Mail.Liberal-Judaism

• Julian Yudelson <YUDELSON.JE@a1.rit.edu>
• Steven Levy <slevy@microsoft.com>

• Rabbi Andrew M Sacks <mssing@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>

• Rick Dinitz <dinitz@tss.com>

• Dean Hughson <DHUGHSON@delphi.com>

Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 07:56:00 -0700
From: Julian Yudelson <YUDELSON.JE@a1.rit.edu>
Subject: Re: Congregation membership

Although I endorse the idea of giving young people a voice in the affairs of a
congregation, treating each post bar/bat mitvah member of the family as a
separate voting unit can be rife with problems.  If the membership unit is the
family-however defined- then that should be the voting unit as well.  EAch
family unit could divide its votes into fractions, .5 for and .5 against or
.33 for and .67 against depending on the judgement of each member of the
family.  If the family member who paid the dues wanted to override others in
the family unit, that would be a matter for minhag ha bait, the family court.

This approach was used in a conservative congregation I beleonged to where the
decision to merge the congregation was a critical decision.

There is ample historic support for the "household" as the defining unit of
Jewish affiliation.  The liberal position would simply expand the decision
locus beyond the singular "male, head of household" definition.

Julian Yudleson  

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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 01:03:51 -0700
From: Steven Levy <slevy@microsoft.com>
Subject: Re: Congregation membership

In m.l-j v3n165, Adam Reed writes

>By Jewish standards, which are based on awareness that people cannot learn
>responsibility if they are treated as irresponsible dependents, a 13-year-old
>should be treated as a responsible adult.  The knowledge that Judaism
>considers him or her to be a rational, responsible person ... will have a
>powerful effect on a young person's ability to develop into a Jew and a
>Mensch.

Not only is this a terrific point in general, but it also harks back to a
thread of a month ago -- how do we keep young Jews involved after they turn
13?

I think a big part of the answer is to keep in mind that a child doesn't HAVE
a bar/bat mitzvah; the child BECOMES a bat/bar mitzvah.  Saying it isn't
achieving it, of course.  I think continuing programs at shul are important,
but I think that recognizing the child as a (young) adult means a lot more.  A
13 year old can father or have children.  We hear about 13 year olds who shoot
drugs and people daily.

A 13 year old today (and maybe it was ever thus) is faced with major
adult-level decisions, with adult-level consequences.  By helping our children
make a strong transition into the responsibilities of adulthood, we go a long
way toward helping them make good choices.

By the time I hit my early teens, I wasn't much for letting my parents make
choices for me.  I went along with some, fought others, sometimes did the
opposite simply to assert my independence -- my adulthood.  I wanted to be
grown up already!  How I longed for, would have welcomed a community that
treated me as an adult.  I found one, of course -- my peers.  Luckily, I hung
with some bright, sensible young adults -- which means I did pot rather than
speed or smack, joyrode in "borrowed" parental cars rather than stolen ones,
didn't get anyone pregnant, etc.

School was no help; they still treated me as a child.  Shul was even worse (my
parents belonged to one of the ultimate big-temple, big-bar-mitzvah-party
suburban synagogues).

Well, times have changed.  The drugs of choice are far more dangerous, and
it's far easier to make very wrong choices.  Joyrides take place at gunpoint.
Schools are even more irrelevant.  AIDS joins pregnancy as a risk of normal
adolescent sexual experimentation.  And we have little control over any of
these forces.

But we do have Judaism.  I think offering voting membership -- responsibility,
adulthood -- to bar and bat mitzvahs is a brilliant stroke!  It's only a
start, of course; it won't make schools better, or help a young adult put up
with bad ones; it won't replace condoms or abstinence; it won't get guns and
crack off the street.

The bar/bat mitzvah talks the talk -- Today I am a Mensch.  Let's help him/her
walk the walk.

Steve

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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 13:44:51 -0700
From: Rabbi Andrew M Sacks <mssing@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il>
Subject: Conversion

Quite a few years back, while still serving as a congregational rabbi in the
States it was discovered that a young man was born to a non-Jewish mother.

The discovery was made three weeks before he was to become a Bar Mitzvah.  It
seems that his mom had a Jewish father (Goldstein) and she was raised as a
Jew.  She married a Jewish man (Freidman) and had four kids. The first two
were called to the Torah as B'nei Mitzvah and the discovery was made only two
years later.  With the agreement of all involved I did a Hatafaat Dam (the boy
had had a medical circumcision) and we went to Mikveh.

Three years ago, here in Jerusalem, I had some high school students over for
Shabbat. To make a long and interesting story short (if that is possible at
this point) one of the boys--age 15--had an article about his mother who had
been converted 16 years earlier w/o Mikveh. His father, who was born Jewish,
died when Josh was 3 years old, but his mom stayed committed to Judaism.  She
joined a Conservative schul and sent Josh to a Jewish day school. Josh, at the
age of 15 was a Baal Koreh in his schul, put on Teffilin, and came to Israel
to study. There was just one little problem.  Josh's mom had converted w/o
Mikveh. The conversion was performed by a Reform rabbi. (Note: I am not
concerned as to whether the officiating rabbi is Orthodox, Reform,
Conservative, or Reconstructionist. I don't care if there is not a rabbi
officiating at the conversion if there is a knowledgeable Jew doing so. I am
concerned that the conversion be Al Pi Halacha).

The next day I spoke w/ Josh who was considering Aliya. I told him that w/ his
Jewish sounding last name and his ethnic looks he could probably pass right by
the Ministry of the Interior. He could also get a letter from an Orthodox
rabbi who has known him his whole life to be Jewish.  If he did nothing, and
married a Jew, his kids would be Jewish. I asked him whether he wanted to
leave well enough alone or to go through w/ a giyur to remove any safek. After
speaking w/ his mom, he decided on the latter.

I chose not to officiate, being a Conservative rabbi, so that his conversion
would not be rejected yet a second time.  I found three willing Orthodox
rabbis--no easy feat in our Holy City.  Several, who had turned me down, felt
that it was important to go ahead w/ such a giyur but for political reasons
they could not participate.  Another said that if Josh would agree to stop
riding on Shabbat, only then would he officiate(he rode to schul in order to
drive his mother who was handicapped). The three Orthodox rabbis and I went to
a men's Mikveh in the Bakka neighborhood of Jerusalem where we whispered the
blessings so that those nearby would not know what we were doing. (Mikvehs are
not used for Giyur except by the official Rabbinate). Our excuse for coming to
the Mikveh was that we were bringing a Hatan (Josh) before his wedding. This
explained why we were all dressed and he was naked. We did not do a Hatafaat
Dam since he had a Brit (even though it was not l'shem giyur) when he was
eight days old.  According to most Poskim, this is sufficient.

This was a young man deeply committed to his religion and to his people.  He
could have passed but he chose not to do so.  While Josh was concerned that
"if I am converting to Judaism, then what have I been my whole life," we all
felt spiritually energized by the ceremony which we considered not so much a
conversion as much as removing any safek. Was this conversion necessary?  Only
the Kodesh Barechu can know.

B'vracha,

Andrew M. Sacks (Jerusalem)

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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 13:24:03 -0700
From: Rick Dinitz <dinitz@tss.com>
Subject: Re: Electronic Congregation

 So far much of the discussion about electronically-mediated tfilah has
focused on whether ten people in separate locations constitute a minyan if
connected electronically.  It occurs to me that this is not the only
conceivable way to use an electronic connection for tfilah.  The questions
we're asking aren't as creative as they could be.  Let's stretch our minds a
bit further.

 Imagine a time, not so far from now, when keyboards have become a thing of
the past -- as antiquated as telegraph keys.  Electronic connections are high
on sensory realism, with life-size holographic video and hi-fi audio.

 Imagine a regular synagogue where a physical minyan is present on a Thursday
morning.  Imagine that this synagogue is electronically connected to groups of
Jews in several other locations -- again with a physical minyan in each place.
Each of these satellite groups has sufficient members present to hold its own
service, but cannot do so because it lacks competent baalei tfilah [prayer
leaders].  Or perhaps it lacks a Sefer Torah, or Torah readers.

 Now ask some questions of halacha: Can these satellites become part of the
main synagogue congregation by virtue of the electronic connection?  Can
members of the satellite minyanim fulfill the mitzvah of public prayer by
responding "Amen" to a hazzan in the main synagogue?  Can they fulfill the
mitzvah of hearing the Torah chanted by listening to the baalei kore [Torah
readers] at the main synagogue?

 Now ask some more complex questions: Can a satellite congregant be called for
an aliyah to the Torah when the Sefer Torah is physically located and read in
another location?  Can a baal kore read from a Sefer Torah in a remote
location?

 If we answer even some of these questions affirmatively, then the technology
could greatly enhance the opportunities for many Jews in hospitals, nursing
homes and correctional facilities to participate in the religious life of the
synagogue.

 More questions to ponder: Until what time can linked groups in Miami Beach
and Novosibirsk daven Shacharit together?  If a group in a walled city is
linked with a group in a non-walled city, on what day(s) do they read Megilat
Esther?  If the magbiha [Torah lifter] at the main synagogue drops the Sefer
Torah (may God prevent it), must satellite congregants fast?

 Long distance,
 it's the next best thing
 to being there,
 -Rick

[dinitz@tss.com]
Copyright 1994, Rick Dinitz

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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 06:23:45 -0700
From: Dean Hughson <DHUGHSON@delphi.com>
Subject: Who is a Jew?

I have read with interest the people who say "Well, the young boy's father was
Jewish but not observant so he is not a Jew, even though he was studying for
his bar mitzvah."  I am personally repulsed by those who feel that they can
abuse children or other human beings with such thought.  The following letter
from Reform Judaism Summer 1994 says it all:

Dear Editor:

In past issues you have published articles on the question of who is a Jew,
and in particular, on patrilineal descent.  I am the child of a Jewish father
and a non-Jewish mother in Vienna, Austria. I lost my father in Buchenwald.
In fear of the Gestapo I had to hide for seven years.  After the war I was
starving, freezing (living in a ruin), destitute, trying desperately to stay a
student at the University of Vienna.  I worked part-time in exchange for one
meal a day at a home for survivors from Theresienstadt (Terezin), run by the
Joint Jewish Districution Committee.  I was shamed and rejected there because,
not having been raised by a Jewish mother, I did not know the story of Purim!

Considered 'only' half a Jew, I received no support at all from any Jewish
agency.  Having survived a hell for seven years meant nothing to them.  I was
never told I could go to Israel.  A 'work-entrance permit' for one year as a
domestic to Switzerland (the only kind available) helped me to stay alive.  I
cleaned toilets, washed floors, etc. in a hospital in Basel.  I had food and a
warm room.  Having no support system, I gave up my goal to become a
psychiatrist.

Although I was anxious to learn about the religioin of my fathers, no door was
then open to me in Europe.  What a grim irony--Hitler persecuted people for
having "Jewish blood" (Nuremberg laws) but then Jews discriminated against
people for having 'non-Jewish blood."

Gradually I awakened to an understanding that it was not my deficit but an
abysmal lack of compassion and empathy among the Jews who rejected me!  I
started to see my strength, my gifts, my own humanity.

Now I am 70 years old--and they still squabble in Israel over children with a
Jewish father.  Fifty years after the Holocaust--how sad.  What could be more
important than to lovingly accept children with Jewish blood?  Is there
something more important than to be 'a mensch?" Not for me, not for me!

Xenia Amschl
Santa Monica, Ca

As a Jew I am ashamed by the continuing behavior of my fellow Jews that we
'push' people away from being Jewish.  The current movement in Liberal Judaism
is to work on getting converts, which I agree with but perhaps the most
important thing we need to do is to humanize some of our own people in
treating fellow humans and Jews in a humane manner.  Shame on those who feel
it necessary to embarrass children ------what can possibly be the positive
payoff for you from such behavior?

Dean Hughson
Braymer Mo

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"It is not our task as liberal Jews to complain about the Orthodox attitude or to be bullied by it, but rather to choose our legitimate path according to the inner logic and development of liberal Judaism" (Rabbi Walter Jacob)

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