By COLlive reporter
The general election currently underway in Israel has once again brought to the spotlight one of the most contentious issues for the country and indeed worldwide Jewry.
A TV spot from the Sephardi haredi Shas party has renewed the public’s interest in the question of “Who is a Jew,” also known as Mihu Yehudi, the debate about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification.
The ad, titled “Dial conversion, get documentation,” was said to be aimed at the nationalist Russian-affiliated Yisrael Beiteinu party which calls to ease the conversion process and civil marriages.
It shows a wedding ceremony in which the Sephardi groom discovers that his bride, portrayed with a heavy Russian accent, is not Jewish, while a fax machine quickly prints out her conversion confirmation.
Shas has pulled the ad following complaints that it portrayed racist elements and mockery of immigrants, but the question of Jewish identity has nevertheless remained in people’s minds.
In 1962, Israel’s Law of Return immigration law started to accept applications for Israeli citizenship if there is proven documentation that any grandparent was Jewish — even if it was not the maternal grandmother.
But the battle of Mihu Yehudi in fact began before that when in the 1950s Prime Minister David Ben Gurion sought the opinions of leading rabbis from Israel, Europe and America and Jewish secular scholars, jurists and essayists on the matter.
“Jewish Identity: Who Is a Jew?,” first published in 1965 and reprinted now by KTAV Publishing House as a revised edition, compiled “modern responses and opinions on the registration of children of mixed marriages.”
The new edition, edited by Jeanne Litvin, granddaughter of the original author Baruch Litvin OBM, includes contributions from Rabbi Michael Broyde of Beth Din of America, Dr. Lawrence Schiffman and Rabbi Kenneth Brander of Yeshiva University.
It includes 43 responses sent to Ben Gurion, two of them from the Rebbe, urging to amend the legislation to be in accordance with halacha and declare that “only one who is born of a Jewish mother or converted according to Halacha is Jewish.”
“Throughout the years, one of the most vocal voice calling for emending the Law of Return to specifically require giyyur ke-halakhah, was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson,” writes Professor Schiffman, Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University.
“He saw the debate over “Who Is a Jew?” as potentially dividing the Jewish people and the violation of the traditional norms as detracting from its inherent holiness.
Perhaps what is most fascinating about the book, as Britain’s Jewish Chronicle noted at the time, was the remarkable agreement and overwhelming consensus on the part of the rabbis and the secular scholars that supports the halachic position.
And yet, nothing has changed. In fact, it became an even more pressing issue, due to the immigration from the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Ethiopia, as well as the increasing rate of intermarriage in the United States and around the world.
As Schiffman wrote about the Rebbe, “over and over he campaigned in the strongest terms to have the Law of Return changed but he was never able to overcome opposing forces unleashed by secularist Israelis and the American Reform and conservative movements.”
It would be expected of Lubavitchers and adherents of the Rebbe to acquire this book, if only for the sake of remembering a battle that has never ceased.
Jewish Identity Who is a Jew?
Author: Baruch Litvin
$27.95 at KTAV.com
People assume that the more stringency in conversion the better, but not so. do you know that people cannot make aliyah with a chabad conversion? Do you know that the Rabbinut and some chareidim pusil conversions of people who have been observant for 20 years even if the conversion was orthodox? I know Mi Hu Yehudi is important, but in Israel, some make no distinction between a modern Orthodox and Chabad conversion and a reform conversion.
Stooge it is a fake video LOL
i think that we will come to a day when everybody can be a jew and then we will never know who is a jew hashem yeshmeranu
It’s as much the grooms fault as anyone’s. He assumed she was Jewish and never asked for proof. I’ve had this conversation with several secular Jews who have proclaimed to me that they want their sons/daughters to marry only Jews. I told them, how can you expect him/her to value his/her Judiasm and ‘go out of their way’ to marry a Jew when you’ve taught him/her nothing about Judaism??? To some of these children its like telling them you only want them to marry a blond. It makes no difference to them.
Hate and fear mongering? The only “hate and fear” I see here, is hating a fake conversion and fear of the chassan that he’s been fooled! What planet are you on?
To each their own. But to me this video represented the worst type of hate and fear mongering we have. I’m glad I’ll be voting for Yisrael Beiteinu tomorrow (yes I actually live and vote in Israel.)
Even tho I don’t understand Hebrew well, that was hysterical!
He wants it to be k’halacha, orthodox, but to change the rabbanim in Israel to be more modern orthodox and more meikil in giyur.
It is a mockery of paper conversions and very well done. It should go viral so Jews all over the world will watch and wake up! There are paper conversions all over the world threatening world Jewry. The way it usually works is that the goy proclaims she is a Jew for about two or three weeks before the wedding and dupes the ignorant Jewish groom, and the repercussions are catastrophic. Sometimes ch’v children are born and grow up thinking they are Jewish and then they go and marry another Jew and another generation is lost.
Shas is mocking Yisrael Beitanu, at the same time showing that our jewish heritage is something very precious. Weather on not to vote shas, is another discussion, however based on this video ALONE you should!
That video! Converting can only be done al pi halacha, not with a fax on the day, the moment, of your wedding
Like her accent tho
…
another reason not to vote for shas