Reform Rabbis Seek Tripartite Solution to Conversion Issue

The president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform), Rabbi Robert I. Kahn, made a public overture today to the other two branches of Judaism to join with Reform Judaism in seeking a common solution to the problem of conversions. Addressing a news conference here marking the start of CCAR’s 85th Annual Convention, to be held through next Monday, Rabbi Kahn said he would appoint a committee of his rabbis to examine conversion and allied problems and to seek meetings with Orthodox and Conservative rabbis to look for common ground.

“We want to heal wounds, to annul divisions” Rabbi Kahn said. He added: “If we decide on a joint approach with Orthodox and Conservative, we shall be guided by the Halacha.” He said the committee he proposed to set up would very probably study possibilities of tripartite Orthodox-Conservative-Reform panels which would perform conversions under a pre-agreed unified procedure, following a process initiated in Toronto, Canada.

Rabbi Kahn said he and his colleagues had asked to meet Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren but had received no response yet. He said the holding of the CCAR convention in Jerusalem (the second here since the Six-Day War) demonstrates “our love for Eretz Yisrael, our affection for Am Yisrael, and our support for Medinat Yisrael.” He said Reform Jewry in the U.S. was today a bastion of Zionist support and sympathy and was in the forefront of UJA contributing and work. The “Return to Jerusalem” by CCAR was to be seen as part of a general Reform trend back towards Jewish tradition, Rabbi Kahn said. Greater emphasis was being placed now on performance of Mitzvot as “opportunities to enrich Jewish life.”

IRONY FOR ISRAEL TO QUESTION JEWISHNESS

Rabbi Kahn stressed that even if a common solution was attained on conversion with the other two branches, Reform Jewry would fight for the full recognition as Jews of the converts who had been converted in the past by Reform Rabbis without meeting the Halachic requirements. It would be unthinkable, he said, if years or decades after their sincere conversions, after having lived as Jews and raised families as Jews, such persons were to have their Jewishness questioned by Israel.

Rabbi Glazer, and Rabbi Richard Hirsch, Jerusalem-based director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, strongly attacked Israel’s monopoly of Orthodox Judaism and the National Religious Party’s attempt to tighten that monopoly through Who Is a Jew legislation. “It is real irony” said Kahn “That we who have fought for religious liberty for all Jews in the U.S. must now fight for our own rights as Jews in Israel. We resent efforts by anyone to make Orthodox Judaism the sole religious authority in Israel, and to have it in control of Who Is a Jew.”

Rabbi Hirsch explained that Reform Jewry’s chief complaint was that even those of its rabbis who did abide by the Halachic requirements of circumcision and ritual immersion for conversions found that their conversions were not accepted in Israel. He noted with satisfaction, however, that the ministerial committee which under the new coalition agreement Premier Golda Meir is to set up to examine the Who Is a Jew issue, is to consult with all streams in Judaism.