JewsByChoice.org

Hi all,

I thought I would share with readers an artist who many have probably heard of before, and whose music is some of my very favorite.  His name is Yair Dalal, and he is an Israeli Jew born to parents of Iraqi extraction.  His music ranges from Jewish prayers to traditional Iraqi Jewish music to his own desert-inspired creations.  Dalal is a fantastic ‘oud and violin player, and his mellow vocal style blends nicely with his playing.  He performs regularly with the Al Ol Ensemble, a group comprised of several of his Bedouin friends.

Dalal’s music does a beautiful job of capturing the desert spirituality we see reflected in the face of our tradition in many places, and that one can find also in Islamic and Christian sources from the Middle East as well.  His closeness to the land comes through in his music, as does his love and respect for the Judeo-Arabic musical tradition.

Dalal also invests a lot of time using music to being Jews and Arabs together, as he believes that appreciation for what the cultures share in history and in their songs can serve as a framework for building peaceful coexistence.  His “Almaya Studio” was created for this specific purpose, and he touches on what drives him in this video.  In a time when it almost seems impossible for Jews and Arabs to live in peace together, I think Dalal demonstrates just how much difference can be made by a single person who decides to act on kindness, on respect for other human beings, and on the open-heartedness which both Jews and Arabs attribute to our shared cultural father: Avraham (Ibrahim).  As a person who has joined this family through conversion and has a love for my own Jewish culture and a deep and abiding respect for Arab culture and the fertile ground where the two overlap, I think Yair Dalal has a lot to teach us all.

I just received an email from Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Netivot Shalom and the Shefa Network regarding a Conversion Bill that’s about to be presented to the Knesset. I’ve already posted about it here but I thought I should pass along Rabbi Creditors request on the main blog.

Despite my own burnout and apathy on this subject, I would urge everyone to take a couple of minutes and make your voices heard on this. It is our future that’s being decided here after all. I know I’m going to fly off an email, I hope you will to.

UPDATE: Rabbi Ginsberg has uploaded a YouTube video sharing his thoughts on the issue . Also the Jpost has a great editorial up on the subject.  Here is a copy from a forum thread I started this evening.

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URGENT ACTION REQUESTED regarding Knesset Conversion Bill

Dear Friends,

We need your help on a matter of urgency concerning a bill that will come before the Knesset. We have received word from our colleagues in Israel that a bill may be put forward for passage as soon as tomorrow which affects conversion and we need as many of us and our congregants to forward the following letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and to your Israeli Ambassador.

The bill sponsored by MK David Rotem of Yisrael Beitenu, deals with both the authority of the Chief Rabbinate and matters of Conversion. The Rotem Bill concerns three matters:

1. It grants legal authority to the Chief Rabbinate for Conversions (while until now there was de facto recognition this gives legal recognition to the role of the Chief Rabbinate in this area) and would make it much more difficult for conversions to be performed by our Movement, by more “open-minded” Orthodox rabbis, and by Reform rabbis.

2. It provides for the ability of local rabbis in Israel to establish conversion courts. This is a good part of the bill of which we are supportive because it will potentially permit the establishment of more forward looking conversion courts. However, the first part of the bill passes, the Chief Rabbinate may declare these courts null and void, which would obviate any cause for our support.

3. Section 3 of this bill is highly problematic. Here is the summary of Section 3 by our teacher, Rabbi Reuven Hammer:

“Section 3 of the proposed conversion bill that we strongly oppose states that anyone that who entered Israel as a non-Jew and then converted to Judaism-either in Israel or the Diaspora would not be eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return. First of all this is exactly the case that we now have before the Supreme Court, asking that our conversions in Israel be recognized and citizenship rights granted to our converts. This is an attempt to go around the Supreme Court. Secondly, the wording is so vague that it could mean that if such a person had visited Israel at any time, no matter when, their conversion would not be recognized for citizenship in the future. Thirdly this would be the first time that Israel is officially making a distinction between one who is born a Jew and a righteous convert, something that we find deplorable and unsupportable in Jewish Law. Since our movement is the movement that is most involved in conversion in America and elsewhere, we and our congregants are the primary target of the bill. We urge everyone to make their protest known immediately to the Israeli government.”

WE STRONGLY URGE THAT YOU CALL UPON YOUR COMMUNITIES TONIGHT TO FORWARD THE FOLLOWING LETTER OR ITS EQUIVALENT TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND YOUR AMBASSADOR.

The Honorable Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister of Israel
Office of the Prime Minister

Jerusalem, Israel

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,

We write to request your immediate intervention to prevent passage of the legislation being brought forward by MK David Rotem (‫הצעת חוק הרבנות הראשית תיקון- סמכות בעניני גיור)

Passage of this bill in its present form especially section 3, will have the effect of providing for a path to alter the Law of Return or, at the least, cause undue hardship to anyone in Israel who has come from Diaspora communities and seeks conversion in Israel.

Sadly, this is reminiscent of those attempts in 1997 to enact similar legislation which ultimately led to the establishment of the Ne’eman Commission.

While we are supportive of your efforts to create greater accessibility to conversion courts in Israel and have done all we can to aid in this effort, the overall impact of the Rotem Bill will set back these efforts. Moreover this legislation will adversely impact the work of our Masorti movement and its members in Israel. This we cannot abide.

Even more regrettably, should this bill be enacted, it will exacerbate a widening gap between Diaspora and Israel communities, which we are all working very hard to avoid.

Therefore, we believe it is imperative that you, Israel’s leader, who cares so deeply about the well-being of our people, intervene and urge withdrawal of this bill.

The email for Prime Minister Netanyahu is:

Prime.Minister’sOffice@it.pmo.gov.il

For Amb. Oren’s office:

info@washington.mfa.gov.il

For a list of other Ambassadors click here

One of my favorite topics for study is Jewish history, particularly of Jewish communities in the Islamic world.  The cross-cultural fertilization that happened between Jewish and Arabic cultures in Islamic Spain, Iraq, Egypt, and other places provides an interesting reminder of the closeness our people share with the Arab world, despite current geopolitical challenges.  Some of our most important thinkers have been steeped in an Arabic/Islamic cultural milieu, including Saadia Gaon, Rambam (Maimonides), Abraham ibn Ezra, Abraham Abulafia, and Moshe Cordovero.  Another important figure to have emerged from this environment is Yehuda Halevi.  He was a prolific and gifted poet who wrote in both Hebrew and Arabic, he was a philosopher who wrote a defense of Judaism called “The Kuzari,” and through his writing he became one of the first significant religious zionist thinkers.  His poetry reflects spiritual longing for closeness to G-d and for spending time in Eretz Yisrael, as well as secular topics.

Perhaps the most significant event to come through in Halevi’s writing is his pilgrimage to the Holy Land from his home in Granada, in al-Andalus, Arab Spain.  There is an interesting new book out, written by Hillel Halkin, called simply Yehuda Helevi, and reviewed beautifully by Adam Kirsch at Tablet Magazine here, presents a look at this aspect of Halevi’s life.  As Kirsch points out, a very interesting parallel between Halkin and his subject exists; while Halevi grew up in Spain and traveled late in life to live in Israel, Halkin is an American Jew who made aliyah himself.  This connection between the poet and his biographer speaks to the continuing presence in the minds and hearts of Jews in the Diaspora to the Land of Israel.  See Halkin discuss his book here.

With Yehuda Halevi, Halkin shows once again why we cannot think about Jewishness, Israel, and Zionism without thinking about this thousand-year-old poet.

YNet news reported an interesting look at at least one aspect of the fallout of the conversion crisis in Israel.  The numbers presented by Rabbi Israel Rosen to the Chief Rabbinate’s conversion department and religious courts show a 12% drop in the rate of conversions – all of which must be sanctioned by the Rabbinate if they happen in Israel – in 2009.  YNet also points out that the Center for Jewish Life Information reported a 27% drop in 2008 from the previous year.  While Rabbi Rosen goes on to basically blame the Religious Zionist establishment and a public relations problem, I believe Shmarya over at the FailedMessiah blog has a more accurate assessment of the problem:

It seems that at the root of Rosen’s thought is the idea that converts can ignore haredi revocations and the effects those revocations can and do have on the lives of converts and their descendants. In Rosen’s apparent view, only the National Religious rabbis have true legitimacy, and the actions of haredim, while troublesome in the short term, have no long term import.

But the source the decline in conversions isn’t lack of National Religious spin; the source is potential converts themselves, who see that no matter how Orthodox they are, they run the very real risk of waking up years after their conversions to find the state’s haredi-controlled rabbinical courts – and, therefore, the state itself – no longer considers them or their descendants to be Jewish.

Obviously this situation has a more significant impact on people who attempt to convert within Israel, but the larger issue of increasing Haredi control over the status of converts within Israel can effect all of us who have joined Am Yisrael in the diaspora.  I can assure readers that the Haredi establishment has no interest in non-Haredi converts from overseas being recognized in Israel either, and so we do all have a stake in this fight.

Anyone who decides to join the Jewish people through conversion needs to be aware that issues of Jewish status, both in their home communities and in Israel, are never going to be concrete or a given.  You can have the “most Orthodox” conversion you can fine and someone, somewhere, with power over the assessment of your status, will decide you aren’t Jewish enough.  This can certainly be frustrating, but it basically comes with the territory.  I continue to be hopeful that this situation will change, and organizations like Tzohar (צהר), the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), and the Conservative Movement’s Mercaz Center are inspiring organizations working for Jewish pluralism within the Jewish State.

I think one way to insulate yourself from this frustration is to recognize that universal recognition is probably not possible, at least now, and so as a prospective convert, it makes sense to convert into whichever community you want to be involved.  If you live in a smaller city in the central U.S. and there is a single synagogue anywhere near you, that is your prospective Jewish community unless you plan to move.  In effect, unless and until you move to Israel, it makes no difference what the Israeli Chief Rabbinate says about your conversion, so if your local Jewish community accepts you with open arms and it feels like home to you, go for it.  If you live in a place with a large Jewish community and many options for synagogues and types of observance within them,  it is still important to convert through whichever community you feel most comfortable.  Participating where you are happy, feel comfortable, and are accepted as a potential-Jew and eventually as a convert, makes more sense than trying to convert in a community you know does not match your interests and preferences in the hope of having wider recognition, and the Israeli conversion crisis seems to make this abundantly clear.