Who is a Jew?: Encyclopedia II - Who is a Jew? - The controversy

Who is a Jew? - The controversy

The traditional definition of a Jew is "someone born to a Jewish mother or who has converted to Judaism." The requirement for a valid conversion is that the candidate for conversion understand the obligations of being a Jew, show commitment to fulfilling these obligations, (for a male) to undergo Brit milah (ritual circumcision) or one of its exceptions, perform immersion in a mikvah, and satisfy the scrutiny of a Beit din, or rabbinical court. The beit din act not only as judges but as witnesses in the course of conversion, and it follows that its members must be kosher, i.e. suitable and qualified for these purposes.

Who is a Jew? - Three basic disputes

The controversy of "who is a Jew" concerns three basic disputes:

1. The North American Reform movement has changed some of the traditional requirements for a Jewish identity in ways that are unacceptable to more traditional movements in two ways: (1) Children born of just one Jewish parent - regardless of whether the father or mother is Jewish - can claim a Jewish identity. A child of only one Jewish parent who does not claim this identity has, in the eyes of the Reform movement, forfeited his/her Jewish identity. By contrast, the traditional view is that any child born to a Jewish mother is Jewish, whether or not he/she is raised Jewish, or even whether the mother considers herself Jewish. (As an example, this would result that the grandchildren of Madeline Albright (who was raised Catholic and was unaware of her Jewish heritage) would all be Jews according to halakha (traditional Jewish law), since their mother's mother's mother's mother's mother was a Jew (Dr. Albright only has daughters). (2) The requirement of brit milah has been relaxed, as has the requirement of ritual immersion. (Conservatism also permits conversion without circumcision in the case of hemophiliacs.)
2. The Orthodox movements have determined that non-Orthodox rabbis are not qualified to form a beit din, and are generally restrictive in their willingness to accept the ruling of a beit din with whom they are not familiar. This has led to the fact that non-Orthodox conversions are generally not accepted in Orthodox communities. Since Orthodox Judaism maintains the traditional standards for conversion -- in which the commitment to observe Halakha is an absolute requirement -- non-Orthodox conversions are generally not accepted in Orthodox communities because the new movements perform conversions in which the new convert does not undertake to observe Halakha as understood by Orthodox Judaism.
3. A third controversy concerns those who no longer consider themselves Jewish because they no longer practice Judaism, do not accept or follow Halakha, or now adhere to another religion. Nonetheless, all Jewish denominations would still consider such a person to be a Jew if he otherwise met their definitions.

In practical terms, this means that a growing number of traditional Jewish families are increasingly concerned about the genealogy of their children's potential spouses, fearing that their grandchildren may not be Jews according to halakha. It also creates awkward situations in the course of Jewish rituals, e.g. in creating a minyan during synagogue services or when searching for a Jewish spouse.

It has also become an important issue in Israeli politics. The Law of Return largely relies on the traditional interpretation of who is a Jew, albeit with the added stringency that the person wishing to make aliyah to Israel – that is, to immigrate under the Law of Return – should not have formally converted to another religion. (It should be noted however, that the Law of Return also includes the children and grandchildren of Jews, indicating that the aim of the Law of Return is somewhat different than that of resolving the theoretical question of who is Jewish.) Leaders of the Conservative and Reform movements have vehemently opposed the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's claim that they alone can determine what is and what isn't a legitimate Jewish conversion.

There have been several attempts to convene representatives of the three major movements to formulate a practical solution to this issue. To date, these have failed, though all parties concede the importance of the issue is greater than any sense of rivalry among them.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The controversy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki