Month: April 2005

I spoke last night at a vigil for Pope John Paul II at University of Michigan sponsored by the Polish Student Society. I had no reservation about speaking at this vigil as many rabbis around the world were reflecting and memorializing the Pope publicly. I spoke first and explained how meaningful it was for me to be a part of this vigil not only as a rabbi, a Jew, and a member of the Human Race, but also as someone of Polish decent (3 out of 4 of my grandparents have Polish heritage). My colleague, Father Dan Reim, spoke very well and summarized the Pope’s achievements in all areas including his interfaith work.

Overall, I thought the vigil was very nice and appropriate. My only criticism is that the remarks by a Polish student (the one who invited me to speak) were outrageous and inappropriate. This student began his speech by explaining that the reaction to the Pope’s death could be likened to the American reaction after September 11. He then said, “Fortunately, there’s no perpetrator to chase after.” Comparing the death of an 85-year-old man (even a wonderful man like the Pope who contributed so much to society) to the tragic murder of thousands of innocent civilians in a terrorist attack is rediculous. Even if he only made the claim that the reaction to both events are similar and not the actual acts, this is an insult to the families of the victims of 9/11. The Polish people, a billion Catholics, and millions of non-Catholics worldwide are mourning the loss of Pope John Paul II and are also grateful for the legacy he leaves. However, this type of mourning is the complete opposite of the mourning that took place in the weeks after 9/11 in our country.

The complete Michigan Daily article is here.

By Dan Baron
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM — After 22 years of living as an Israeli, Justina Hilaria Chipana can finally consider herself a full-fledged member of the Jewish state.

The 50-year-old native of Peru was one of 17 petitioners who won High Court of Justice recognition of their non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism on Thursday, in what the Conservative and Reform movements hailed as a breakthrough for efforts to introduce more religious pluralism to Israel.

Orthodox rabbis and politicians disagreed.

By a vote of 7-4, the High Court ordered the state to recognize “leaping converts” — so called because they study in Israeli institutes but then convert with Reform or Conservative rabbis abroad — as eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return.

The ruling was a small step in a decades-long controversy in Israel over who is a Jew, who can turn a non-Jew into a Jew and who can decide whether that process was done correctly.

Thursday’s ruling also broadened a 1989 decision recognizing immigrants who arrive having gone through the entire non-Orthodox conversion process abroad; those immigrants are considered to be Jews and the Law of Return applies to them.

But the ruling did not endorse Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel, a move that effectively would end Orthodoxy’s de facto hegemony in the Jewish state and could stir up a government crisis.

In response to a demand presented by the fervently Orthodox Shas party and signed by 25 legislators, the Knesset will meet in special session next week to debate the court decision.

Shas Chairman Eli Yishai called the ruling an “explosives belt that has brought about a suicide attack against the Jewish people,” according to Ha’aretz.

The Orthodox Rabbinate, which controls the observance of life-cycle events in Israel — including births, weddings and funerals — also cried foul.

“There aren’t two movements or three movements in Judaism. There is only one Judaism,” Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar told Israel Radio. “Whoever doesn’t go through a halachic conversion is not a Jew.”

Yet with many Israelis increasingly concerned about the lack of a unifying religious identity in the country — where some 300,000 citizens are non-Jews from the former Soviet Union — the Conservative and Reform movement remained confident that their more lenient conversions would provide a solution.

“We believe that with this precedent, it is just a matter of time until alternatives to Orthodox Judaism are fully recognized,” said attorney Sharon Tal of the Israel Religious Action Center, a pro-pluralism lobby associated with the Reform movement. “It could mean filing more High Court petitions, or just waiting for Israel to come to its senses.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Reform movement was unsatisfied that the court didn’t issue a more far-reaching decision, and plans to bring another petition in hopes of forcing the state to recognize Reform conversions performed in Israel.

The only way for the Orthodox to counter Thursday’s ruling would be to have a new law passed defining their stream as the only legitimate form of Judaism in Israel. But repeated efforts to mount such legislation in the past failed to muster majorities for even preliminary Knesset readings.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon counts one Orthodox political party, United Torah Judaism, in his coalition, and he has been courting Shas. Still, it seems unlikely that either party would be able to apply enough pressure on the government to push through motions against the High Court ruling.

“We have no coalition agreement regarding this,” UTJ leader Rabbi Avraham Ravitz said. “I’m sure there will be discussions about what can be done, but I’m not especially hopeful.”

The High Court ruling is immediately binding on the government. That’s a relief for Chipana and her fellow petitioners, who filed their suit in 1999.

“We are going to implement the decision in a crystal-clear manner,” Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz of the Labor Party told Army Radio. “I think that it provides an answer for many people who are living among us and are forced to go through a very tough journey, exhausting and tiring, that causes many to lose hope.”

In the United States, reaction to the decision broke along denominational lines.

“As a Conservative rabbi, I am of course delighted that the High Court in Israel has mandated the recognition of conversions performed by Conservative rabbis in America,” said Rabbi Joel Roth, a scholar of Jewish law and the former head of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Law Committee.

“I’m very much aware that some segments of the Jewish world will continue to refuse to accept as valid conversions performed by Conservative and Reform rabbis, and the court’s decision will create problems in those communities,” he said. “I accept as valid any conversion that complies with halachic requirements, and conversions that do not, I do not accept.”

The Orthodox Union, on the other hand, said it is “deeply concerned” by the ruling.

“The decision of the court may eventually lead to the division of the people of Israel into two camps. There will be a group of halachically valid Jews and a group of people who are Jewish only by the ruling of the Supreme Court,” the union said in a news release signed by its president, Stephen Savitsky, and executive vice president, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb. “The consequences of this ruling will be tragic.”

For the petitioners, however, the ruling was a long-overdue relief.

“I always dreamed of really belonging to the country,” Chipana, who first came to Israel in 1983, told JTA. In 1993 she converted at a Reform congregation in Argentina, and filed the lawsuit in 1999. “Now perhaps it can really happen.”

But should she want to marry to her Israeli-born boyfriend, Yosef Ben-Moshe, she will have to go on waiting or do it abroad: The chief rabbinate in Israel remains exclusively Orthodox, and its grip on life-cycle events remains unchallenged.

That’s the way the UTJ’s Ravitz wants it. Asked what will happen if “leaping converts” apply for marriage licenses in Israel, he said, “I imagine they will be told to take a flying leap.”

Sallai Meridor, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, sees the question of Orthodox control as a larger problem than the one the High Court addressed.

“The entire acrobatic phenomenon in which people are forced to marry or convert abroad does no honor to Judaism or the State of Israel,” he said.

From Edah

On March 26, 2000, Pope John Paul II came to Jerusalem, to the heart of Israel, to that city to which all Jewish hearts have turned for 2000 years.

He came to the Western Wall, adjacent to the Temple Mount. He placed a prayer in the Western Wall. It read:

God of our fathers,
You chose Abraham and his descendants
To bring Your name to the nations;
We are deeply saddened
By the behavior of those
Who in the course of history
Have caused these children of Yours to suffer
And asking Your forgiveness
We wish to commit ourselves
To genuine brotherhood
With the people of the Covenant.

Pope John Paul II will always be remembered by the Jewish people as the man who wrote this prayer and lived its words. These simple short lines express the ideas by which he transformed the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church towards Judaism and the Jewish people. With these words, he became the first Pope in 2000 years to recognize that the Jewish people remain the people of the Covenant.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Hillel Professional Goes Homeless for Habitat for Humanity

By Stephanie Simon

Liz Fremer, the program associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hillel, went to have her old, dying car checked out a couple of weeks ago. The amount of money needed to fix her car far exceeded the actual face value of the car itself. So Liz was left with a dysfunctional car and really was not in a position to buy a new one.

Luckily, that very week Fremer heard about a contest sponsored by a local Madison radio station. After a rigorous application and interviewing process, Liz was selected to participate and is now competing for a chance to win a 2005 Toyota Scion XB. All Liz has to do now is “live in it to win it.” She, along with three other contestants,have been sitting in that car since March 31, trying to outlast each other until only one is left.

With only 10-minute breaks every three hours and one half-hour break at midnight, Fremer must entertain herself with talking to other contestants, reading and sleeping. Spending her last free evening at Hillel, Fremer racked her brain to come up with a creative Tzedek project to tie into her quest to win a new car. She eventually chose Habitat for Humanity, realizing that while she voluntarily chose to live in a car for a period of time, many people are forced to live in their cars due to a lack of other affordable housing options.

“I was so excited when I heard that I was going to be in the contest. Not only is this an opportunity for me to win a new car, but it’s also a great way to help support a very worthy cause,” Fremer said.

And now with help from other Hillel staff, students and community members, pledges ranging from $1-10 per day are currently being collected at UW-Madison Hillel for Madison’s Habitat for Humanity. The community has forged together to support Liz and to reach the overall goal of $180/day in contributions.

Anyone interested in contributing to this pledge fund should contact Naomi Abelson at nabelson@uwhillel.org. Encouraging messages for Liz will also be delivered directly to her. Be sure to check out www.z104fm.com and click on the “Live in It to Win It” icon to view up-to-date Web cam pictures and updates live from the car.

From World Jewish Congress site

Madonna and Ritchie under fire for Purim dresses

Madonna and her husband, the filmmaker Guy Ritchie, have infuriated Catholic leaders by attending a party dressed as a nun and the Pope respectively, at a time when Pope John Paul II is becoming increasingly frail. Madonna and Ritchie were attending a Cabbala bash in London to celebrate the Jewish holiday Purim. The president of the Catholic League in the United States, William Donahue, said: “It just goes to show you what a moral slug this man is, that he would get dressed up as the Pope at a time like this. We’re quite disappointed. We Catholics thought we had finally gotten rid of the witch when she [Madonna] discovered Cabbala.” However, Madonna’s publicist said that “No disrespect was intended”.

Israel’s supreme court has ended the Orthodox monopoly on conversion to Judaism, clearing the way for recognition of conversions performed by reform or conservative rabbis in Israel, army radio reported. The verdict, which was reached by 11 judges, could have far-reaching implications for Israel’s conversion system. Until now, the country’s Orthodox community has had sole responsibility for handing out the certificates of conversion which are recognized by the interior ministry. Under Israel’s law of return, all Jewish immigrants are allowed to become Israeli citizens, but conversion to Judaism is a long process obliging candidates to learn the basics of the Jewish religion and how to apply that to their daily lives.

Secret Service probes claim three ousted from Bush meet

By Associated Press
March 29, 2005

DENVER – The U.S. Secret Service on Monday said it was investigating the claims of three people who said they were removed from President Bush’s town hall meeting on Social Security last week after being singled out because of a bumper sticker on their car.

The three said they had obtained tickets through the office of U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., had passed through security and were preparing to take their seats when they were approached by a man they thought was a Secret Service agent who asked them to leave.

One woman, Karen Bauer, 38, a marketing coordinator from Denver, said the agent put his hand on her elbow and steered her away from her seat and toward an exit.

“The Secret Service had nothing to do with that,” said Lon Garner, special agent in charge of the Secret Service district office in Denver. “We are very sensitive to the First Amendment and general assembly rights as protected by the Constitution.”

The three, along with their attorney, Dan Recht, met with Garner on Monday. Recht said he may file a lawsuit based on the alleged violation of his clients’ First Amendment rights.