Will Soviet 0lim Become Reform Jews?
LINGER, STANLEY A.
Will Soviet Olim become Reform Jews? Tens of Thousands of Halachic Non-Jews ter Israel under the Law of Return STANLEY A. RINGLER The massive Soviet aiiyah presents Reform Judaism with a historic...
...Under its resolution someone born of a Jewish father must be raised Jewish to invoke the patrilineal principle...
...One need not be particularly astute to realize that a significant percentage of Soviet olim are not Jewish, however one defines Jewish...
...In one decade the Israeli Progressive religious community could bring about a revolutionary change in the perplexing situation in which it presendy finds itself...
...Soviet Jews are not only open to what we have to teach and preach, they are searching for the enlightened and cultured spirit that characterizes our faith and ritual...
...Needed, no less in Israel than in the Diaspora, is a position that reflects an attitude of inclusion and spiritual caring, not one that contradicts the more liberal spirit of the operative provision of the Law of Return...
...A bold and creative response by the Reform movement must be made to reach out and educate an entire community of people who are open, interested and eager to learn who and what being Jewish is all about...
...They recognize that reality dictates a more pragmatic and enlightened approach to the question: The extraordinary situation with which the Israeli Progressive Rabbinate is confronted requires it to overcome its halachic inhibitions...
...Should the hundreds of thousands of potential olim reconsider...
...In the past, when the family name (that is, the husband's name) was not Jewish-sounding—either because the husband was not Jewish or because a Jewish name had already been Russified—the temptation to abandon a Jewish identity and to conceal one's Jewish roots was naturally strong in a culture that harbored a potent history of discrimination and prejudice against Jews...
...For 70 years Soviet law and custom has encouraged assimilation and interfaith marriage...
...What message would such a confrontation transmit back to the Soviet Union...
...Most of them view Israel as another transit point...
...They have no historical memory and no Jewish basis for comparison except in terms of what they are presented with now...
...Some Israeli authorities say that there may be another million who qualify under the Law of Return and who are likely to request permission to immigrate...
...An estimated 10 percent of these identity papers are forged...
...At the time Maram took this position, it sought to preserve its integrity as an Israel-rooted rabbinic fellowship by adopting a more traditional stance...
...Israel today is culturally and spiritually dominated by Jews who are the descendants of the secular Zionist chalutzim (pioneers) and the vestiges of the Orthodox religious community that was transplanted to the Holy Land, from the ghettos of Eastern Europe...
...Shlichim (representatives from Israel) prowl the lines of immigration applicants in an effort to ferret out the "nonjews" and dissuade or intimidate them from immigrating...
...The result will surely be a chasm of such dimensions that reconciliation between the religious and non-religious communities (including the Soviet olim) will be unattainable for generations...
...Thus a halachic definition of "Who is a Jew" was adopted.* While this language narrowed the definition of a Jew, another section broadened the definition of those qualified to immigrate with the rights and privileges accorded to Jews...
...The same is true for her children...
...The Ministry of Interior, which is controlled by the ultra-Orthodox Shas Sefardi Torah Guardians party, refuses to register new citizens as Jews if they do not have adequate documentary proof...
...Perhaps this is why many in the government and even some elements within Israel's religious community are attempting to keep the lid on this issue, deferring it until one or two million new residents have setded in...
...The question is will the'Diaspora Reform community meet the challenge...
...They are eager to discover what exactly constitutes Jewishness...
...ingly open to and interested in all things Jewish and Israeli...
...Some say that for as small a bribe as a package of Marlboro cigarettes, one can have new identity papers issued by the authorities...
...Moreover, the Conservative movement does not recognize patrilineal descent...
...We are not officially recognized by the State of Israel...
...Ironically, today the process has reversed itself...
...They want to study Jewish history, to learn about Jewish heritage, to absorb Jewish culture and to become acquainted with the Jewish land and people...
...In the face of the massive Soviet immigration, some members of Maram are rethinking their position...
...In Russian society, one's identity is determined by the father...
...The implications of this amendment are staggering: Two generations of offspring from a single Jewish grandparent, most of whom are assimilated and likely even registered as nonjews, are nonetheless qualified for aliyah according to the Law of Return...
...If we rise to the challenge we may yet be able to change the pattern of the last 30 years...
...These funds are being passed through government ministries, like the Ministry of Absorption and the Ministry of Education, controlled by the Orthodox political parties...
...Families who for generations have sought to deny their Jewish lineage are now trying to reclaim it...
...They are refresh* In recent years the rabbinate has sought to have the definition amended further to read "born to a Jewish mother or converted 'according to Ao/aeftaA...
...Tens of Thousands of Halachic Non-Jews ter Israel under the Law of Return STANLEY A. RINGLER The massive Soviet aiiyah presents Reform Judaism with a historic opportunity...
...The Reform movement in America, too, needs to bring its definition of Jewish descent into conformance with the de facto reality of the massive Russian aliyah and the national and cultural expressions of Jewish identity that living in Israel make possible...
...Official Soviet population statistics report an identifiable Jewish community of one and a half million...
...There he announced that 30 percent to 40 percent of those immigrating to Israel are not Jews according to halachah...
...The religious community disdains and dismisses us and the secular community is simply ignorant and suspicious of us...
...Within a relatively short time—a decade or less— Progressive Judaism (as Reform Judaism is called in Israel) could become trie largest and most influential religious community in the country...
...Once these nonjewish immigrants arrive, the Israeli rabbinate tries to prevent or impede their acceptance into the nation of Israel...
...They want to identify, to assimilate and to define themselves Jewishly...
...Even Maram, the Israel Council of Progressive Rabbis, is still on record as opposing patrilineal descent...
...It is perhaps even more paradoxical that under Israel's Law of Return many of these Russians, who arc not halachicallyjews, can qualify to immigrate to Israel asjews...
...Aliyah is traditionally considered to be one of the greatest mitzvot (commandments...
...Well over 50 percent of Soviet Jews have married non-Jews...
...In addition, many children and grandchildren of interfaith couples, registered as non-Jews, are nevertheless halachically Jews—if born of a Jewish mother...
...Strangely however, the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis' resolution on patrilineal descent ignores this...
...Yet they are entitled to immigrate to Israel as Jews under Israel's Law of Return...
...With sufficient energy and resources, hundreds of thousands of Soviet immigrants would join our movement...
...Israeli rabbis have now been sent to Moscow to set up a belt din (religious court) in the Israeli consulate...
...Thus, according to the Hebrew University Sovietologist Ze'ev Katz, a male Jew in the Soviet Union whose name is Greenberg or Abramowitz, even if he is married to a non-Jew, usually continues to be identified as a Jew, as are his children, even though, according to halackak, they are not Jewish...
...In time they hope to make their way to other destinations in the West...
...Tens of millions of dollars in public funds have been funneled to spiritual absorption...
...This opportunity arises from a confluence of factors: Many Soviet otim (immigrants) are, from the viewpoint of traditional religious law, non-Jews...
...The opportunity is unprecedented...
...If the applicant is identified as a Jew by nationality, that's enough...
...Moreover, Soviet olim are open to the kind of Judaism that the Progressive movement espouses...
...This amendment to the Law of Return reads: The privileges of Jews, according to this Law, are granted both to the child and to the grandchild of a Jew, to the spouse of a Jew and to the spouse of a child of a Jew and to the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew...
...If the rabbinate persists, their refusal to register people as Jews may provoke a kulturkampf...
...In Israel, neither the Progressive movement nor the Masorti movement (Conservative Judaism's arm in Israel) have substantial enough numbers or resources to undertake a major outreach effort to the new Soviet olim...
...But two million Soviet citizens have already registered for immigration permits to Israel...
...While this may be an exaggeration, there is no question that there is a growing trade in forged documents...
...In 1970, Israel's Law of Return was amended to define a Jew as someone "born to a Jewish mother or converted...
...The lens of thousands of Russians who are emigrating to Israel under false documents are only a small pan of the equation, however...
...This result does not invariably follow because, under Russian law, interfaith couples have the choice of registering as either Jews or Russians...
...They will seek to assimilate into the Israeli melting pot along with the hundreds of thousands of other Soviet Jewish immigrants whose Jewish consciousness and identity is almost totally undeveloped...
...On his return, Peretz reported his findings to both of Israel's chief rabbis...
...Rabbi Yitzchak Peretz, Israel's Minister of Absorption and an ultra-Orthodox fundamentalist, visited Moscow to study the aliyah process...
...Direcdy and indirecdy these programs are designed to bring the new olim into the world of the Orthodox community...
...In the meantime, Orthodox authorities in Israel have recruited a huge spiritual army that is reaching out to the new Soviet olim in an effort to introduce them to authentic Judaism...
...In Israel our numbers are quite small...
...In addition, a large number are seeking in Israel to rediscover their roots and to become acculturated and socialized as Jews...
...A Jewish woman who intermarries, Katz explains, adopts the family name of her husband, so it is quite easy for her to cease being identified as Jewish...
...Clearly, these people are not making aliyah in the sense of choosing Israel...
...Many of these halachic non-Jews could qualify as Jews, however, under the rules of patrilineal descent adopted by the Reform movement...
...The problems this creates are not experienced until the olim present themselves to the rabbinical courts in order to secure a marriage license or divorce certificate...
...But Soviet Jews are different...
...This is true for Jews as well as nonjews...
...Yet, many of them do identify as Jews even though they do not meet halachic standards...
...A non-Orthodox Jewish religious community looks like an alien phenomenon...
...Israeli consular officials in Moscow generally make only a perfunctory check of an applicant's Soviet identity papers...
...But some will undoubtedly stay...
...therefore many Soviet olim, despite the fact that they have performed the mitzvah of aliyah, do not qualify as Jews...
Vol. 16 • August 1991 • No. 4
