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Speech

July 9, 1997

Prime Minister's Committee on Conversion (1997)

Orthodoxy & Other Denominations Who Is a Jew?
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Speech

Draft for Address at the Convention of the RCA (1985)

The Reform decision conceiving patrilineal descent, in effect validating it as a legitimate form of Jewish identity, and the recent Conservative flirtation with the same idea (the suggestion by the head of the JTS that the Rabbinical Assembly should “study” the issue is a disingenuous means of fleating a trial balloon), will unquestionably have a profoundly negative impact upon the attempts to secure the unity of the Jewish people.There are a number of features that have characterized Centrist Orthodoxy in the past decades. Among these features are the commitment to the State of Israel and the positive rather than reluctant validation of higher secular studies. In addition to these, and of no less equal import, is the effort to secure the inviolable integrity of Kelal Yisrael. From this flow a number of practical communal consequences, such as: membership in the Synagogue Council; an ambiguous, but at least not clearly negative, attitude towards membership of individual rabbis in mixed rabbinical bodies; working together at national levels such as the JWB, UJA, Federations, etc. Those of us who identify with this Centrist approach have always felt that, saddened and angered though we were by successive departures from Halakhah and tradition by the dissenting groups, we affirm their Jewish identity and hence their legitimate membership inKelal YisraelWe felt that with the majority of the Jewish people today not being identified with Orthodoxy, and certainly not as meticulous shomrei mitzvot, it was a national imperative for our people to stay together if at all possible. The price we have paid has been religiously, culturally, andpsychologically high. The Reform abrogation of Halakhah, especially of the laws of marriage and divorce and the consequent proliferation of mamzerim, and the chipping away at the whole halakhic structure by the Conservative movement in areas as diverse as kashrut, Shabbat, the nature of the Bet Haknesset, the unspoken abandonment of taharat…
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations Who Is a Jew?

Speech

Past, Present, and Future - A Jubilee Perspective (1985)

A jubilee anniversary for an institution no less than for an individual is an occasion for brooding reflection. It is a time for both retrospective and prospective assessment, for pulling out of the hurly‑burly of daily events and viewing one's life from a wider perspective than is usually given to us. I shall therefore take this opportunity of the fiftieth birthday of the RCA to reflect on our current situation according to the paradigm of the three tenses – Past, Present, and Future. I intend to speak not about the R.C.A in these three time segments, but rather to analyze how we have gone about handling these tenses themselves. Let us begin with our host culture – the U.S.A. In its politics, its technology, and especially its psychology, America is a Future‑oriented culture. Hence, its emphasis on youth – even in a period when its population is aging and should be more concerned with geriatrics than pediatrics. Its greatest strength is: the Present. The mightiest (and most benevolent) power in the world, it is thoroughly immersed in the here‑and‑now. It is pragmatic, empirical, and business‑like.However, its great weakness is — the Past. Because of its relatively brief history — a mere 210 years — America's valuation of its past as a factor in the Present, its historical consciousness, is remarkably tenuous and deficient. In a sense, it is still a pioneer country eager to throw off the shackles of the Old World and build a new one. Consider this: What for an ordinary American child is early history — the 1770's — is for a Jewish school-child late Jewish history, the period of the Acharonim!2The most poignant and painful illustration of this characteristic American insensitivity to history is the incredible brouhaha of the Reagan administration — not of one man, an honorable and decent President, but a whole team of so-called experts — because they did not appreciate events of only 40 years ago, events of the most recent past. The President wanted to forget the P…
Orthodoxy & Other Denominations Modern Orthodoxy & the Charedim Who Is a Jew?

Speech

The Aftermath of the Who Is a Jew Controversy (1989)

In speaking to you of this vexing problem that has so exercised the world Jewish community, I am reminded of the Viennese proverb that was prevalent during the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian empire: “the situation is hopeless but not serious." While our preoccupation with the "Who is a Jew?" issue seems to fall into that category, I am a bit more sanguine and believe that it is quite serious, but not at all hopeless--provided, that is, that leaders will exercise leadership and do so with perseverance, sensitivity, and a great deal of intelligence. Let me begin by laying my prejudices on the table. I am an Orthodox Jew who holds that the Halakhah is minimal Judaism. Hence my answer to the question "Who is a Jew?" is quite simple and straightforward: one is who is born to a Jewish mother or who has been converted according to standard halakhic procedures. Because this is the historic definition of Jewishness, one that has served us well for at least a couple of thousand years, the onus for divisiveness as well as the burden of proof rests on those who diverge from this time-honored principle. Many years ago, even before Ben Gurion sent his famous query on the "Who is a Jew?" problem to a number of distinguished Jews, I wrote an article on the subject which was distributed in the thousands by my friends of the Lubavitch movement. However, I also am aware of the realities of the Jewish situation, and recognize that not everything that is desirable is achievable and not all that is worthy is worth making an issue of. Hence, I opposed the effort of the religious parties in Israel to amend the present Law of Return to read that to be permitted to enter Israel under the Law of Return, one must not only be "converted to Judaism," but "converted according to the Halakhah." This would effectively limit the benefits of the Law of Return to those converted by qualified Orthodox rabbis. I opposed, and do now oppose, this amendment, and made this opposition known publicly, f…
Who Is a Jew?