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From: corwin@ut-ngp.UUCP (Corwin, Lord of Amber)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Knesset votes on 'Who is a Jew?'
Message-ID: <1207@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Jan-85 12:18:43 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1207
Posted: Thu Jan 17 12:18:43 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 01:21:04 EST
Organization: The Courts of Chaos
Lines: 75

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Amendment defining 'Who is a Jew' dies in Knesset

UPI

JERUSALEM-- Israel's parliment Wednesday killed an amendment that would
define "who is a Jew" by strict orthodox criteria, dealing a major blow
to the nation's Orthodox Jewish leadership.  

The 62-51 vote ended at least temporarily a 15-year battle by the religious
lobby to restrict Jews to those born of a Jewish mother or converted by 
Orthodox rabbis.

The measure would have excluded conversions by the Reform and Conservative
Jewry--the major branches of Judaism in the United States.

After scarcely 90 minutes, the Knesset voted against taking up the bill,
making it impossible to raise the issue again for six months.

"Is this the time for this with so many problems, so many weighty and
burning issues before us?" Prime Minister Shimon Peres asked, opposing
a full debate.

But Knesset member Avner Sciaky of the National Religious Party, who
presented the bill, vowed, "We will bring it back again and again, until
we are successful with the help of G-d."

The bill was technically an amendment to the 1970 Law of Return, which
makes any Jew elegible for Israeli citizenship if he claims it.  The
1970 law defines a Jew as any person born of a Jewish mother or converted
by any ordained rabbi.

Only 20 to 25 percent of Israel's 3 million Jews are Orthodox, as are about
half of the 6 million Jews in the United States.

"Legislation cannot define who is a Jew, the generations have," Peres said.

"It is not in the power of a law to save or salvage those Jews who are 
lapsing," he said.  "It is the right of every Jew to believe more or to
believe less, to be more of a Zionist or less of a Zionist."

Peres said the obligation of Israel now was to bring all Jews to the 
country.  "Let us not greet them with conflicts and arguments," he said.

At most, only about a dozen new immigrants a year would have been affected
by the amendment.

But American Jewish leaders, in Israel for an Israeli bond drive, warned
that the vote would endanger the unity of Jewry and could decrease donations
to Israel from Jews in the United States.

Sciaky disagreed.  "This is the central question in Judaism, whether here
or in the diaspora," Sciaky said.  "This nation was founded to be a Jewish
nation, so there would be a Jewish majority.

"He who is not a Jew should not be able to be received as a Jewish immigrant."

Later, Sciaky said the bill does not seek to divide the Jewish people.  Rather,
he said, "Let's have one gate to Judaism--according to the Halacha."

[end article]

Posted without comment.


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                                       Corwin, Lord of Amber

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