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10-9 JS 01.Indd JS-1* LEARNING GERMAN IN GERMANY: A STUDENT’S DIARY page 6 A CONVERSATION WITH ITZHAK PERLMAN page 10 REFLECTIONS FROM A JERUSALEM FUNERAL page 14 PRIME MINISTERS: THE NEXT GENERATION page 37 OCTOBER 9, 2015 VOL. LXXXV NO. 4 $1.00 84 2015 NORTH JERSEY THEJEWISHSTANDARD.COM Will freedom ring? Israel’s Rabbi Uri Regev fights for the right to marry CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED SERVICE CHANGE Teaneck, NJ 07666 NJ Teaneck, 1086 Teaneck Road Teaneck 1086 Jewish Standard Jewish JS-28 Cover Story Freeing the Jews Rabbi brings mission of reforming Israeli chief rabbinate to Teaneck shul Larry yudeLson be in white. recognizing civil marriage and Reform It is not. and Conservative rabbis conducting mar- n the map of the world that Uri This map ranks countries based on free- riages,” Rabbi Regev said. Regev has prepared, Israel lies in dom to marry, and Israel, like most Muslim In 1986, Rabbi Regev was one of the the middle of a sea of black that countries, gets a zero. first Israelis to be ordained by the Reform extends from Algeria in the west to Israel, like many of its neighbors, has movement in Israel. But in recent years, PakistanI in the east. Beyond the countries inherited its system of marriage from Rabbi Regev has found himself with labeled in black are the countries in gray, the Turkish empire that ruled it for cen- Orthodox allies. These include Rabbi from Namibia through Vietnam. America, turies before the First World War. In that Shlomo Riskin, the former leader of Man- Europe, Russia, Australia, and most of system, marriage is delegated to the offi- hattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue and South America are white. cial religious bodies. For Jews, that means now chief rabbi of Efrat in Israel, who By the logic of rhetorical cartogra- the rabbinate, headed by the chief rabbis. has helped found Tzohar, an Israeli lib- phy we have become accustomed to, we (Muslims have their parallel religious offi- eral Orthodox rabbinic association, and would expect Israel, the lone democracy cialdom.) Marriages between people of with Rabbi Seth Farber, who founded the and American ally in the Middle East, to different religions cannot be performed organization Itim to help Israelis navigate in Israel. There are 300,000 Israelis regis- the rabbinate’s bureaucracy. The organi- tered without a religion, and they cannot zation, funded in part by the Russell Ber- What: Rabbi Uri Regev delivers the Rabbi Joshua Trachtenberg Memo- marry at all in their country. rie Foundation, recently reported that the rial Lecture: “Magic, Superstition, and That’s one of the things that Rabbi Regev Israeli rabbinate had rejected an Ortho- the Challenge of Religious Freedom in wants to change about Israel. He is founder Rabbi Uri Regev dox conversion conducted by a Chabad Israel.” and director of Hiddush, a Hebrew acro- rabbi (whose earlier brush with fame was Where: Temple Emeth, 1600 Windsor nym for “Hofesh dat v’shivyon,” religious of his compatriots. Hiddush recently putting tefillin on Sandy Koufax after his Road, Teaneck freedom and equality, and also the Hebrew released its annual survey of Israeli atti- historic Yom Kippur non-game 50 years When: Friday night, October 9, 8 p.m. word meaning innovation and renewal. tudes toward religion and state and found ago) and certified by Rabbi Gedalia Dov He shares the desire to change Israel’s that “an overwhelming majority supports Schwartz, the head of the Orthodox Rab- Admission: Free balance of religion and state with most freedom of choice in marriage, including binical Council of America’s rabbinical The Israeli Supreme Court building, where Rabbi Uri Regev has been fighting battles for religious freedom for decades. 28 JEWISh STandaRd OCTOBER 9, 2015 JS-29 court. This apparent violation of an agree- ment between the RCA and the Israeli rab- binate was resolved following publicity — but it was a reminder of how little the chief rabbinate feels compelled to answer to any other authorities. In America, the American Jewish Com- mittee has formed the Jewish Religious Equality Coalition, which includes Reform, Conservative, and modern Orthodox rab- bis and organizations, as well as Hiddush. “The chief rabbinate has clearly become an object of derision, even scorn, in many quarters, both in Israel and the dias- pora,” said the coalition’s Orthodox lead- ers, Dov Zakheim and Steven Bayme, in a statement. For the AJC, the issue of the chief rab- The Hiddush freedom of marriage map ranks countries according to three levels of marriage freedom. Black represents binate’s monopoly on marriage and con- severe restrictions, gray represents partial restrictions, and white represents full heterosexual freedom of marriage. version is an issue for diaspora concern. Rabbi Regev agrees with that assessment. who attended my seders when they were the world that restricts the right of citizens for an exchange program that had him liv- “Israel will not be the home for all Jews if younger. Both were born non-Jewish, to marry? ing among American Jews for six months. it does not relate to all Jews with dignity, adopted as infants, converted as infants, “The majority of children growing up He had grown up in a secular family in equality, and acceptance,” he said. and raised as Jews. There was no ques- in the Jewish community in American Tel Aviv. He was the prototypical sabra, Of course, who is a Jew is a matter of tion that they are Jewish. Except that now today will find that they will be dealt with born in the earliest years of the state. In dispute. Is a convert a Jew? From an ultra- that they’re in Israel, under the present by Israel as either not Jewish or not Jew- America, he lived with a Reform Jewish Orthodox perspective, someone who con- regime, their conversion always is up for ish enough — if we’re not able to work family in southern California, and then verts and is not Orthodox is not a Jew. question. One grew up in a Conservative together to change it. They will be told spent the summer at two Reform camps, And someone who is not ultra-Orthodox home. Is she Jewish enough? The other they will not be able to legally marry in Camp Kutz in New York and Camp Swig is not Orthodox. And while Jewish law has might no longer be observing Shabbat. Is Israel if they ever choose to leave their life in California. been rather clear over the centuries that she Jewish enough? in America. That’s not a prescription for “This was my first exposure to religious once converted, always a Jew, in recent “Some might say, it’s a price worthwhile solidarity between Israel and world Jewry.” pluralism,” he said. years the chief rabbinate, or at least some to pay to keep Israel Jewish,” said Rabbi If Israel-diaspora relations are part of of its officials, has not hesitated to undo Regev of the chief rabbinate’s scrutiny of Rabbi Regev’s pitch for why American conversions. converts and control over marriage. But Jews should be concerned about this All of which makes me wonder about “the question is can we afford, under the issue, they’re also what got him started two young women I know who now live guise of keeping Israel Jewish, to turn on this path. Back in 1967, when he was Can we afford to in Israel, daughters of friends of mine Israel into the only Western democracy in 16, his high school principal selected him turn Israel into the only Western From folklore to politics: Revisiting Jewish magic and superstition democracy in Rabbi Joshua Trachteberg published his work as “scholarly research of the past,” he groundbreaking work, “Jewish Magic and said. the world that Superstition: a Study in Folk Religion,” in now, however, when he delivers his Rabbi restricts the 1939. The shadow darkening Europe, which Joshua Trachtenberg Memorial Lecture, Rabbi soon would destroy the remains of the cen- Regev’s topic will be “Magic, Superstition, right of citizens turies of ashkenazic Jewish life that are at and Religious Freedom in Israel,” and he will the center of the book, is evidenced in the investigate magic and superstition as “a con- to marry? work’s very first paragraph. temporary phenomenon and a contemporary Rabbi Trachtenberg went on to become source of concern.” It was a time when the Reform move- rabbi at Temple Emeth in Teaneck, and his In large measure, this folk religion has taken ment’s commitment to social action was book went on to become a classic. Rabbi a Sephardi form. But the folk involved are not focused on the civil rights movement. It Uri Regev read it in rabbinical school. and simply peasants; they include Israel’s finan- yet, whether in the 1930s, when it was writ- cial tycoons, who attend rituals of “tzadikim,” had only been a handful of years, after ten, in the 1950s, when Rabbi Trachtenberg where thousands of candles are thrown into all, since major civil rights laws had led Jews in Teaneck, or in the 1960s, when it fire pits, and they include a senior police of- been drafted around the table at the was brought out in paperback by the Jewish ficial who committed suicide because of his movement’s Religious Action Center in Publication Society, the book seemed to be notes from a involvement with an allegedly miracle-working rabbi. Washington. buried world. It was a world filled with angels and demons, Yet this folk religion reflects an even more dangerous “The combination of exposure to reli- charms and amulets, that Rabbi Trachtenberg no doubt religious turn, Rabbi Regev believes.
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