and North America.

The island, isolated until a tourist boom that began in the late 1960s, is a sociological preserve for descendants of Jews who formed an insular community of Catholic converts that intermarried through the centuries because of religious persecution and discrimination that barred them from holding certain positions in the Roman Catholic Church through the 20th century. Most carry the names of 15 families with ancestors who were tried and executed during the 17th century for practicing Judaism.

The religious court in Israel, led for more than 40 years by Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, sent another rabbi to the island in May to explore its warren of streets where a synagogue once stood and to examine the family trees of some of the chuetas who trace lineage back 500 years.

In a two-paragraph opinion — typical of the private rabbinical court that deals with matters of conversions, marriage conflicts and financial disputes — Rabbi Karelitz issued a statement that said because of the intermarriage patterns of the chuetas, “all those who are related to the former generations are Jews.”

“The decision is a headline ruling,” said Rabbi Israel Wiesel, a judge from Israel who explored the community in Palma, roaming the street where, for generations, many chueta families have operated jewelry stores. “Unlike other Marranos in Spain and Portugal, who lost their line of history,” he said, “this particular community is unique and kept the pure line of history for the last 700 years, which means they are Jewish.”

In May, the regional government of the Balearic Islands became the first to create a memorial ceremony for Jewish descendants, marking the deaths of 37 people who were executed in 1691 by the Inquisition, and expressing regrets for persecution that chueta families suffered through the centuries.

Bernat Aguiló Siquier, an amateur local historian who is descended from one of the 15 chueta families, said most of them stopped practicing Judaism altogether in the 18th century. But he said he still found the decision significant because it is “a recognition of a fact, as much as an act of justice.”

Shavei Israel, a private group that offers support and religious training for Jewish descendants in Spain and Portugal, had been pressing for the recognition for years. The result, according to its founder, Michael Freund, is that now “they no longer need to live in between worlds. We have succeeded in opening the door for them to come home.”

What that means in actual practice is still evolving. Mr. Aguiló said he hoped that it would inspire the state of Israel to grant citizenship to the chuetas.

For now, Rabbi Wiesel said, the next steps for the Spanish island were more modest.

“Rabbis will come and teach whoever is interested in learning,” he said, “and offer every assistance to those who want to come back to the Jewish fold.” NY Times

I haven't seen any news about this in Israel...and find it interesting that this first popped up in the NY Times.



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Telling it like it is: Why American Jews should support the Rotem bill

by Lurker

This column by David Breakstone in the JPost has got to be the most completely moronic article I have seen to date on the subject of the Rotem bill:

"Keep Dreaming: When Chelsea wed Marc"

I don't know which part of it I find most offensive:

• Breakstone's nauseating celebration of the Clinton intermarriage as a glorious, shining example of American Jewish assimilation -- a phenomenon that he seems to advocate as an ideal to which we should all aspire.
  
• His thinly veiled threat in the name of American Reform and Conservative Jewry that they will end their support for Israel unless Israel's democratically elected representatives learn to kowtow to American Jewish demands (instead of serving the needs of their own constituencies).
  
• His exasperatingly idiotic presentation of "Veronica", his own son's girlfriend, as a case study with which to bash the Rotem bill: "Veronica" -- a halakhicly non-Jewish daughter of Russian olim -- is, in fact, a classic, prototypical type of case which Rotem's bill was directly aimed at solving. Breakstone makes an utter fool of himself by gloating over the defeat of the very bill that would have enabled "Veronica" to convert, and his son to marry her.

What a nincompoop.

After reading that, I almost ignored this other column by Amotz Asa-el that appeared in the same paper a week later. From its title, it sounded like it was going to be yet more of the exact same stupidity. (And to be completely honest, having read other things in the past by Mr. Asa-el, that is what I tended to expect.):

"When Chelsea Clinton met David Rotem"

To my surprise, though, it would appear that Asa-el is one of the few journalists to have written on the subject of the Rotem bill, who took the time to actually read the bill and understand what it is, rather than allowing himself to become caught up in the tsunami of disinformation emanating from the Reform and Conservative movements -- as nearly everyone else (e.g., David Breakstone) has.

A couple of caveats: I am certainly not endorsing all of what Asa-el says in this column. Like Breakstone, he, too, tries to argue that there is a silver lining in the phenomenon of American Jewish intermarriage -- although his argument is not nearly as idiotic and offensive as Breakstone's. And unlike Breakstone, Asa-el certainly doesn't present intermarriage as some sort of messianic ideal that Jews ought to aspire to.

What very much surprised me, though, was that Asa-el explains what the Rotem bill would actually do, rather than regurgitating the ubiquitous nonsense being spouted by American Reform and Conservative Jews, which not only misrepresents the bill, but in fact presents it as the very opposite of what it is.

And he goes even further than that: He argues that the Right Thing To Do for the 300,000 non-Jewish Russian Israelis who wish to convert, is to support the cause of Israeli Modern Orthodoxy against the the haredim who currently control the conversion system in Israel. He explicitly calls upon the Reform and Conservative movements to set aside their petty, selfish politics, and to actively support the Rotem bill:

"American Jews should be equally humble before decrying Israel's handling of its own semi-Jews.
...
"The anguish of some 300,000 partial Jews –- who arrived here voluntarily and have served in the IDF, often gallantly, only to learn they couldn't marry here because of rabbinical nitpicking –- must end.
...
"...Knesset Law Committee Chairman David Rotem last month introduced a bill that would disabuse prospective converts of the current obligation to convert through the local rabbi [more precisely, the rabbinical courts -- Lurker], no matter how narrow minded he may be, and allow converts instead to shop around the country for lenient rabbis, provided they are part of the Chief Rabbinate. The downside of this [for the non-Orthodox] is that it means formally ruling out Conservative and Reform conversions as options for Israel's semi-Jews; hence the American Jewish outcry.

"The way America's Reform and Conservative movements see it, the battle over conversion in Israel is between Orthodoxy and non-Orthodoxy. Well it isn't. Rather, it's between ultra-Orthodoxy and modern Orthodoxy, and to join this battle, American Jewry must set aside its longer-term agendas and help Israel's modern-Orthodoxy win this battle."
...
"...ours is... a historically unique moment, one in which thousands who survived a 70-year-long attack on Judaism arrived in our midst. To come to them now with magnifying glasses and make their conversion process a nightmare is not only absurd, inhumane and anti-Israeli, it is also dubious as far as Jewish law itself is concerned, since historically a convert's observance was not reviewed once he converted.

"Here, however, ultra-Orthodox rabbis have revoked modern-Orthodox conversions retroactively, evidently serving ultra-Orthodoxy's sectarian interests, rather than serve the general Jewish interest...
...
"It would have been nice if Israeli non-Orthodoxy were sizable enough to confront ultra-Orthodoxy’s effort to make 300,000 Israelis Gentile, but the fact is it’s too small. Modern Orthodoxy, by contrast, is sizable, organically planted within the Israeli system, and eager to help Israel's semi-Jews become Jews. What stands in their way is Binyamin Netanyahu's strategic alliance with ultra-Orthodoxy.

"It follows, that on conversion the Jewish nation right now needs a strategic alliance between modern Orthodoxy and non-Orthodoxy. For this to happen, [the] Conservative and Reform movements [must] humbly concede that to reshape the Israeli conversion system they must first get more of their flock to live here. Until then, they would do well to let others handle Igor and Svetlana, while the rest of us leave it for them to handle Chelsea and Marc."

Again, I can't say that I support all of what Asa-el has to say here. But I do think that he deserves kudos for having the intellectual honesty and the guts to oppose the pervasive, mindlessly politically-correct groupthink and lies regarding the Rotem bill, and to present it for what it actually is.

UPDATE:

In a letter appearing in this past Friday's New York Times, Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar chides the American Reform and Conservative movements for their interference in Israel's democratic legislative process, and counters their torrent of canards and disinformation by succinctly describing exactly what the Rotem bill is, and why he supports it:

"The bill, within the framework of Jewish law, would expand the ambit of conversion, prevent the application of unjustified stringencies, and provide more leniency and flexibility in administration. Many Russian Israelis would benefit substantially. In fact, this legislation was proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu -- a secular party -- representing more than a million Russian Israelis."

In other words, the Chief Rabbi of Israel is desperately seeking a way to reform and liberalize the existing conversion system -- which is currently controlled solely by the haredi-run rabbinical courts. He wants to wrest control away from those courts, and to thereby allow thousands of secular Russian Israelis to finally convert -- and he is practically pleading with the Reform and Conservative movements to allow this to happen. But the Reform and Conservative movements seem inexplicably hellbent on preventing any such liberalization, and are instead fighting tooth and nail to keep Israeli conversion in the exclusive hands of the haredim.

The irony is practically beyond description.

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Hitting the nail on the head

by Lurker

R. Dr. Jeffrey Woolf was interviewed by JPost blogger Shmuel Rosner regarding the Rotem bill fiasco. At one point in the interview, Woolf explains the central reason for the perennial conflict between non-Orthodox American Jews and Israel. He clearly and succinctly identifies the very root of the problem:

...we need to face the fact that there is a significant disconnect between the way many (if not most) non-Orthodox Diaspora Jews define Judaism and their relationship to it [as opposed to the way most Israelis define it]. American Jews are characterized by a Post-Modern, absolute individualism. Most, as a result, bristle at the very idea that any person or institution can decide who is or who is not Jewish. On the other hand, the over 80% of Israeli Jews who describe themselves as either Orthodox or Traditional (including many Israeli Conservative Jews) see things very differently. Their conception of Judaism is not totally subjective, and their obligation to the Jewish people, as a whole, and their strong connection to Jewish collective history and memory is obligating and formative.
In other words, here, the seamless combination of Jewish nationhood and Judaism, which has characterized Judaism from time immemorial, is very much alive. As a result, conversion is not simply a matter of religious self-expression.

If I can take the liberty of boiling Woolf's point down to its bare essense:

For most non-Orthodox American Jews, being Jewish is primarily a personal lifestyle choice. For most Israelis, being Jewish is primarily being part of a nation.

And therein lies the rub.

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Back Rooms and Back Doors

What can you do? Anytime you see incitement against Israel, organized attacks against Israel, orchestrated lies against Israel, or even just a position that looks to not be in Israel’s best interest, these days, the first question you ask is, did the NIF give money to the organization at the forefront of the attack.

This weekend's Makor Rishon had an interesting report.

On the eve of Tisha b’Av there was an important case regarding the security fence near Jerusalem (specifically Har Gilo) that was directed to the Tel Aviv District court to deal with.

Appearing before the court as a “Friend of the Court” for the purpose of helping clarify technical matters, were representatives of the Council for Peace and Security. This organization was declared to be a “Friend of the Court” in 2006, and helped the Supreme Court decide in moving the fence on numerous occasions.

Around a month ago the case first came before Tel Aviv District Judge Sara Gadot.

Based on answer and statements from representatives from the Council for Peace and Security, the judge began to openly wonder about their neutrality on the fence as well as their actual professionalism on the matter (after it appeared that not everyone who even claimed to have participated in the fence survey actually participated).

So the judge started to ask questions of the members of the Council for Peace and Security.

On the eve of Tisha b’Av the judge asked, “Who is funding the Council for Peace and Security?”

This caused an uproar.

Members of the Council for Peace and Security said the judge acted improperly. The Council’s lawyer Talia Sasson (yes, that Talia Sasson) said that the judge had no right to ask that question as the Court system already recognized them as a “Friend of the Court”.

But the judge didn’t accept that and said that question is relevant if there appears to be bias and an agenda.

Anyway, you guessed it. The Council for Peace and Security, as well as individual members of the Council for Peace and Security, received a lot of money from the… New Israel Fund (NIF). In fact, while the NIF website, back in 2007, was calling the council a former grantee, NGO-Monitor exposed that the NIF was still giving them money even in 2008.

Why do I write this? Is this just another justified Muqata expose on the New Israel Fund?

Last week we saw the culmination of an incredibly organized and orchestrated attack against Israel.

There was an incredible amount of disinformation and outright lies being told to the Reform community about this Rotem Conversion bill. Members of the Reform community were so incited and riled up that they became incapable of logical thought, much less basic reading comprehension.

Even with the exact text of the bill placed in front of them, they brushed away the facts in front of their face and resorted to emotionally based, unrelated arguments (and will probably do so again in this post’s comments section).

A bill that would have resolved most of the conversion problems in Israel.


The author of the our post on the Rotem Conversion Bill made a comment that everyone seems to have missed. The author wrote: On the religious side, IRAC (an organization which receives funding from the NIF), the activist arm of the Reform Movement in Israel, is leading the fight. The Reform movement does not have much in the way of a significant number of constituents or followers in Israel, just a lot of money from various funds.

Just like the bill will prevent the Religious High Court from interfering with conversions, it will also make it harder for Israel's judicially activist secular Supreme Court to bypass the government, and overturn long-existing laws regarding conversion in Israel. A key project IRAC has been working on for years.

IRAC was leading the fight against the conversion bill. And it is certainly reasonable to assume that IRAC was apparently also responsible for the dissemination of information about the bill to the Reform community in the Diaspora.

One good thing that came out of this is that the country suddenly became aware that IRAC was trying to bypass the legislative process in Israel, as it was certainly failing in trying to convince the citizens of Israel of their case.

Instead IRAC was trying to change Israeli conversion law through a sympathetic Supreme Court, while simultaneously applying massive international pressure on Israel.

We’ve seen the tactics before. These are the same tactics used by Peace Now, Gush Shalom, and many other radical Left organizations. Many of whom have one thing in common. Funding by the NIF.

And IRAC is no exception.

But it gets worse.

Last week the Jerusalem Post reported, “The Israeli Religious Action Center (IRAC) and Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel agreed to a nearly six-month freeze on their High Court petition demanding state recognition of non-Orthodox conversions in Israel,”.


What this means is that over the next 6 months, IRAC will probably work hard to kill any chance the bill has of passing, or work to have it severely revised with some very specific changes in mind, via various pressure methods, and then in 6 months time will merrily skip back to the Supreme Court to continue were it left off in their attempts to circumvent the democratic process via the courts.

But I believe they will try something even more insidious, something our author didn't consider.

IRAC will try to have a water-downed version of the law passed, while spending the next 6 months simultaneously continuing to work through the Supreme Court to get a Reform rabbi officially recognized as a community Rabbi (specifically Miri Gold - they are currently petitioning her case in the Supreme Court) thus creating a back door to force the State to recognize Reform Conversions in Israel – and as a direct result, creating a schism in the Jewish nation in Israel, such that every family will now have to start keeping and checking family records to prevent intermarriage.

Once again, yet another organization funded by the NIF.

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Who is destroying "Jewish unity"?

by Lurker

In the comment thread on the Rotem bill post, an anonymous commenter has been arguing that for the sake of "Jewish unity", the State of Israel ought to accept all Jewish denominations as equally legitimate. Specifically, she is demanding that any person who converted to Judaism through any of these organizations (e.g., the Reform Movement) should be accepted as a Jew for all legal purposes. She accuses the State of Israel of destroying "Jewish unity" by not accepting these converts as Jews.

Since this issue has nothing to do with the Rotem bill (which is the subject of the post in question), but is still a very important point of Jewish public concern, I have decided to respond in a separate post.

For thousands of years, the mainstream of the Jewish people maintained a unified tradition regarding who is regarded as a Jew, based upon matrilineal descent. Then, 27 years ago, the Reform movement -- which itself had come into existence only a few decades earlier -- came along, and decided to unilaterally jettison those traditions, and create their own, new rules. In particular, they decided to dispense with the universally accepted requirement that the mother be Jewish [CCAR, Report of the Committee on Patrilineal Descent, adopted March 15, 1983].

In the exact same way, the Jewish people had millenia-old unified standards for the manner in which a non-Jew may be accepted into the Jewish people. This includes immersion in a mikveh, circumcision for men, and acceptance of mitzvot. Here too, the Reform movement unilaterally decided to jettison all these requirements [CCAR Yearbook 3 (1893), 73–95; American Reform Responsa (ARR), no. 68, at 236–237, which specifies that converts may be admitted "without any initiatory rite, ceremony, or observance whatever".]

Thus, it was the Reform movement, not the Orthodox, who broke ranks with the rest of the Jewish people by unilaterally abandoning all existing rules and standards that the Jewish people had maintained for centuries. To then follow up this unilateral act by demanding that the rest of the Jewish people now accept their own, newly-invented defintion of a "Jew" is outrageous. To make this demand in the name of "Jewish unity" -- after they themselves shattered Jewish unity by discarding the Jewish people's existing standards, and adopting their own, new, private ones in their place -- is the absolute height of hypocrisy.

Suppose that I and some of my friends were to establish our own, new Jewish organization, called the "Lox and Bagels Club". Suppose further that we were to decide to adopt our own, private organizational definition of who we consider to be a Jew: Let's say that we resolve that we consider anyone who likes to eat lox and bagels to be a "Jew". Would we then be within our rights to demand that the State of Israel adopt our new definition for legal purposes?

If your answer is that our hypothetical Jewish organization should have no right to make any such demand, then why is it acceptable for the Reform Movement to do so? Why should the rest of the Jewish people be expected to accept a brand new definition of "Jew" that violates the Jewish people's fundamental religious traditions, and that a new movement simply made up only a few years ago?

Perhaps you think there's a difference between my Lox and Bagels Club and the Reform Movement. Maybe you would argue that the Reform Movement has a large number of members, whereas my Lox and Bagels Club doesn't -- and that the Jewish people should therefore accept the Reform movement's "new Jews", but not the Lox and Bagels Club's "new Jews".

I would draw your attention, then, to the fact that there are other Jewish organizations who are also vying for recognition, and who have a rather sizable membership. For example, there is Messianic Judaism, aka "Jews for Jesus". They, too, have demanded that the State of Israel and the Jewish people accept them as a legitimate Jewish denomination, with the authority to perform conversions. (Their criteria for conversion, not surprisingly, center around the acceptance of Jesus as one's lord and savior.) Should their demands be accepted too, in the name of "Jewish unity"?

Most Jews -- Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform -- would answer: "But that's different! Those people believe in Jesus, so they're not Jews. That's crossing a red line: Jewish tradition has refused to accept Jesus for the last two thousand years! These people can't come along and violate our fundamental religious tradtions, and then demand that we accept them as legitimate!"

Hmm. Sound familiar?

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My First Leftist Encounter

When I was learning in Yeshiva in Israel in the 1980s, I would do some volunteer work as a madrich for a group of teenagers down the road. I taught about Judaism and went on trips with them from time to time.

One Shabbat afternoon, they had a guest speaker. I decided to stay and hear what he had to say. He said, "One of the commandments in the Torah about loving the "stranger", the "ger" (which I always thought meant convert). He translated it into "stranger" and then went into a whole diatribe about how Israel needs to love the Palestinians and give them a State, full civil rights, etc. I sat on the side quietly listening to what he had to say.

Then, he turned everyone's attention to me. "While there are many in Israel who want to help the Palestinians, there are those like HIM [pointing to the 17 year old, me] who seek to transfer and kill them all. That's what his yeshiva teaches and that's what they all believe."

I was shocked. Not only had I never said anything "political" the entire year to these teenagers, but I never recall hearing anything political in my yeshiva. Not from the Rosh Yeshiva or any of the rabbanim.

At the time, I had no political orientation whatsoever. Especially as a 17 year old American learning in Israel. I do remember feeling annoyed on so many levels; he had no clue what I though, what my politics were, and yet, because I had a kippa sruga on my head, he decided who I was, what I was, what my politics were, and decided to lambaste me in front of all.

Thinking about the mitzva of "loving the 'ger'" -- I'm reminded of my pre-Shavut posting from 2 years ago.

Shavuot: Festival of Conversion.

Chag Sameach,

Jameel


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Conversion Law Brouhaha

While the conversation conversion law amendment [spell check can be so annoying sometimes, thanks Abbi!] proposed by MK David Rotem is an interesting topic, I wasn't going to post about it. Yesterday, a friend from the US contacted me and said they desperately needed the actual text of the proposal and they couldn't find it anywhere. Looking around on the web, I was surprised that the text didn't appear anywhere, except as assorted quotes in newspapers.

First a bit of background.

MK David Rotem proposed the bill. Rotem's a religious MK in the Yisrael Beiteinu party who lives in the community of Efrat. He attended Jerusalem's Yeshivat Horev's elementary and high school, holds a law degree from Hebrew University, has the rank of Lieutenant in the IDF (reserves), and is married with 5 children.

As reported in the press, his proposed legislation is:

Rotem aims to simplify the current conversion process, by having the Chief Rabbinate grant regional rabbis conversion authority, on top of its conversion courts.

The main purpose of the bill is to facilitate the conversion of thousands of non-Jewish immigrants living in Israel. Rotem also proposed that once a conversion is recognized by the state, no religious body would have the right to overturn it. (YNET)

When the bill was discussed in preparation for its first vote, the discussion got slightly heated.

Rotem introduced bill by saying, "When I reach the world of truth, after I pass this bill, I will brag about it and will be granted access to paradise. Whoever blocks it – I don't know what he will receive."

MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) shouted at him: "You are uncultured and are ruining the nation, and still you call yourselves the Right in Israel"

Labor MK Eitan Cabel interrupted and told the Gafni: "I don't want to be in the next world with you anyway."

YNET reported:

Rotem spoke harshly against those who oppose the bill and their rabbis: "It seems that United Torah Judaism is the largest party in Knesset. It is known that Rabbi Amar has already signed the agreement and Rabbi Ovadia has welcomed it. They did not believe there were any problems, but it seems there are other rabbis in Israel whose arms have been twisted."

Interestingly, Kadima and Labor MKs also support the bill:

MK Cabel stressed that his party also supports the bill: "It is difficult for me to say a good word about your actions," he told Rotem, 'But the Labor Party, at least in this matter – gives its support. I certainly hope that you and your party have the courage to complete to move. We are tired of you dribbling around the court and threatening us. If you mean it, then do it."

So, we have the Sephardi Chief Rabbi, R' Amar supporting the bill and Aguda calling it a catastrophe. The Labor party supports is, yet the Reform movement in the USA has stated:

This legislation will certainly reopen one of the most divisive battles in the Jewish community. The proposed legislation will lead to a situation in which Jews-by-choice would be treated differently and denied recognition as Jews under the Law of Return, in direct contradiction of Israeli Supreme Court rulings. Additionally, it may lead to the delegitimization of all non-orthodox conversions performed outside of the State of Israel. (Union for Reform Judaism)

I find it fascinating that this proposal puts Reform Judaism and UTJ/Aguda on the same side of the fence, pitted against Israel's Chief Rabbi, MK David Rotem, the Yisrael Beiteinu party, the Likud, Labor and Kadima.

Confused? I googled everywhere for the actual text of the proposed amendment. Its not on the Yisrael Beitienu website. A friend in the government couldn't find it either -- though he noted my request is now becoming more and more common.

The Knesset Website's archive has no record of the current proposal. Its search engine returns a previous version from July 21, 2009, but not the current one. The protocol for the committee meeting has not been published [see screenshot below], and the background for the meeting (which was the text of the updated law amendment for the debate) has been deleted from the Knesset's website search database for the Law Committee's database.

However, Google Search is your friend! First I found a reference to the meeting.

While this version is in google cache, we can see it's been modified. The original meeting, with its background reference material, is ALSO in google's cache. Using the bill's reference number, 1456, I found the uncensored version of the meeting's schedule, with a link to the actual text of the law used in the debate! Meaning, that while the Knesset (for whatever reason) has deleted the links to the current version of the proposed amendment and any reference to it, the document is still on the Knesset website.

I'm putting it in my google docs as public access in case the Knesset deletes this version as well.

Makes you wonder why it was deleted. I bet because Shas and UTJ/Aguda threatened the government, so it was intentionally removed for the time being.



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