USCJ Review - Fall 2006
Letters for the Editor
Welcoming Converts
Dear Editor,
The Spring/Summer issue of United Synagogue Review has several articles focusing on the issue of keruv, the welcoming of Gentiles into the Jewish fold. As indicated, the rate of Jewish/Christian intermarriage is high and we want to welcome the non-Jewish spouse into our midst and ideally seek their conversion. All that is well and good, but one of the most difficult issues has been avoided. What of the children of these marriages, particularly if their mother comes from a Gentile background?
Of course there would be no problem if these mothers were to convert to Judaism at the time of marriage. But if one or more children are born before conversion, even if they are raised as Jews, I assume that they will have to be converted before they can become bar mitzvah. But what if they never convert, though they consider themselves Jews? I know of at least one such case, where the mother never converted and the adult daughter, thinking of herself as a Jew, was denied the right to be called for an aliya to the Torah. This woman was married to an observant Jew and had never thought of herself as other then a Jew. What a shock! The couple quit the congregation and chose to affiliate elsewhere.
I know this is a hot topic among Orthodox Jews, who greatly fear that the identity of Jewish people is gradually being dissolved through intermarriage. They are especially critical of Reform Jews, who recognize both maternal and paternal lineage. But isn't this attitude genuinely racist? So where does the Conservative movement stand on this issue? Let's hear the scholars discuss this, rather than avoiding it as they did in the last issue of the United Synagogue Review.
- Shimon Gottschalk, Tallahassee, Florida
Rabbi Jerome Epstein, Executive Vice President of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, responds:
The Conservative movement is committed to halacha. According to halacha, a child's Jewish identity is determined through his or her mother. If the mother is Jewish, the child is Jewish. If the child's mother is not Jewish but the father is, it is important that we inspire the family to convert the child as soon as possible.
It is the challenge of the Conservative Jewish community to encourage intermarried families to raise their children as Jews and to support the families both before and after they make that decision. Direct outreach and encouragement is essential. The new edud program referred to in the spring edition of the United Synagogue Review provides guidance and direction on how we might inspire and encourage the raising of Jewish children. Special efforts must be made to encourage the parents and inspire the children to identify as Jews.
Recently, United Synagogue announced new efforts to bring children of intermarried families into our educational institutions in order to help them learn about the Jewish community and identify with it. Our challenge is to be warm and welcoming while at the same time remaining true to our ideology and firm in our standards. Because one of our main goals is raising Jewish families, when a child is not born to a Jewish mother, the implicit message must be that conversion must take place as soon as possible - certainly before the age of bar or bat mitzvah.
Understanding Intermarriage
Dear Editor,
Having digested Rabbi David Booth's article ("Reaching Out to the Intermarried," Spring/Summer 2005) and many similar discussions on how to include intermarrieds in the shul, I agree that is a valid issue of concern. What really concerns me far more, however, is the question of just how we got into this situation. When the high rates of intermarriage were made public a few years ago, hearts stopped as people asked how this could have happened. It should have been a top priority issue for all Jewish leadership, rabbinical, professional, and lay, but as a Jewish educator I have yet to experience the organized Jewish community really tackling this continuing concern.
What causes it? Was it a lack of spirituality? Was it a lack of meaningful Jewish education that should connect into a living Jewish home? Was it leadership fearful of really encouraging families to live Jewish life at home? Was it maintaining the classic Jewish bar mitzvah factory industry? Was it the cold reception many congregants offer the new faces they see in their shuls? Was it the lack of love for our rich tradition that allowed a person to cross the line? As a Jewish educator I continually struggle wi h this vital concern.
All we do it put band-aids on sores; somehow we've not yet been able to find the right antibiotic to stop this infection.
- Avrum I. Ashery, Rockville, Maryland
Sitting in the Back of the Shul
Dear Editor,
In his President's Forum in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of United Synagogue Review, it is very nice that our new United Synagogue president, Dr. Raymond B. Goldstein, says that he is proud of the fact that the Conservative Movement is "large enough to cover, protect and value the authenticity of egalitarian and non-egalitarian minyanim" (Supporters of non-egalitarian minyanim usually use the euphemism "traditional minyanim"). I would like to offer a moshol, a parable:
An African-American family converts to Judaism halachically and is active in their Conservative congregation. The family then relocates to our town and arrives at our congregation. We tell them that they are welcome to join, but that our congregation does not have a tradition of allowing blacks on the bima and that it would make our members uncomfortable. Therefore, they should not expect to receive any honors during the course of their membership.
It is true that Judaism highly values "shalom bayit" - unity and peace, literally peace in the house - but it also highly values justice, fairness, and truth. Until we confront the continued unfair treatment of women in our movement, years after this issue was declared settled, we will be unable to deal with the even greater challenges offered by modernity in the 21st century.
- Dr. Michael Geselowitz, Cedarhurst, NY
Are We a Halachic Movement?
Dear Editor,
Unfortunately I must concede that our leadership has changed the direction of our movement, no longer imbibing adherence to halacha as the fundamental support beam of our theology. As prooftext I offer the following:
The board of trustees of our seminary has appointed a brilliant scholar as its chancellor. Unfortunately he is not a rabbi. Effectively the board is publicly stating that it values Jewish thought over deed and obligation. This theology is counterintuitive to Conservative theology and is reflective of Reform Judaism. What is next? Does the seminary then change its curriculum producing Jewish scholars totally lacking in knowledge of law?
Professor Gillman spoke publicly stating in no uncertain terms that halacha is no longer a value to which Conservative Jews are subject. Heretofore I always believed that accepting the authority of halacha was axiomatic for one to identify publicly as a Conservative Jew.
The new president of the United Synagogue in his first article in this journal stated that we have the authority to change halacha. No time in my memory has channing halacha ever been acceptable within our movement. Yes, we have interpreted it in each generation as we are so obligated (parashat Shoftim). However, any change in practice resulted from a change in interpretation, not changing the law. Hospice Shalom that we ever change the law.
These events bode ill for our movement. In the absence of the fundamental acceptance of Jewish law the primary theological platform we will meld into the Reform camp. Unfortunately many of our members do not understand the halachic requirements of Conservative Jews. The above then reinforces their mistaken behaviors, perpetuating an unacceptable direction of our movement.
- Richard M. Bahr, North Canton, Ohio
We Need Logic
Dear Editor,
Mr. Richard S. Mitnick's defense of Kabbalah mystery and emotion (Letters, Spring/Summer 2006) via an ad hominen attack against my letter of Fall/Winter 2005, does not supercede our Judiac need for logical thinking and for rational inquiry into the bases of our traditions.
- Leo Shatin, Ph.D., F. A. P. A.
The writer is a retired professor of clinical psychiatry/psychology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Eating Kosher, Avoiding Nitrites
Dear Editor,
Hebrew National is an example of what may be kosher enough but I think it is not healthy enough ("Kosher Enough - A New Look At Kashrut," Fall/Winter 2005). I avoid products with nitrates and nitrites. This means that I have been shut out of the kosher hot dog market - and I resent it. I shouldn't have to go traif in order to eat hot dogs that qualify as organic and contain no nitrates or nitrites. The list of products could go on.
I have found a supplier of organic kosher poultry; I hope the source remains reasonably available. I use kosher bison, which qualifies as organic. I'd like to be able to buy organic kosher beef products but that seems just not to be - at least not to be within reason.
- Gordon Kutler, Erdenheim, Pennsylvania
More on the Hevra Kadisha
Dear Editor,
I commend Rabbi Mel Glazer on his involvement and promotion of the hevra kadisha ("Hevra Kadisha: The Final Mitzvah," Spring 2006). My congregation, Tifereth Israel in Washington, D.C., was one of the first Conservative congregations to start its own funeral practices committee in the 1970s. By acting as intermediaries with a cooperative funeral home, we enabled our members to get a traditional Jewish funeral at a reasonable cost. We soon requested the community's Orthodox hevra kadisha to train our members to perform that mitzvah as well. Now most of our local Conservative congregations have a funeral practices committee and their own hevra kadisha.
There are a few points in the article that do need to be clarified. The aron, the plain pine coffin, is unlined and does not have a pillow. The small bag of earth is not a pillow.
Rabbi Glazer's hevra may perform shmira, sitting the met, the dead person, for three-hour shifts; each hevra can determine the number of hours in a shift.
I would also question a hevra kadisha being "sponsored and organized by a local funeral home." The funeral home may contact the local community hevra, but the hevra must maintain its independence from the funeral home. For example, our community has experienced a funeral home dressing and applying cosmetics to the met, after the traditional tahara was performed and the met was placed in a shroud.
All the personal emotions expressed by Rabbi Glazer are felt by men and women performing this mitzvah. I, too, encourage others to become involved.
- Marcia F. Goldberg, Washington, DC
Dear Editor,
Rabbi Mel Glazer has provided a vital service by sharing his personal involvement in the work of caring for the dead and is to be commended for his years of leadership in reclaiming the sacred burial fellowship ("Hevra Kadisha: The Final Mitzvah," Spring/Summer 2006).
I would like to offer a respectful emendation to his brief history, which states that the hevra kadisha is "a relatively modern institution; the first ones were organized in Spain and in Germany in the 14th century." As recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, the first reference to a Jewish burial fellowship actually dates back to about 300 C.E.
According to Moed Katan 27b, when someone dies in a city, all are prohibited from work until the dead person is buried. A visiting fourth-century sage named Rabbi Hamnuna was outraged when he saw some people going on with their work after public notification that someone in the town had died. The workers assured him that there was a hevra kadisha in town, whereupon he permitted their work to continue without sanctions.
Although this incident provides early evidence for the specialization of the burial fellowship, the underlying message of the Talmudic passage is that as Jews, we are responsible for showing up and caring for our own -- not only by visiting the sick and consoling the bereaved, but by watching over and caring for those who have died within our own communities.
In cities like New York, the vast majority of our Conservative congregations rely upon Orthodox hevra kadisha groups to prepare the dead for burial. Rabbi Glazer's article is an important resource for those committed to hesed shel emet (kindness at the moment of truth), as we organize to provide the full continuum of care for our own members at this sacred and vulnerable time.
- Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips, Brooklyn, New York
The writer is the founding chair of the Hevra Kadisha at Park Slope Jewish Center, a United Synagogue-affiliated congregation under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Carie Carter.
