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24 Cheshvan 5760 - November 3, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
A Secular Jew's View of the Jewish People

by Rabbi Nosson Zeev Grossman

Israeli newspapers have recently reported the disturbing plans of Dr. Yossi Beilin, the new justice minister. Beilin said: "I think the fact of our being forced to accept halocho as our laws of matrimony is extremely grave. I cannot tolerate this. I cannot accept or adjust to this." Among other things Beilin denounced the halochos of chalitza and yibum. He is aware of it being difficult to induce changes in matrimony laws, "but I will try. I will try to do something to allow an additional course."

The Torah-true are naturally alarmed at hearing of any hint or remark about an attempt to interfere with this sensitive topic. It is a matter of general knowledge that the halochos concerning matrimony and the purity of yichus are the foundations of our existence. Any breach in this area is likely to cause endless damage. Without carefully observing these rudimentary values, a terrible split is liable to be formed in Klal Yisroel. The result would be that families and entire populations would never be able to intermarry.

Actually Beilin's comments are solely the feelings and opinion of an extremist and, for now, marginal minority. The great majority of Jews living in the Holy Land want to observe their ancestors' tradition and guide their lives in these matters strictly according to halocho. This large group would never agree that Beilin utilize his role as justice minister to alter these or other issues pertaining to the infrastructure of our existence and yichus, matters for which the Jewish Nation sacrificed their lives in the past.

However, apart from concern about actual interference, we should listen to the messages hidden in those remarks. After examining them carefully we reach the conclusion that Beilin's comment was not just a slip of the tongue. They show his well-defined approach and characterize his beliefs and that of his colleagues in the Leftist movements. Also, even if these views are not common in Israel, they probably do come close to the views of many secular and Reform Jews outside of Israel.

Beilin disclosed his position in his book The America Uncle's Death -- Jews in the 21st Century that appeared last year and was published by Yediot Achronot. In part of this book he critically analyzes the image of Theodore Herzl, the visionary of Zionism, while cynically scorning accepted historical tenets. Beilin, however, devotes the main part of his book to unveiling his ideological doctrines.

He begins by clarifying his belief that Judaism is in no way superior to other religions. His own connection to Judaism is simply "because I was born that way." He feels "there is no rational analysis that could persuade someone that Jewry is better than another nation."

Beilin's only need to express his Judaism in any way is when he must display some alternative, something that happens when faced with another identity he is forced to contend with. "When a Catholic brings home a Christmas tree, you feel compelled to light the Chanukah lantern." He therefore concludes that in many aspects our self- definition is negative: "Since Arabs live around me, since Catholics live around me, I must strengthen my Jewish identity. It is reasonable to suppose that were we surrounded by people of no significant national or religious awareness, we would not develop our own culture."

Since his entire Judaism is expressed only in that "I was born that way" Beilin declares that the only reason he does not stop being a Jew is because it would harm his identity, "and because there is no element in my surroundings that would accept me better if I would change my identity." According to his philosophy in life, his weltanschauung, Judaism is a sort of "club for friends" whose only aim is preserving its own existence.

"Our `club' is greatly interested that the Jewish Nation continue. We have been fervently searching for a decade for ways to preserve this nation. Without such a future there is today no significance in carrying on with the club . . .. For an exceptionally long period it simply served as an ordinary `parent-teacher association.' All Jews who belonged to that `club' or to that `school' lived according to a similar lifestyle and were concentrated in communities. All you needed to do was to pass the torch from one generation to the other and to retell stories of the past to ensure continuity. In a world where most Jews are not Torah observant, do not live together, and are exposed to non-Jewish mates, this PTA's job becomes much more difficult. In the twenty-first century the goal demands exceptionally great creativity."

Later in his book Beilin suggests what he considers "creative" solutions. First he explains why he cannot behave like his forebears concerning intermarriage. He believes that only religious people can easily assert their preservation of Judaism because of Divine decree. But when secular Jews decide to marry non-Jews "the Jewish Nation's PTA has no argument to convince them against their marriage. As liberal people who believe in equality of the human race the pretension of separating those who feel an affinity to each other only because of their different religion is revolting."

Beilin is aware that intermarriage to an increasing extent might put an end to the existence of the Jewish Nation. In such a case "many of us will say what Hitler did not succeed in doing, liberal western society education completed." He indicates that Israel is the only place in the world where a secular Jew is not bothered with the question of whether or not his grandchildren will remain Jewish. This is only because of the prevailing conditions in our environment and not because of a deeper Jewish recognition. "A large and homogeneous Jewish community exists in Israel to a degree that promises marriages between Jews to an extent that makes western [type] intermarriages a marginal occurrence." Reality of life and the makeup of the Israeli population allows "secular life without giving up the availability of a Jewish mate." For this reason Beilin prefers to engage in the problem of the Jew in Diaspora.

He fails to consider that in essence the problem exists even in Israel since the generation growing up here can "potentially assimilate" but does not do so since it has the "availability of a Jewish mate." Since Beilin does not live with emunah and lacks the recognition of the Jewish Nation's unique status as a chosen people, he is only disturbed with the practical aspect: the fear that the "club" might crumble. For this reason his "creative" solutions focus on preserving the "club" by changing the criteria of joining the Jewish Nation and removing "restrictions and limitations" that to him seem superfluous.

Based on the above, Beilin concludes that, "If our aim is to reduce restrictions within the Jewish Nation and allow as many Jews as possible to live, work, and study in more than one place, Israel must - - perhaps earlier than most of us figure -- make a painful analysis and change two basic conditions: 1) Abolish religious matrimonial laws. 2) Cancel the Orthodox monopoly. We as Israelis are obliged to change these two things since they are the greatest division between us and most Jews in the world."

According to his vision: "Couples about to be wed would just sign a marriage registry, and then they could be divorced in a similar way. Someone who wants to, and of course we are referring to all religions, can choose to add any religious ceremony." Beilin asserts, "Practically, I do not foresee a real problem with the change although there would be an exceptionally noisy protest from the Orthodox in Israel. This is the way to expand the definition of being Jewish and not limit it. The Zionist Movement has no reason to distance Jews who consider themselves and act like Jews only because they were converted in a Conservative or Reform framework or were born to mothers converted in such a way. I will later discuss the possibility of defining someone as a Jew beyond the existing movements."

Beilin has a plan for enlarging the Jewish Nation through a quick and easy acceptance of non-Jewish marriage partners and any non-Jew who decides to define himself as "Jewish."

"These people who are near Jews and want to be designated as Jews must receive the right to join the Jewish Nation as a result of their self-definition. I can see a condition in which a certain person who is not a Jew but does not identify himself as belonging to another religion, will turn to his local Jewish community and ask them to enroll him as a community member. That community can request the recommendation of two Jewish members, as is standard practice in joining any public movement or club, and if it is convinced that he honestly wants to join and has a relevant reason for joining, it will enroll the new Jew in its membership without any religious ceremony. If the new member wants to have a Reform marriage ceremony, the Reform Movement would demand he perform a Reform conversion. The same is true about the Conservative and Orthodox Movements. He would decide whether or not he wants to, but as far as the Jewish community is concerned he would be considered a Jew according to his self-definition."

The Justice Minister also hopes that in the near future secular Jewry will be regarded as a Jewish "movement" alongside the existing "movements."

"This movement is likely to be the largest. It can develop a secular conversion procedure as an additional option -- together with self-definition -- to one's being accepted into the secular movement in the Diaspora or in Israel."

The ideas of "self-definition" and "secular conversion" will, according to Beilin's beliefs, solve the problem of assimilation in the simplest fashion. "If this approach is accepted the exclusive conception will be transformed into an inclusive one that opens doors. I do not think it possible to reverse the Jewish Nation's shrinking through definition alone, but doubtless part of this problem arises because not everyone who sees himself as being Jewish is considered so by religious elements. It is exclusively the religious elements who define the number of Jews and in the twenty-first century there is no reason for that to be so. I am convinced that if my approach to self-definition will be practiced -- though it must cause a psychological revolution, and is not at all simple -- we will be a greater and more appealing nation."

We quoted at length from Beilin's book to show that this process is well rooted in his and his colleagues' convictions. Every Jew connected to Torah and emunah considers such remarks as a terrible threat on the Jewish Nation's existence, and awakens disquieting associations of the spiritual Holocaust the Reform wreaked on entire communities in foreign lands. However, the absurd is that secular militant elements and those of the heretical movements portray themselves as "saving" Jewry in our generation and try to suggest "solutions" for the Jewish Nation's problem of continuity.

Is there a danger of assimilation? The solution is as simple as ABC: Let us proclaim that all non-Jews in mixed marriages and all children from a non-Jewish mother are "Jews." They will be considered Jews because of their "self-definition" or "secular conversion" and the problem of assimilation will be eliminated. Why didn't anyone think of this before?

In the winter of 5756 (1996) in the Yated Ne'eman we published a series of articles in which we revealed chapters in the history of the Zionist Movement. The heads of that movement did not regard assimilation and mixed marriages as being a contradiction to the Zionist vision and the identity of the "new Jew." Some hundred years after these delusive ideas were disposed of in history's garbage can, and some offspring of these "prophets'" offspring have integrated among non-Jews, Yossi Beilin suddenly suggests a much more extensive version of assimilation in a way that would cause a breach in the purity of am Yisroel's yichus, and would define millions of 100% non-Jews as Jews.

End of Part I


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