Ipso facto, by merely applying to join the Jewish people-the candidate is viewed as unacceptable! In reality, it is not the convert who is the problem-it’s the warped thinking of the Haredi mindset that is at the heart of the problem. They cannot imagine that any normal person would want to join their little “Jewish club,” and the fact that the candidate is interested, could only mean that there is something wrong with that individual. When these Haredi rabbis see a convert candidate, they react much the same way. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” Several years later, when Groucho Marx resigned from Hollywood’s Friar Club with the following quip: “Please accept my resignation. Does this mean that he could join, but only go swimming up to his waist?’ Where I am confused is about my son, whom I guess you would consider half-Jewish. Now, my wife is not Jewish, so I expect that she could join. It seems that I cannot join your country club because I am Jewish. ‘I have received your reply, and I think I understand. In one of the more spirited exchanges, Marx wrote: You see, the club had a policy: No Jews allowed. Much to his surprise, they refused to give him membership. I often wonder whether Haredi or Hassidic Orthodoxy suffers from a psychological illness that I call, “The Groucho Marx Syndrome.” The story goes that once Groucho Marx wanted to join a certain country club. Why is there so much distrust toward the “Jew by Choice” in the ultra-Orthodox world? We have not seen this type of marginalization of an entire group of people since the Spanish Inquisition period, where the Marranos were singled out for stigmatization by their fellow Jews. Unfortunately, this type of policy making establishes a cast system where converts have a second class status. In a country where all personal status issues – from birth through marriage, divorce, and death – are all controlled by Haredi rabbis, this means children who suddenly will not be able marry, spouses can’t be buried next to one another. In an earlier blog, I have already demonstrated why revocations of conversion has never existed until fairly recent times. What are the practical implications of such a scenario unfolding? All denominations of Judaism–from the Reform to the Modern Orthodox–suffer from the Haredi approach Halacha that violates both the letter and the spirit of the Shulchan Aruch. Therefore, the state itself – no longer considers them or their descendants to be Jewish.
The reason for this drop is because of the feeling shared by many potential converts who fear that the Haredi rabbis in Israel may invalidate their conversions for whatever the reason they conjure. The drop in the Israeli Defense Forces stands at 4% compared with 2008. Just 986 out of 300,000 people with no religious affiliation have converted to Judaism in the last year. Official data indicate a 12% drop in the number of conversions to Judaism in Israel in 2009.
While the government considers it a national task, the state of conversion in Israel continues to deteriorate.
0 kommentar(er)
